"The Silent Bowl II" is being played in Edmonton

[oz615]

im watching the game on NESN and there's no PBP,again because of a lockout at CBC

CBC lockout makes for unique TV event

EDMONTON (CP) ? When Edmonton Eskimo kicker Sean Fleming boots one through the uprights, everyone at Commonwealth Stadium knows what comes next.

Now, CFL viewers across the country may get a chance to join the stadium crowd in chanting along with announcer Al Stafford's time-honoured phrase: "Another football into the end zone for HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL!!"

With its regular CFL broadcasts hamstrung by a lockout, the CBC is offering TV football fans a seat in the stands.

Sort of.

The public broadcaster will air Stafford's stadium announcer play-by-play during Saturday's Edmonton-Toronto matchup (CBC, 9 p.m. ET) ? along with crowd noise and ambience ? in hopes fans won't miss the analysis from sportscasters now concerned more with picket lines than offensive lines.

"I've been excited about it ever since I found out about it a couple days ago," said Stafford, who's been calling Eskimo games at Commonwealth Stadium since 1998.

"The games are so much fun to work to begin with, this will just add to that."

Sportscasters are paid to be neutral. Partisanship, however, is part of the stadium announcer's job and the 43-year-old Stafford is an unabashed Eskimos fan.

"I grew up cheering the Ticats. But I had no problem changing allegiances when I moved out West," he said. "In some respects you become a bit of crowd-pumper and I like that.

"I suspect they're going to ask me to scale that back a little bit. I'm not convinced the national television audience wants to hear a homer all afternoon."

In addition to the ball on the field, Stafford will have a few of his own to juggle. He'll have to give the TV audience as much analysis as he can while following the rules for stadium announcers.

That means no noise after the huddle breaks.

"If you watch a television broadcast, those guys are talking about formations, what the defence sets up like, right until the quarterback steps up to the ball and is even calling signals," said Stafford.

"I won't be allowed to do all that. We're going to have to be quiet at some point and pick things up at the end of the play. There's not going to be a whole lot of time to do a lot of stuff after each and every play."

And someone will have to do the promos and announcements.

"That's going to be a difficult taffy pull," he said. "We have sponsors in the stadium that we're responsible for. There may be some handing off of some of those duties so the national television audience isn't exposed to some of those local sponsors."

Viewers will get most of the usual visuals, with normal camera angles, "bugs" in the corner of the screen presenting the quarter, score and time clock, and instant replay of significant plays.

CBC spokesman Jason McDonald hopes fans get into the spirit.

"We think the audience is going to enjoy it. It's a different way of watching football. You're enjoying the stadium experience from home."

Well, it's better than no sound at all, says CFL spokeswoman Alexis Redmond.

"We recognize that this is a challenging situation," she said. ``We have been working with the CBC all along to try and create the best possible solution under the circumstances."

Redmond said a number of options were considered, but couldn't say what they were.

Although the CFL season is only half over, neither Redmond nor McDonald wanted to discuss whether Saturday's broadcast could be duplicated in future games.

"We're looking at this weekend," said Redmond. "We hope that a resolution to this lockout comes quickly."

"Let's get through Saturday," McDonald said. "We recognize it's going to be different, we recognize this is a novel way of doing it, but we also think that it's going to be fun and we think that fans will enjoy it so let's watch and see

BTW in case nobody knows what im talking about as far as "The Silent Bowl I"

check this link out here (dont worry it's legit)

http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW/Comme...nyluk120804.htm

[RyanB06]

I've got the game on now. Interesting concept, to say the least.

They ought to try it for an NFL game. Preferably an ESPN game.

[GMac]

damn thats funny... just checked it out... if i wasnt at work id would have tested it out for a full spin... kind of a neat idea

[RyanB06]

For those of you more familiar, has Edmonton's field always had "00" marked at the goal line? Looks strange to us more accustomed to American football...

[ThreeTimesOneMinusOne]

For those of you more familiar, has Edmonton's field always had "00" marked at the goal line? Looks strange to us more accustomed to American football...

Yeah, that's always been there.

[ThreeTimesOneMinusOne]

Well, just now, the guy was talking about a missing kid in the stadium.