For Stamps and Esks fans, tonight is opening night.

Good Morning Edmonton.

Howdy Calgary.

Welcome to the 2009 CFL season.

As is the case every season, you’ll see that your beloved teams have already played a handful of games already and both sit with identical three win and three loss records.  They both took somewhat different paths to get there, but if there is one thing both Stamps and Esks cans can agree on – and trust me, there are only a handful of those – it’s that nothing else mattered up until tonight.

The rest of the CFL probably doesn’t understand what we have going here in Alberta.  Yeah sure, we’ve kept our eye on the games – we’ve probably attended most of them!  Sure games against Saskatchewan and BC are important and they count in the regular season standings just as much, but games featuring the battle of Alberta count a lot more in our hearts.  A win for Edmonton and they will just pile on to that 119-76-3 edge record wise they have over their brothers to the south.  A win for Calgary and it’s one small step closer to evening the score.

No other CFL city has to deal with here in Alberta.  We deal with each other and live amongst ourselves pretty much every day!  Stampeder fans living in Edmonton… Eskimo fans living in Calgary.  We live no more than three hours away from each other (soon to be much less if this high speed train idea ever happens) so after one of our teams wins that game, it’s almost impossible not to hear about it from the winning side and impossible not to hear ‘you got lucky’ coming back as a retort from the losing side.  They don’t understand that most of us are also Flames and Oiler fans, so our hatred for the rival team in the winter just gets transferred over onto the gridiron.

Sure you could argue Toronto and Montreal could have the same rivalry, but who is really making the six hour commute between the two cities?  Could Toronto and Hamilton have the same rivalry?  Perhaps, but lets be honest once hockey season hits half of those TiCat fans probably turn into Leafs supporters – I mean Harold Ballard at one point did own both teams and unlike the Leafs, won a championship with the TiCats!

Winnipeg / Saskatchewan?!  Pffft…  Child please!  Riders v Blue Bombers has been manufactured and spurred on by some kicker’s comments about a banjo – which I might add is a truly noble and worthy musical instrument and not deserving of the ridicule it has gotten from this rivalry.

No other rivalry matches the battle of Alberta.  Yes I am from Alberta, so I am biased…  Sue me.  But I dare you to find me examples of more intense battles between to cities and two teams!

Yes I have a “Argos Suck” button that a friend got for me six years ago when he went to Toronto to show me just how deep feelings run in that rivalry…  The only thing I can say to that is that if Eskimo and Stampeder fans were allowed to say what they truly think of their rivals there wouldn’t be a button big enough to hold all the words.

One of my favorite moments on the Stamps CFL Traditions DVD I have (a great series by the way if you don’t own it, you should find it!) is Gizmo Williams telling stories about how even old grandmas would be yelling obscenities at him!

It’s been like this for years, nay, decades now.  The CFL season started six weeks ago, the real season for Esks and Stamps fans alike starts tonight!

Enjoy the game football fans!