Really Afraid of the Dark

Or
DO-eh
Today’s cautionary tale comes to us from the NFL, where you cannot mess with tradition without paying the ultimate price. In 2006, thanks to the incessant prodding of Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, the NFL added a third game on Thanksgiving Day, and afforded the Chiefs the honor of the first game not involving Detroit or Dallas. But by that time, Hunt was hospital-bound and didn’t get the NFL network in his room, so he didn’t see the game, and was dead within weeks. Last weekend, the NFL played its first regular season game in Canada, thanks to the incessant prodding of Canadian media mogul and owner of the Rogers Centre, formerly the Skydome, Edward S. Rogers, Jr. Rogers died 5 days before the game. Rogers also owned Canada’s largest wireless phone company, replacing a complex network of cups and string and its largest cable television system, affording Canucks a non-stop variety of Anne Murray specials, Degrassi and Terrence and Philip, and the Toronto F-ing Blue Jays. All told, he was worth $7 billion in Canadian, or roughly $37,000 US.