When COVID-19 shut down much of the sports world last March, few leagues faced more of an uncertain future than the Canadian Football League. As it became clear the pandemic wasn’t going away any time soon, the questions surrounding the CFL only intensified. Not only was the 2020 season up in the air, but so was the future of the league.

Fast forward to the middle of 2021 and while questions about the immediate future have been answered – the league has plans to start a 14-game regular season at the beginning of August – speculation about the CFL’s big picture hasn’t gone away.

Among the many possibilities for the league is a collaboration with the now-defunct XFL, which was forced to abandon its comeback season due to COVID-19 and halted operations. But much has been made of it possibly returning alongside the CFL, providing a jolt to each league’s business model after the XFL was sold by Vince McMahon to Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Dany Garcia and RedBird Capital partners for $15 million last April. 

However, Canadian Football Hall of Famer Doug Flutie isn’t so sure.

Flutie joined current Calgary Stampeders quarterback and two-time CFL Most Outstanding Player Bo Levi Mitchell and Olympic gold-medal curler Ben Herbert to discuss the return of the game, a potential XFL merger and why he wants the CFL to stay the CFL.

“I see bringing in those big names to engage the younger fan. You hear those names involved, you hear The Rock involved… yeah, [fans would] love that, they’d be a part of it. And then you’ve got a good financial backing that can support it for a while and grow the game. My fear is the loss of the CFL game, the uniqueness of it. I love the three-down football, the wider field and all of that. I don’t want Canadian teams to end up playing American football. I’d love to see it stay the way it is,” he said on The Benny and Bo Show's most recent episode.

Flutie also said the attachment fans have to their favourite teams is something that should be preserved.

“The CFL has been around so long. Teams in Saskatchewan, teams in Winnipeg, Calgary. When you start up a new league and they just have teams in numerous cities, there’s no attachment yet. It’s just ‘Oh yeah, there’s a football game, they’re playing over at the high school stadium. I don’t know, whatever.’ And that’s what’s so important, the history, the fact that the fans have the attachment with these teams.”

While the noise on a potential merger was louder before the league declared its intention to have a 2021 season, TSN Football Insider Dave Naylor wrote two weeks ago that doesn’t necessarily mean the idea is dead.

“It hasn’t gone away. By all appearances, getting the CFL back on the field this season and potentially collaborating with the XFL ownership have been on two parallel tracks. The XFL is all about the league’s future beyond this season and trying to improve the business model for the long-term growth of the league. It won’t become a reality before 2023, which leaves us to guess what the 2022 CFL season might look like. But for now we’ll just be happy there are going to be games in 2021,” Naylor wrote on June 14.

Among Flutie’s favourite things about CFL football and why he wants it to remain intact is the innovation it drives on the offensive side of the ball.

“All the [run-pass option] game and all that stuff started in those days in the CFL. And then the NFL sees something working and they bring it to their game. We have been the innovators in football in the CFL for a long time,” he said. “I love the uniqueness of the game and I don’t want to lose that.”

But most of all, the six-time MOP is just glad the game he loves is on its way back.

“I love watching CFL football, it was a special time in my life and the friendships that I have from those days last forever. So, I’m very thankful that it’s back,” Flutie said.