Jets 28, Bills 24

Over the last four days, I've watched more football than is probably healthy. Some of it has been quite entertaining and I'd say that the 4th quarter and overtime of the Vanier Cup on Friday night was the most compelling of any I saw. McMaster won their first championship ever in a thrilling double overtime win over the Laval Rouge et Or. I was impressed and a little surprised that both offenses were proficient, sophisticated and exciting to watch with passing plays which looked like pro football. I just love the overtime format used in both US College and Canadian University football. The NFL should (and I expect eventually will) adapt it.

Thursday's three NFL games produced one good one as Dallas beat Miami with a late field goal and then Michigan finally beat Ohio State on Saturday before 114,132 at the Big House to preserve a chance at getting some sort of "at-large" bid in one of the BCS bowl games. I also caught bits of Auburn/Alabama and Oregon/Oregon State before settling in for the second half of Stanford/Notre Dame. Then on Sunday, I watched the Bills almost beat the Jets. I think that Stevie Johnson just likes to make headlines - good or bad. He had a great game against Darelle Revis but was called for a ridiculous celebration, dropped an easy catch at a critical time near the end of the game and last night, every national NFL wrap-up show had a feature on him. Overall, it was an entertaining game but at 5-6, hope for the playoffs now seems lost. Carrying on with the wall to wall football, I caught a bit of Patriots/Eagles and Raiders/ Bears before tuning into the Grey Cup while keeping an eye on the Steelers game in Kansas City. I feel like I've been in the film room too long so I'm looking forward to getting back on to the field. I'm just going to take it two games at a time.

Speaking of watching TV, something Bruce Anderson said on last week's "A Tissue" panel on the National got me thinking about something Michael Moore said on CNN a few weeks ago. Anderson said that Canadians have become slightly more conservative (small "c") in the last 20 years and, when this is combined with an aging population who votes in larger percentages the older they get, the longer term prospects for the Conservatives (large "c") look pretty good. Moore was talking about the Occupy Movement and he was advocating for and egging on the 99%. The last thing he said was that he remains eternally optimistic because the 1%, eventhough they have much more than 1% of the wealth, no matter what happens, they still only have 1% of the votes.

Looking at recent voting patterns in Canada, about 75% of Canadians over the age of 65 vote in federal elections. That number plunges to 35% for the 18-30 demographic. This difference makes all of the difference in the world and there is no question that right of centre parties benefit more than others do from low voter turnouts. Their traditional base is older and they vote. Michael Moore believes that they key to electoral success lies in mobilzing more of the 99% to understand the value and importance of voting in elections. Those who win elections win the right to determine public policy and each one of us has the power to shape that public policy by voting. Moore also believes that the recent Occupy Movements have energized the very demographic whose votes are so badly needed but often not cast at all. He desperately hopes that this recent energization will carry over to the ballot box.

He was wearing a Michigan State hat so I will wish his Spartans good luck in Saturday's innagural Big Ten Championship game against Wisconsin.