Who cares, you may say but the owners of the newest team in the Canadian Football League apparently do.
With their first game is scheduled for this coming July 18th, they have just this week announced the name of the team’s mascot … Big Joe Mufferaw.
Joe Mufferaw a.k.a. Joe Montferrand is Canada’s answer to America’s Paul Bunyan. Both lumberjacks had super human reputations.
Montferrand was born in 1802 near Montreal but worked in the woods beside the Ottawa River, north of Ottawa.
Stompin Tom Connors brought the legend of Big Joe to millions of Canadians with his song called Big Joe Mufferaw. It has become a classic.
‘Mufferaw’ was the anglicized pronunciation of Big Joe’s name and in that regard, the football team has taken flack for naming its mascot as such.
They quickly backpedalled and just announced that their new mascot will now be named Big Joe / Grand Joe.
Makes ones blood stir, n’est pas?
With all the problems around the world and here in Canada, the controversy surrounding this name change is of course minor but nevertheless it does say something about us as a society. We have become sooo politically correct.
When I hear Stompin Tom’s song, I always think of a very impressive Francophone – legend or not – and despite how his name is pronounced.
Can’t you just imagine being in the crowd and signing at the top of your lungs Stompin Tom’s ditty – the team could be losing – and as a new team probably will – but what fun.
Sadly, this same cannot be said for a crowd calling out ‘Big Joe’ or ‘Grand Joe’.
We are all the poorer for this – French and English and all the rest.
As I see it…
‘K.D. Galagher’
