THREE-DOWN NATION.

This article focuses on football and its appeal to Canadians. For the Canadian Football League, it's sometimes better to be lucky than good. On-field officials mistakenly called a no-yards penalty on the last play of an Oct. 22 game between the Calgary Stampeders and B.C. Lions, costing the Stamps a victory, highlighting some glaring shortcomings in the league's officiating. But thanks to the post-game controversy--Calgary fans were furious, and the team's brass petitioned the league to have the result overturned, to no avail--TV networks rebroadcast the play for days. Then there was the 1996 thriller between Edmonton and Toronto, played in a blizzard that dumped more than a foot of snow onto the frozen turf in Hamilton. Hockey, baseball and basketball are all continental sports, says David Mills, a history prof at the University of Alberta, whereas the three-down game is unique.