As in the wild, lions are kings of the jungle in the Canadian Football League. And the B.C. Lions proved that again recently with their 22–18 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on July 19 at B.C. Place. The result was surprising only because the margin of victory was considerably smaller than most had expected. After all, as things stand, the Lions and Tiger-Cats may both be felines, but only B.C.'s football team has any growl.

The Lions again demonstrated their embarrassment of riches by winning the football game with their third-string quarterback at the controls. The Ticats are simply an embarrassment these days, with three quarterbacks on the roster but not one that anyone seems to think can play.

The gulf separating these two franchises is certainly wider than the football field they played on, and it's a chasm that is growing wider by the week. The Lions' latest win pushed their season record to 4–0 while Hamilton left town at 0–4 and still searching for its first win since last September. The Lions' fourth victory of this season already equals the number of wins the Tiger-Cats posted all of last year–and the way things are going, the 4–14 Ticats of 2006 are looking legendary by Hamilton standards.

Going back to the start of the 2003 season, B.C. now has an astonishing 34 more regular-season victories than Hapless-ton. In an 18-game season, that's an average of eight more wins a year. Or, to put it in simpler terms, both teams have played 76 games in that span and the Lions have given their fans 34 more opportunities to celebrate. Since the start of the Wally Buono era here, the B.C. Lions are now 53–23, while over that same stretch, the toothless Ticats are a woeful 19–56–1.

One of the big reasons for those records is that when these teams get together for a supposed "cat fight", the Tiger-Cats play like they've been declawed. The Lions' latest victory runs their win streak to six games in head-to-head meetings and gives them nine wins from the last 10 contests between the teams. Going back over the past decade, B.C. has won 15 of the past 18 meetings and 18 of the last 22. The Ticats might consider saving the airfare one year and simply skip their trip out here, since they've managed just one victory in their past 11 visits to the West Coast.

It's hard to imagine any two teams in any professional sports league being further apart on the success spectrum than the Lions and Tiger-Cats over a four-year period. And yet the gap only widens when playoffs and individual accomplishments are brought into the picture.

Since the start of the 2003 season, the B.C. Lions have appeared in the postseason every year, won three West Division titles, hosted three consecutive western finals, won three of the six playoff games they've been a part of, advanced to the Grey Cup twice, and won the big game last November. The terrible Tabbies have made just one postseason appearance in the past four seasons and, as you might have expected, didn't fare well in that game in 2004, losing 24–6 to the Toronto Argonauts, who went on to beat the Lions in that year's Grey Cup. The Tiger-Cats have not had a sniff of the cup since winning the title in 1999.

To further illustrate the difference between the haves and the have-nots, the Lions won just about every team and individual award last year, while the Tiger-Cats were nowhere to be found.

Starting with Geroy Simon, who was named the league's outstanding player in 2006, the Leos took home seven individual awards to go along with their Grey Cup last season. Defensive end Brent Johnson was the league's top defensive player and was named best Canadian in the CFL. Rob Murphy grabbed outstanding-lineman honours, while Aaron Hunt got the nod as the league's best rookie. Mark Washington received the Tom Pate Award, presented by his peers for outstanding sportsmanship and dedication to the league and community. To top it all off, Wally Buono was named the CFL's coach of the year.

In all, since 2003, the Lions have had 11 individual year-end award winners as well as one runner-up. The Ticats have been shut out at the annual player awards ceremony, with only one runner-up in the past four years. Over that time, the Lions have had 14 players named to CFL all-star teams; Hamilton has had just four. The lone Tiger-Cat to walk off with any sort of CFL hardware in recent years was former head coach Greg Marshall, who got the nod as coach of the year in 2004, when his team finished an unremarkable 9–8–1.

Hey, they were 1–17 the year before, so to get nine victories and finish over .500 for one of only two times this decade–well, the guy deserved something. Aside from headaches, the only thing Marshall got during his time as Ticats head coach was the boot when his team lost its first four games a year ago.

Charlie Taffe is at the helm this season, so his job isn't in jeopardy just yet. But with a complete roster overhaul from the team that finished last in the East Division last year, expectations were that among the 23 new Ticat recruits this season, the head coach might have found one or two who could play the game. So far, that doesn't appear to have happened. And so the struggles in Steeltown continue, while the Lions live the good life at the top of the CFL's food chain. It's hard to believe that with only eight teams drafting and recruiting players from the same talent pools, the on-field product can differ so greatly. But the proof is in the wins and losses, and so far this season there are no signs of a turnaround in either city.

While the Lions continue to strengthen their grip on the summer sports market in Vancouver and routinely put crowds well over 30,000 under the dome, football fans in Hamilton are finally fed up with what they're being served.

After averaging crowds in the 27,000-to-29,000 range, despite the results in this forgettable era, the Tiger-Cats' constant loss at Ivor Wynne Stadium finally seems to have caught up with them. Their most recent home game against Montreal–a battle of 0–3 teams–drew just 21,542, the smallest crowd to see a game in Hamilton in the past three years.

The Lions and the Tiger-Cats–two teams with similar nicknames, but different in just about every other way. And so it seems the law of the jungle is very much alive in the CFL. The Lions are kings. And in this rivalry, it certainly is good to be king.

Jeff Paterson is a sportscaster and talk-show host on Vancouver's all-sports radio, Team 1040. E-mail him at jeff.paterson@team1040.ca