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The Bigger Gridiron: CFL 2017 Football kicks off today

(Image: Wikicommons)
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22nd June, 2017
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Today at 9:30 am AEST, the first game of the 2017 Canadian Football League season kicks off!

Now, this may come as a shock, but I am an American that also loves the Canadian Football League.

Now that I am in Australia, I cannot help but explain what makes the game so unique and, in many ways, more accessible than its American counterpart.

About the title – yes, the field is bigger than an American football field – much bigger. The playing area is 110 yards, with 20-yard end zones to start. Like in rugby, the goalposts are still at the front as well. The field is also noticeably wider.

With that, the Canadian sides employ 12 players per side instead of the American standard of 11.

Something that most people do not realise is that the first gridiron game was played between Harvard and Montreal’s McGill University. For those historical pedants reading this, I personally find the Rutgers vs Princeton game to not count, as it was played under the Association rules, albeit a few years before the former.

Anyway, this means Canada was an equal contributor in the creation of gridiron or, more accurately put, North American football codes. Because of this, in many ways, the CFL game is more authentic to the game’s origin.

Yes, the forward pass was not even talked about seriously until after the bloody 1904 season, but that first game and many more were originally played with three downs.

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Today, the CFL continues this tradition. As a result, the game tends to be more offensive focused because there are really only two chances to advance the ball the minimum of ten yards before punting the ball away or taking that gamble for it on the last down.

Another difference is that, unlike the NFL’s 40-second clock between plays, the CFL employs a 20 second limit from the time the referee sets the ball and blows the whistle. Yes, that waiting between plays has been cut by fifty per cent.

One of the biggest differences is also one of the most noticeable. In the NFL, only one player in the backfield can be in horizontal motion. In the CFL, the backs are permitted to have a running start. So long as nobody crosses the line of scrimmage, a player can have all the forward acceleration they can muster up.

Now, if anyone has watched the AFL – not the Australian Football League, but Arena Football League – you may have noticed something similar. One player may be in forward motion, and this idea was inspired by what we saw across the border.

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However, as far as the other AFL is concerned, the one formerly known as the VFL, Canadian Football also offers two things rather similar.

The first is called a rouge, which is the equivalent to a behind. It too is worth one point and comes off a wide kick.

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The second is the nature of scoring. My friend David Sidoo, the first Indo-Canadian to play in the CFL, had a few thoughts as to why he loves the game and remains active despite his playing days for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the British Columbia (BC) Lions being over. In his own words;

“The CFL is a wide open game with the ability for many teams to come from behind in a short period of time and still win. The field is wider and longer. More points are scored in the CFL as opposed to the NFL. Teams can be down by double digits with five minutes left in a game and still come back to win.”

In many ways, the CFL is gridiron with a flare for the style of Aussie Rules. Of course, this is still with all of the pads and blocking!

Another friend of mine, Vince Danielsen, lifted the Grey Cup twice as a wide receiver for the Calgary Stampeders. When we spoke last about the differences between the NFL and CFL, he said, “Both the CFL and NFL are amazing games and no matter what the rules, players, tactics… at the end of the day it is a group of players and coaches that have meticulously prepared both physically and mentally to win.

“The CFL has such a storied history being over 100 years old and has one of the oldest championship trophies in North America, surpassing the 47 years of the NFL. There is something to be said for history and I have had the chance to sip from the championship mug two times (1998 and 2001) and I promise you there has only been one trophy that shows its dents, scratches and beautiful history in that all players who have won have a special place for their name.”

Additionally, it is interesting to note the Grey Cup, which started in 1909, was originally a rugby union trophy but later evolved to that of the Canadian gridiron. Culture is a funny thing, as here the trophy remained though the sport changed.

But what really makes this game great for gridiron fanatics, especially those in Australia, is twofold.

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First off, the kickoff of the first regular season game is at the end of June and makes for a nice Canadian summer, aka Australian winter, warm-up into the NCAA and NFL seasons.

But what is even better from a practicality standpoint is that games are played Friday through Sunday mornings AEST. This means there is no missing the weekly NFL games that predominantly fall on Monday here.

Don’t worry, even though the first game kicks off between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Montreal Alouettes on a Friday (June 23rd at 9:30am AEST), you can catch the second on Saturday the 24th between the Calgary Stampeders and Ottawa Redblacks at 9:30am, or Edmonton Eskimos versus BC Lions Sunday at noon.

That’s a much more accessible schedule than the NFL, where the games are on Mondays, Fridays, and Tuesdays here in Australia.

For the four-down supporter, the NCAA is a great alternative as well but there is just something very unique about the CFL.

A lot of it has to do with their commitment to domestic players. Yes, there have been and will continue to be many great college players that have yet to make their mark in the NFL like Warren Moon, Doug Flutie, and Joe Theismann, but the league’s policy is quite clear.

Jarryd Hayne

Should Jarryd Hayne have tried his hand in the CFL? (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)

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Vince went on to say how “Many people forget that in the CFL that half of the team must be Canadian-born while in the NFL you can be of any nationality. This may for some be restrictive in an open market and there is some quiet debate in the locker room between Americans and Canadians.

“But I will say that when you see two countries come together in a locker room and see the respect both for each other’s countries and cultures and work together for a common cause, it is amazing. I will say that this is unique and something that should be celebrated in the divided world we live in today. It is celebrated by Canadian fans every season.”

Of the 46-player roster, a minimum of 21 must be Canadian nationals according to the league’s strict definition. Internationals are limited to 20. The only exceptions are the three quarterbacks and two reserves for which there is no restriction.

In its own unique way, the CFL straddles the line between the local focus of the GAA along with that of the professional sporting world.

It is strange that this is part of my article since it comes just after I wrote an article on the reason we support local teams that lack local players.

However, though players move from all over Canada to play for various teams in cities where they were not necessarily raised, with the big elephants in the room, the NFL and NCAA, the policy makes sense and draws a strong connection between supporters and their players.

At the end of the day, what rings most true to the three-down supporter is that the game has been, is, and will always be, authentically Canadian to its core.

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Follow Spencer on Twitter @BallsOutPhD

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