Canadian Football League

Current Teams

West Division:

• BC (British Columbia) Lions
• Edmonton Eskimos
• Calgary Stampeders
• Saskatchewan Roughriders
• Winnipeg Blue Bombers

East Division:

• Hamilton Tiger-Cats
• Toronto Argonauts
• Montreal Alouettes
• Ottawa RedBlacks

Recent Events & Future Teams

In 2012, roadblocks were overcome for a ninth team to be added to the league. The Ottawa RedBlacks completed their expansion draft at the end of 2013 and will be added to the East division starting in the 2014 CFL season. This will be the third team in CFL history to be located in Ottawa. The first team was known as the Roughriders and second team was the Renegades.

The addition of the RedBlacks to the East Division resulted in the Blue Bombers returning to the West Division.

The CFL is rumoured to be looking to expand to other locations in the future. Possible locations include Windsor, Quebec City, Moncton, Halifax, London, and even western New York. For now, no concrete plans have been made to expand beyond nine teams.

Comparison Between the CFL and American Football

Playing Area:

• The Canadian field is 110 yards long by 65 yards wide (101M by 59M) while the American field is 100 yards long by 53 1/2 yards wide (91M by 49M).
• The Canadian end zone is ten yards deeper (20 yards) than the American end zone.
• The goal posts for kicking are placed at the goal line (lines marking the beginning of the end zone) in the CFL, while the goal posts are placed at the end line in the American game.
• The distance between the sideline and hash marks is 24 yards in the Canadian game compared to the American game which has three distinct differences in high school, college and the NFL. In high school, the distance is 17 yards, 2 ft, and 4 inches. In college the hash marks are closer being 20 yards from the sidelines. In the NFL the distance is 23 yards, 1 ft, 9 inches from the sideline and the distance between them is the same as that between the goalposts.

Scoring:

• Touchdown: Worth 6 points in both leagues and is scored the same way.
• Conversion (or Convert): Worth 1 or 2 points and works the same in both leagues.
• Field Goal: Worth 3 points and works the same in both leagues
• Safety: Worth 2 points (Unless it is given up during a Point-after attempt than it is worth one point)
• Single (Also known as a Rouge (French for Red)): Worth one point. "Scored when the ball becomes dead in the possession of a team in its own goal area, or when the ball touches or crosses the dead-line, or side-line-in-goal, and touches the ground, a player, or some object beyond these lines as a result of the ball having been kicked from the field of play into the goal area by the scoring team. It is worth one point. This is different from a Safety (see above) in that team scored against receives possession of the ball after the score." [From the CFL rule book article 4, page 29]

Team Sizes:

• The Canadian game has 12 players as opposed to 11 in the American game. The same number of players are used at the line of scrimmage therefore the extra player in the Canadian game has to be used in the backfield.
• Often on offence the Canadian formations has no tight end and another slotback is used instead. On defensive two defensive halfbacks and one safety are employed instead of two safeties.

Number of Downs:

• Downs work the exact same way in both games, however in Canadian football there is only 3 downs as opposed to 4.

Grey Cup:

• Similar to American Football, the championship of the CFL is played in different host city every year.
• The championship trophy is known as the Grey Cup which was commissioned in 1909 by the Earl Grey, then Canada's governor general. Grey made the trophy available as the Canadian Dominion Football Championship of Canadian football.
• The trophy has a silver chalice attached to the large base on which the name of the winning team, it's players, and executives are engraved.
• The cup has been broken on numerous occasions, stolen twice and held for ransom.
• The Toronto Argonauts have won the most grey cups with a total of 16.
• The Eskimos and Blue Bombers are tied with the most Grey Cup appearances with 24 respectively.

Notable NFL players that started their careers in the CFL:

• Warren Moon
• Doug Flutie
• Jeff Garcia
• Joe Kapp
• Raghib "Rocket" Ismail
• Joe Theismann
• Cameron Wake

Links

Canadian Football League Website - http://www.cfl.ca/

CFL Rule Book - http://www.cfl.ca/uploads/assets/CFL/PDF_Docs/CFL_Rule_Book_2011.pdf