The 'Canadian Football League (CFL)' (''Ligue canadienne de football (LCF)'' in
French), is a professional
sports league located in
Canada that plays
Canadian football. Its eight teams, located in eight cities, are divided into two
divisions of four teams each(
East and
West). The league's nineteen-week
regular season runs from the
Canada Day weekend to early
November. Each team plays eighteen games with one
bye week. Following the regular season, six of the eight teams compete in the league's three-week
playoffs, which culminate in the late-November
Grey Cup championship, the country's largest annual sports and television event.
[1] The CFL, officially founded in 1958, yet tracing its origins to the 1860s, is the highest level of play in Canadian football, the most popular football league in Canada, and most popular sports league in Canada after the
National Hockey League.
[2]. The Grey Cup trophy and game predate the league by many years, just as does the
NHL's championship trophy, the
Stanley Cup.
History
Early history
CFL logo from 1958 to 1969
had its origins in Canada in the 1860s, and many of the first Canadian football teams played under the auspices of the
Canadian Rugby Football Union (CRFU), founded in
1884.
[3] The CRFU was reorganized as the Canadian Rugby Union (CRU) in 1892, and served as an
umbrella organization that several leagues were part of. The
Grey Cup was donated by
Governor General Earl Grey in
1909 to the team winning the ''Senior Amateur Football Championship of Canada''. By that time, the sport as played in Canada had diverged markedly different from its rugby origins. From the
1930s to the
1950s the two senior leagues of the CRU, the
Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) and
Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU) gradually evolved from
amateur to
professional leagues, and amateur teams such as those in the
Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) were no longer competitive in their challenges for the Cup. The ORFU withdrew from Grey Cup competition in
1954, heralding the start of the
modern era of professional Canadian football, in which the Grey Cup has been exclusively contested by professional teams (Since 1965, Canada's top amateur teams, competing in
Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), have contested the
Vanier Cup).
In
1956, the IRFU and WIFU formed a new umbrella organization, the Canadian Football Council (CFC), and in
1958, the CFC left the CRU, becoming the Canadian Football League (The CRU remained the governing body for amateur play in Canada, eventually adopting the name
Football Canada). Initially, there was no inter-divisional play between eastern (IRFU) and western (WIFU) teams except at the
Grey Cup final. Limited interlocking play was introduced in
1961 and by
1981 there was a full interlocking schedule of 16 games per season. The separate histories of the IRFU and the WIFU accounted for the fact that two teams had basically the same nickname: the IRFU's
Ottawa ''Rough Riders'' were often called the "Eastern Riders", while the WIFU's
Saskatchewan ''Roughriders'' were called the "Western Riders" or "Green Riders". Other team nicknames had unusual yet traditional origins: with
rowing a national craze in the late 1800s, the Argonaut Rowing Club of Toronto formed a rugby team for its members' off-season participation; the club nickname
Toronto Argonauts remains to this day, and after World War II, the two teams in
Hamilton—the Tigers and the Wildcats—merged both their organizations and their nicknames, forming the
Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
.gif)
CFL logo from 1970-2002
After the admission of the expansion
British Columbia Lions in 1954, the league remained stable with nine franchises (
BC Lions,
Calgary Stampeders,
Edmonton Eskimos,
Saskatchewan Roughriders,
Winnipeg Blue Bombers,
Hamilton Tiger-Cats,
Toronto Argonauts,
Ottawa Rough Riders,
Montreal Alouettes) from its 1958 inception until
1982, when the Alouettes folded and were replaced the same year by a new franchise named the
Concordes. In
1986 the Concordes were renamed the Alouettes to attract more fan support, but the team folded the next year. The demise of the Alouettes, leaving only three teams in the East Division compared to five teams in the West Division, forced the League to balance its playoff structure by moving the easternmost Western team, the
Winnipeg Blue Bombers, into the East Division, upsetting the long-standing tradition of "East vs. West", as Winnipeg isn't a part of
Eastern Canada.
United States expansion
Main articles: CFL USA
In
1993, the league admitted its first
United States franchise, the
Sacramento Gold Miners, in an attempt to broaden Canadian football's popular appeal and boost league revenues. The ultimate plan was to have a league of ten Canadian and ten American teams. Spearheading the efforts were two former
World League of American Football owners,
Fred Anderson and Larry J. Benson, who would each receive a franchise. While the first incarnation of Benson's team, the
San Antonio Texans, did not play a single down, the Gold Miners did and finished the season 6-12, placing last in the West Division. The following year, the league added three more franchises: the
Las Vegas Posse, the
Shreveport Pirates, and the
Baltimore CFL Colts (who were forced to change their name to the Stallions after a long legal battle). Baltimore was the most successful of the American CFL teams, finishing second in the East and becoming the first American team to play for (and win) the Grey Cup.
CFL USA logo
The
1995 season saw the loss of the Posse and the move of the Gold Miners to San Antonio, while the
Birmingham Barracudas and
Memphis Mad Dogs were added. However, fan interest in Canadian football, with the possible exception of the Baltimore Stallions, was sparse at best. At the end of the year, which saw the Stallions become the first American team to win the Grey Cup, all United States teams with the exception of the Stallions and the re-launched
San Antonio Texans folded because of financial difficulties. When the
National Football League announced that
a new team was to be added in Baltimore, the Stallions looked at the possibility of relocating to nearby
Richmond, Virginia, but later moved to Montreal, becoming the
Alouettes. The Texans would later fold with a similar explanation.
Recent history
After three seasons that included American teams, the CFL returned to an all-Canadian format in
1996 with nine teams; however, the
Ottawa Rough Riders, in existence since 1876, folded before the following season. In
2002, the league expanded back to nine teams with the creation of the
Ottawa Renegades. After four seasons of financial losses, the Renegades were suspended indefinitely prior to the
2006 season; their players were absorbed by the remaining teams in a
dispersal draft. The league had struck a committee in 2003 to examine the feasibility of adding a tenth team, with the leading candidate cities being
Quebec City and
Halifax.
[4] Exhibition games were held in Quebec City in 2003
[5] and in Halifax in 2005. The Halifax event, dubbed
Touchdown Atlantic, was scheduled to repeat in 2006 but was cancelled after the suspension of the Ottawa Renegades franchise.
[6] Commissioner
Tom Wright had indicated that Halifax was the leading candidate for expansion.
[7]
Edmonton's
Commonwealth Stadium is the largest venue in the CFL and the only one with a natural grass playing surface.
Although
ice hockey is Canada's most popular sport, the CFL is highly popular in
Quebec and
Western Canada, and along with
Canadian football played at amateur levels (ie. youth, high school,
CJFL,
QJFL,
CIS and senior leagues such as the
Alberta Football League), has increased in popularity in recent years. In
Southern Ontario, the CFL is recovering from the
bankruptcy that plagued the Toronto and Hamilton teams in the
2003 season; having come under new ownership, both teams have improved their attendance figures dramatically since then. The
BC Lions have also seen a recent resurgence of fan support, which many attribute to improved on-field and off-field management. The Lions now compete with the
Edmonton Eskimos for top attendance numbers; the Eskimos average as many as 40,000 people per game (Vancouver's
BC Place Stadium, Edmonton's
Commonwealth Stadium, and Toronto's
Rogers Centre are the only stadiums that seat 40,000+).
Saskatchewan Roughriders fans are known for their loyalty and for attending Roughriders games at stadiums across the country.
In
2005, the league set an all-time attendance record with a total attendance of more than 2.3 million.
[8] With the absence of Ottawa in 2006, the league recorded total
regular season attendance of 2,112,696, increasing the average per-game attendance to 29,343. This is the third highest per-game attendance of any North American sports league and the sixth highest
per-game attendance of any sports league worldwide. A recent survey conducted at the
University of Lethbridge confirmed that the CFL is the second most popular sports league in Canada, with the following of 19% of the total adult Canadian population compared to 30% for the
NHL. The
NFL had 13% following, with a total of 24% following at least one of the pro football leagues. This could be interpreted to mean that approximately 80% of Canadian football fans follow the CFL and about 55% follow the NFL.
Season structure
As of 2007, The CFL season includes:
★ A 2-game, 3-week exhibition season (or pre-season) in mid-June
★ An 18-game, 19-week regular season running from late June to early November
★ A 6-team, 3-week
single elimination playoff tournament beginning in November and culminating in the
Grey Cup championship in late November. Championship teams will play either 2 or 3 playoff games, including the Grey Cup game, depending on their standing at the end of the regular season.
Exhibition season
Team training camps open in May, with pre-season exhibition games beginning in early June. The pre-season schedule is three weeks long with each team playing two games against a team in its own division.
Regular season
The regular season is nineteen weeks long, with games beginning on the
Canada Day weekend and finishing by early November. The CFL's eight teams are divided into two divisions: the
East Division and
West Division, with four teams in each division. Each team plays two games against each team in the opposite division, three games against two teams in its own division, and four games against the other team in its own division. Alternating divisional
bye weeks take place in weeks nine and ten, putting the focus on games within the division not resting that week. The most popular featured week in the CFL season is the
Labour Day Classic, played over the course of the
Labour Day weekend, where the matchups feature the first half of home-and-home series between the traditional geographic rivalries of Toronto–Hamilton (a rivalry which began in 1873
), Edmonton–Calgary (see
Battle of Alberta), and Winnipeg–Saskatchewan. BC—Montreal, while not considered a "traditional" rivalry, rounds out the week's games.
[9] The following week's rematch of these games is a popular event as well, especially in recent years, where the rematch of the Saskatchewan-Winnipeg game has been dubbed the
Banjo Bowl. Other features of the regular season schedule are the
Hall of Fame Game in
Hamilton and the
Thanksgiving Classic, where the matchups do not always feature traditional rivalries.
Playoffs
The
playoffs begin in November. After the regular season, the top team from each division has an automatic home berth in the Division Final, and a bye week during the Division Semifinal. The second-place team from each division hosts the third-place team in the Division Semifinal, unless a fourth-place team from one division finishes with a better record than a third place team in the other (this provision is known as the ''crossover rule'', and while it implies that it is possible for two teams in the same division to play for the Grey Cup, no crossover team has ever won the Semifinal game). The winners of each Division's Semifinal game then travel to play the first place teams in the Division Finals. Since 2005, the Division Semifinals and Division Finals have been sponsored by
Scotiabank.
[10] The two division champions then face each other in the
Grey Cup game, which is held on the third or fourth Sunday of November.
Grey Cup
Main articles: Grey Cup
The
Grey Cup is both the name of the championship of the CFL and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. The Grey Cup game is hosted in one of the league's member cities. In recent years, it has been hosted in a different city every year, selected two or more years in advance. The
2006 Grey Cup was held in
Winnipeg on
November 19,
2006, where the
BC Lions defeated the
Montreal Alouettes by a score of 25-14. The
2007 Grey Cup will be held in
Toronto on
November 25,
2007.
As the country's largest annual sporting event,
the Grey Cup has long served as an unofficial Canadian autumn festival generating national media coverage and a large amount of revenue for the host city. Many fans travel from across the country to attend the game and the week of festivities that lead up to it.
Awards
Following the Grey Cup game, the
Grey Cup Most Valuable Player and
Grey Cup Most Valuable Canadian are selected. A number of league individual player awards, such as the
Most Outstanding Player and
Most Outstanding Defensive Player, are awarded annually at a special ceremony in the host city during the week prior to the Grey Cup game; this ceremony is broadcast nationally on
TSN. The
Annis Stukus Trophy, also known as the Coach of the Year Award, is awarded separately at a banquet held during the off-season each February. While the CFL has not held an
all-star game since
1988, an All-Star Team is selected and honored at the league awards ceremony during Grey Cup week.
Broadcasting
The principal television broadcasters of CFL games are cable network
TSN (which began televising CFL games in
1985) and broadcast network
CBC, while cable network and TSN partner
RDS broadcasts
Montreal Alouettes games in French for the
Quebec television market.
[11] Games are typically scheduled for Thursday to Saturday evenings during June, July and August, but switch to more Saturday and Sunday afternoon games during September and October.
[12] TSN has created a tradition of at least one Friday night game each week, branded as ''
Friday Night Football'', while CBC airs at least one game every Saturday. CBC and TSN drew record television audiences for CFL broadcasts in 2005.
[13] The 2006 season was the first season in which every regular season game was televised, as the league implemented an
instant replay challenge system.
[14] In 2006, the CFL also began offering pay-per-view webcasts of every game on CFL Broadband.
[15] CBC and RDS are the exclusive television broadcasters for all playoff games, including the
Grey Cup, which regularly draws a Canadian viewing audience in excess of 4 million.
[16]
Beginning in
2008, TSN and RDS will be the exclusive television and internet broadcasters of all CFL games, including the playoffs and Grey Cup. The five-year agreement, which includes an option for a sixth year, is worth about $16 million annually and marks the first time since
1952 that CBC will not be broadcasting any CFL games. The CFL will no longer be broadcast on Canadian
terrestrial television, although the move to TSN all but assures that all CFL games will be broadcast in
high definition.
, TSN was available in about 8.8 million of Canada's 13 million
households.
CFL teams have local broadcast contracts with terrestrial radio stations for regular season and playoff games, while
Corus Entertainment owns the rights to the Grey Cup. In 2006,
Sirius Satellite Radio gained exclusive rights for North American CFL
satellite radio broadcasts and will broadcast 25 CFL games per season, including the Grey Cup, through 2008.
[17]
In the United States, CFL television broadcasts are available nationally on
Dish Network,
DirecTV and
America One, which also feeds the broadcasts to regional cable outlets, such as
NESN and
Comcast Sportsnet. High definition games are available on Dish Network's
World Sport HD.
[18] In Europe, games are available on
NASN.
[19]
From
1962 through
1986, CBC and
CTV simulcast the Grey Cup. In
1962,
1965,
1967,
1968 and
1970, CTV commentators were used for the dual network telecast, while in
1963,
1964,
1966 and
1969, CBC announcers were provided. From
1971 through
1986, one network's crew called the first half while the other called the rest of the game. After the 1986 season, CTV dropped coverage of the CFL and the Grey Cup. From
1987 through
1990, the CFL operated its own syndicated network,
CFN. CFN had completely separate coverage of the Grey Cup, utilizing its own production and commentators.
On the Internet, all radio broadcasts of CFL games are available for free through each affiliate's Web site. Video broadcasts are free in Canada, but U.S. viewers (identified by
geolocation) are required to use a
pay-per-view service instead. That being said, a small number of America One affiliates do stream on the Internet, thus providing CFL video feeds for free.
Players and compensation
The CFL will begin enforcing a salary cap for the
2007 season of $4.05 million per team. Financial penalties for teams that breach the cap are set at $1 to $1 for the first $100,000 over, $2 to $1 for $100,000 to $300,000 over, and $3 to $1 for $300,000 and above. Penalties could also include forfeited draft picks.
[20] In 2006, the active roster limit was increased from 40 to 42. The "import/non-import ratio", which required teams to keep at least 20 non-import (Canadian-born or Canadian-trained) players on their active roster, was increased to 21. Teams may have up to 4 players on their reserve roster, and up to 7 on their practice roster.
Eligible non-imports (usually from
CIS football or American
college football) are drafted by teams in the annual
Canadian College Draft, which follows an evaluation camp similar to the
NFL Combine.
[21] A junior player in the locale of a team may be claimed as a "territorial exemption" and sign with that team before beginning collegiate play (one recent example is Saskatchewan Roughrider
Mike Maurer[22]). Teams maintain "negotiation lists" of players they wish to sign as
free agents. CFL players are represented by the
Canadian Football League Players Association (CFLPA). Each team elects two players to the CFLPA Board of Player Representatives, which meets once per year. Every two years, it elects an executive Board of Directors.
[23]
In the days when sports teams were financed almost entirely by ticket sales, the CFL and
NFL were, financially speaking, on relatively equal footing, and CFL teams could sign top U.S.
college football stars such as
Johnny Rodgers and
Joe Theismann. During the
1950s and
1960s exhibition games were played between CFL and NFL/
AFL teams using a mixture of each league's rules. The last such exhibition game saw the CFL's
Hamilton Tiger-Cats defeat the AFL's
Buffalo Bills, the only time in which a Canadian team defeated an American team in the series. As late as the
1970s and early
1980s, when high-capacity stadiums were built in
Montreal,
Edmonton,
Vancouver, and
Toronto, people such as
Montreal Alouettes owner
Nelson Skalbania continued to believe that relative parity could be sustained so long as the CFL could get larger stadiums built in its other cities and sell them out. However, by the 1980s it became clear that financial parity between the two leagues would not be maintained, not so much because of the disparity in attendance figures, but because of the NFL's increasingly lucrative television contracts that now bring in a majority of the NFL's revenue. The CFL could not hope to negotiate similar contracts with Canadian networks because the U.S. television market is more than ten times the size of Canada's. A notable exception to this trend occurred in 1991 when the deep-pocketed owners of the Toronto Argonauts (tycoon
Bruce McNall, actor
John Candy, and hockey star
Wayne Gretzky) signed U.S. college star
Raghib "Rocket" Ismail to the then-unheard of sum of $18.2 million spread over four years. This proved unsustainable and Ismail left for the NFL after two seasons. Currently, the difference in average salaries between the CFL and NFL is significant, with only a handful of CFL players making more than the NFL minimum.
Despite a common belief that the average NFL player is more talented than the average CFL player, the disparity in talent is not nearly as great as the disparity in compensation. Due to the difference in rules, pace of play and field size between the two leagues, they mostly compete for different types of players. Mobility and quickness are typically valued over size and strength in the CFL, and CFL teams often recruit skilled players who would be considered "undersized" by NFL standards. For this reason, there are few players who have played in both leagues, and even fewer who have achieved success in both leagues. Only two people have been elected to both the
Canadian Football Hall of Fame and the U.S.
Pro Football Hall of Fame: quarterback
Warren Moon and coach
Bud Grant. There are many cases of CFLers going to the NFL and having success, such as
Pro Bowlers
Joe Horn,
Jeff Garcia,
Brendon Ayanbadejo and
Doug Flutie and Pro Football Hall of Fame coach
Marv Levy. On the other hand, there have also been cases of NFL stars coming to the CFL and failing to excel, such as the 2006 "big splash" signings of
Ricky Williams and
Onterrio Smith.
[24]
Norman Kwong,
John Sopinka,
Jim Silye,
J.C. Watts and
Lionel Conacher are just a few of the former CFL players who assumed careers in government after retiring from the league.
Teams
Active teams
Defunct and inactive teams
| Team | City | Stadium | Years in CFL | Notes |
|---|
| 'Atlantic Schooners' | Halifax, Nova Scotia | n/a | n/a | Conditional franchise granted in 1984 but did not play due to lack of stadium. |
| 'Baltimore Stallions' | Baltimore, Maryland | Memorial Stadium | 1994-1995 | moved to Montreal to become the Alouettes. Part of CFL USA, this team is retroactively considered to be a "continuation" of the preceding ''Alouettes'' franchises. Known briefly as "Baltimore CFL Colts," after lawsuit, "Baltimore CFLers", before adoptiong current name. |
| 'Birmingham Barracudas' | Birmingham, Alabama | Legion Field | 1995 | Part of CFL USA |
| 'Las Vegas Posse' | Las Vegas, Nevada | Sam Boyd Stadium | 1994 | Part of CFL USA, folded due to money issues |
| 'Memphis Mad Dogs' | Memphis, Tennessee | Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium | 1995 | Owned by Fred Smith, FedEx founder & CEO. Part of CFL USA, originally a rejected NFL expansion team known as Memphis Hound Dogs. |
| 'Ottawa Renegades' | Ottawa, Ontario | Frank Clair Stadium | 2002-2005 | The Renegades have been suspended since 2006, but could re-launch in a future season. |
| 'Ottawa Rough Riders' | Ottawa, Ontario | Frank Clair Stadium | 1958-1996 | Founded 1876 |
| 'Sacramento Gold Miners' | Sacramento, California | Hornet Stadium | 1993-1994 | Founded 1990 as Sacramento Surge (played 1991-1992 in the WLAF), moved to San Antonio and became the Texans. Part of CFL USA. |
| 'San Antonio Texans' | San Antonio, Texas | Alamodome | 1995 | Formerly the Sacramento Gold Miners. Part of CFL USA. |
| 'Shreveport Pirates' | Shreveport, Louisiana | Independence Stadium | 1994-1995 | Part of CFL USA |
;Notes
#The Hamilton Tiger-Cats were created in 1950 as a merger of the
Hamilton Tigers (founded 1869 as the Hamilton Foot Ball Club,
and merged with the
Hamilton Alerts in 1914) and the
Hamilton Flying Wildcats.
#The Alouettes' main home field is
Molson Stadium. In recent years, they also play their final regular season home game and any home playoff games at
Olympic Stadium.
#The CFL considers the current Montreal Alouettes franchise (founded in
1994 as the
Baltimore Stallions, moved to Montreal and renamed the Montreal Alouettes in
1996) to be a continuation of the original Montreal Alouettes (founded
1946, played in the CFL
1958-
1981) and
Montreal Concordes (founded
1982, renamed the Montreal Alouettes in
1986, folded just prior to the
1987 season).
[25]
#Created by a merger of the Winnipegs (whose roots go back to 1879) and the St. John's team, and become known as the "Winnipeg Pegs" before changing to the current name, Blue Bombers, in 1936.
#Not related to the
Vancouver Grizzlies, who played one season in
1941.
#Roots go back to the
Calgary Rugby Foot-ball Club, which formed in 1907.
#Club originally formed in 1895, became officially known as the Eskimos in 1910.
#Became Saskatchewan Roughriders officially in 1950, after the team became the only pro football team left in the province in 1948.
#Another team named the San Antonio Texans was founded in 1993, but folded before playing a game.
See also
★
Canadian football
★
Canadian Football Hall of Fame
★
TSN Top 50 CFL Players
★
Canadian Junior Football League
★
Comparison of Canadian and American football
★
Canadian Football Act
★
List of Canadian Football League records
★
List of Canadian Football League seasons
★
List of Canadian Football League stadiums
★
List of attendance figures at domestic professional sports leagues
★
Major North American professional sports leagues
References
1.
2. Survey: Canadian interest in pro football is on the rise Canadian Press
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
External links
.gif){kind=logo}
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
