Hello all – after almost a year away, the CFL Beat makes its glorious return this week! I’m looking forward to another year of covering the ridiculous sport of Canadian football for all of you; the season kicks off a bit later this year, with Week 1 games starting on Thursday, August 5th. Without further ado, let’s get you all prepped and up to speed on what to expect from north of the 49th parallel this year in the world of football.

WELCOME (BACK) TO THE CFL!

The first-ever CFL Beat, from 2016, provides more specifics than what I will be listing below, but if you’re unfamiliar with the sport or are looking for a quick refresher, here are some of the most important things to know:

• The league was founded in 1958, though teams have competed for the Grey Cup, Canadian football’s top prize, since 1909.
• There are nine teams organized into two divisions, each playing an 18-game regular season (though with the late start to this season, it will be reduced to 14 games for 2021). The division winners each get a bye into the second round of the playoffs.
• Among the most important rule differences between the NFL and CFL: only 3 downs, field is 110 yards long by 65 yards wide, each team plays 12 players a side instead of 11, defense starts 1 yard back from the line of scrimmage, kicks/punt returners get 5 yards of buffer zone to make a catch, missed field goals that leave the end zone are called rouges and are worth one point – they are hilarious when they occur. (You can check out the full list of rule differences in 2016’s welcoming article, or here on Wikipedia if you’re curious.)

Next week, I’ll be giving the preview for all of the East Division teams, followed by the West Division teams the week after. Week 1 of the regular season kicks off on Thursday, August 5th, with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Hamilton Tiger-Cats leading the way in a rematch of the 2019 Grey Cup game.

The 108th Grey Cup is being hosted in Hamilton this year; thanks to the late start to this year’s schedule, it’s scheduled for December 12 – the latest date it’s ever been played at (the previous record was December 11th, 1937, when the Argonauts beat the Blue Bombers 4-3 at Toronto’s Varsity Stadium). Even though Hamilton is the southernmost CFL city, this game is likely going to be exceptionally cold. Though with climate change unfolding at a dizzying pace these days, who the hell knows, really?

As for everyone else? Well, just hang on for the team previews coming out over the next two weeks! Hopefully you’ll be all up to speed very soon.

2021 POINTS OF INTEREST

• As many of you might be aware, the 2020 CFL season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, marking the first time since 1919 that the Grey Cup was not awarded. Fitting that in both situations, a global pandemic was responsible for its cancellation. Because of the cancelled season, the league lost a lot of money – unlike many other pro sports, the CFL’s main revenue source is butts in seats. Without fans being able to attend games in person, it was going to be a tough slog for every team. In 2019, the league lost somewhere around $20 million – even with a full schedule and with fans in stands. In 2020, losses came in somewhere between $60-80 million. The league is well aware that this is a problem – but there’s still not a firm fix to the issue. We’ll discuss this further below.
• Earlier this year, the CFL and XFL made some major waves through reports that they were in talks for a “strategic partnership” of some variety. While it’s unclear if that would have been something as full-on as a complete merger, we do know that these talks completely fell apart by the beginning of July. Some fans rejoiced at this, with memories of the CFL’s disastrous American expansion in the 1990s still fresh in their minds, while others lamented the possibility of a financial lifeline to the CFL and a significant improvement of their overall bottom line. While The Rock, Dany Garcia, and RedBird Capital do have some potential to remake the XFL yet again, the fact that FOX Sports has signed a 2022 TV broadcast deal with the new USFL, without a schedule, players, or even teams being announced might cause a real dent in the offseason football market share in the US. Not only that, but FOX will also be televising The Spring League games as well. That’s a crowded landscape – more opportunities for players is good, as are more potential pathways to the NFL, but that’s a lot of competition to establish yourself as the #3 football league in the US behind the NFL and D1 ball. Perhaps maybe it’s a blessing in disguise that the CFL is going to continue to do its own weird, quirky thing.
• Some on and off news re: the state of a potential CFL expansion team playing out of Halifax, Nova Scotia: things have stalled for the time being. In January, the Halifax Regional Municipality council voted to shelve the city’s commitment to funding a new stadium for the Atlantic Schooners, the potential expansion team to the Maritimes. With COVID-19 causing such a dent in government budgets at all levels, this seemed inevitable, unfortunately. Interest remains high, but without a permanent stadium, there’s no chance the team manages to take hold. Some diehards still believe that Croix-Bleue Medavie Stadium in Moncton, New Brunswick, is a viable backup option; it has hosted CFL games before with lots of temporary seating installed, but with just 10,000 permanent seats, it would be a significant cost to expand the stadium to CFL size (of around 25000 or so). Temporary seating has been used in the past for Touchdown Atlantic games, but this also isn’t a useful long-term strategy. Finally, Moncton, while a major population hub of New Brunswick and located at a convenient midpoint between other sizable cities like Fredericton and Saint John, is still just over a quarter of the size of Halifax, and also a three-hour drive away. It’s probably not going to work as a permanent hub – and I think the Atlantic Schooners executive team knows it.
• BC Lions owner David Braley passed away in October 2020; he was 79. A former auto parts magnate and Canadian Senator, Braley also owned the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Toronto Argonauts at other stages in his life. While the Lions experienced some up and down years during Braley’s time as owner from 1997 onwards, he was an important figure in keeping the team, and the league as a whole, alive after the extremely financially lean 1990s. The Lions have yet to find new ownership; Braley’s estate continues to manage and fund the team for the time being – it’s likely this probably won’t happen until COVID-19 subsides mostly for good. We’ll have to keep an eye on who buys the team – considering the decline in attendance the Lion have faced over the last 15 years, my hope is that it’ll be a locally-based ownership conglomerate who are more in tune with the nature of the BC sports market than Braley, an Ontario resident, was in his time as owner.
• In a major legal landmark in Canada, Bill C-218 passed the Senate in late June; after clearing the House of Commons earlier this year, it will receive royal assent within the next few months. With the success of the bill, single-game sports betting is now legalized across the country. Sportsbooks everywhere in Canada should profit, and with the CFL almost certain to be taking a cut from every bet being placed, the expansion of legalized sports gambling in Canada could prove to be an incredibly valuable revenue stream for the league as a whole. For a league that has spent so long trying to balance its respect for the heritage of the Canadian game while finding ways to reinvent itself and remain hip and relevant, the revenue provided by single-game betting would be a fantastic safety net and ensure the stability of the league for many years to come.
• COVID protocols remain a point of contention for many players during training camp; all players, both Canadian and international, vaccinated and unvaccinated, are subject to a seven-day quarantine before the start of training camp, plus two negative PCR tests and a negative rapid antigen test. Players are also not permitted to visit with anyone who lives in another household, including teammates, team staff, or family not immediately living with them. Hotel stays have players staying in single rooms, and they are not permitted to eat at hotel restaurants or other local establishments. Bye week travel is also not permitted for at least the first six weeks of the season. As it currently stands, it’s fair to say that a lot of these protocols seem like overkill, especially considering the success that Canadian provinces have seen in getting people double vaccinated. These strict protocols were necessary, however, for the Canadian government and all seven provinces home to CFL teams (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan) to approve the league’s return-to-play plan. Players will likely be quietly grumbling about this for now, but there’s also a chance that these will also be re-visited soon as vaccine rates continue to increase in the coming weeks and months.

2019 STANDINGS AND STATS

East Division Standings

West Division Standings

Passing Yards

1. Fajardo, SSK – 4302
2. Harris, EDM – 4027
3. Bethel-Thompson, TOR – 4024

Passing TDs

1. Bethel-Thompson, TOR – 26
2. Adams Jr., MTL – 24
3. Evans, HAM – 21

Rushing Yards

1. Harris, WPG – 1380
2. Powell, SSK – 1093
3. Stanback, MTL – 1048

Receiving Yards

1. Banks, HAM – 1550
2. Burnham, BC – 1492
3. Begelton, CGY – 1444

Sacks

1. Hughes, SSK – 16
2. Davis, HAM – 13
3. Jefferson, WPG – 12

Interceptions

1. Rose, WPG – 9
2. Roberson, CGY – 7
3. Rolle, HAM – 5

Field Goals

1. Whyte, EDM – 47
2. Hajrullahu, HAM – 47
3. Ward, OTT – 43

2021 PICK POOL

I will be running a pick pool again this season – it’s open to readers from anywhere in the world! If you’re interested in playing, just register here through the link below:

https://www.pooltracker.com/join.asp?poolid=193216

Congrats again to our 2019 winner, Litre_Cola, who led all contestants with 61 points last year. I’ll be sure to put a link out once more information on the start of the season becomes available!

2019 Pool Results

And with that, tune in next week to check out previews of the East Division teams – Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Hamilton. Maestro out!