Hello all – after almost six months 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, June 9th. 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. 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, June 9th, with the Montreal Alouettes and Calgary Stampeders squaring off at 9 PM EST at McMahon Stadium.

The 109th Grey Cup is being hosted in Regina this year; the Roughriders’ last turn as host was in 2013, when they played host to the 101st Grey Cup at the now-demolished Taylor Field. The Riders were supposed to have hosted the 2020 game, but with COVID-19 wiping out that entire season, the 2022 contest was awarded as compensation for the lost championship match. It’ll be the first time since 2019 that the league will play a full slate of 18 games – which is welcome by virtually every football fan in the country.

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

2022 POINTS OF INTEREST

• The name of the game right now is labour issues. Last night, the CFL and its Players Association reached a tentative deal on a new collective bargaining agreement, which is supposed to be a seven-year pact. Earlier this week, the players were on strike for the first time since 1974; only Edmonton and Calgary, thanks to differing labour laws in Alberta, did not join the league’s other teams on the picket line, though they could have today if an agreement hadn’t been reached late last night. The deal still needs to be ratified by the players and by the league’s board of governors, but it’s safe to say that a complete 18-game season is BACK, baby.
• After playing footsie with the XFL last year in potential merger talks, the league ultimately decided to go its own way and stay the course as a fully Canadian product with nine total teams. While this was a relief to many of the older fans of the league, in particular, the merger talk did spark a larger conversation about the product as a whole; the future of the sport and the league still remains in flux.
• A few rule changes were announced to speed up the pace of play of the game, and to hopefully encourage more offensive action in games – in a league notably resistant to change, a lot of these will actually probably be quite useful. Among the notable new rules:
  • Teams can now play two quarterbacks simultaneously for more creative play-calling(assuming the Canadian player on-field ratio is still met).
  • Kickoffs will start from the 30, rather than the 35-yard line; receiving teams can line up at the 40 instead of the 35.
  • The hash marks are being moved in towards the centre of the field; they’ll each be 28 yards from the sideline instead of 24, making them just nine yards apart in the middle of the field, rather than 17 – this makes them more similar to NFL standards.
  • No yards penalties on punt and kick returns (i.e. not respecting the five-yard halo of the return man) will now be fifteen yards instead of five.
  • Out-of-bounds punts from before the 15 will now be a fifteen yard penalty.
  • A communications coordinator, relaying audio information via headset between on-field referees and judges and coaching staffs, will become part of the officiating crew. This improved communication will hopefully make challenges, reviews timeouts easier to initiate.
  • Possession calls, boundary reviews, and illegal formations can all be reviewed from the video booth without coaches’ challenges or officials’ huddles.
  • Two unnecessary roughness or objectionable conduct penalties in one game will now be an automatic ejection.
  • Objectionable conduct penalties for quarterbacks who fake giving themselves up – i.e. the Kenny Pickett Rule that was introduced in other leagues earlier this year.
• The CFL will host another Touchdown Atlantic game this year in tiny Wolfville, Nova Scotia (population 4000) – the home of Acadia University and the Axemen football program, 3000-seat Raymond Field will host the Toronto Argonauts and Saskatchewan Roughriders on July 16th. With no further development on the funding or construction of a CFL-calibre stadium for the league’s prospective 10th team, the Atlantic Schooners, it’s hard to say if the appetite for CFL football has hit a wall in the Maritimes. As public funding for stadiums is virtually impossible to come by in Canadian politics, we may not see the Schooners ever take the field – exactly as what happened to their 1980s predecessor, unfortunately. While I’ll be in Nova Scotia that weekend for other family-related events, tickets will still be hard to come by – the game sold out fast shortly after it was announced.

2021 STANDINGS AND STATS

East Division Standings

West Division Standings

Passing Yards

1. Reilly, BC – 3283
2. Collaros, WPG – 3185
3. Fajardo, SSK – 2970

Passing TDs

1. Collaros, WPG – 20
2. Fajardo, SSK – 14
3. Harris, MTL – 14

Rushing Yards

1. Stanback, MTL – 1176
2. Carey, CGY – 869
3. Wilder, Jr., EDM – 770

Receiving Yards

1. Lawler, WPG – 1014
2. Burnham, BC – 965
3. Lewis, MTL – 964

Sacks

1. Leonard, SSK – 11
2. Woodard, SSK – 10
3. Jeffcoat, WPG – 9

Interceptions

1. Brooks, HAM – 5
2. Washington, EDM – 5
3. Lee, BC – 5

Field Goals

1. Paredes, CGY – 44
2. Lauther, SSK – 40
3. Cote, MTL – 32

2022 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=205786

Congrats again to our 2021 winner, Litre_Cola, who led all contestants with 43 points last year – he’s the back-to-back winner of this challenge. I’ll be sure to put a link out once more information on the start of the season becomes available!

2021 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!