Folks, football season draws near. While September still looms three months into the future, at the end of June, north of the 49th parallel, the Canadian Football League season kicks off in just a few short weeks. While the CFL now plays second fiddle to its American counterpart, its continued existence is actually an extremely valuable and important part of the global football landscape and Canadian sports and culture as well. As a long-time CFL watcher (and noted Ottawa REDBLACKS supporter), I’m hoping to take a page out of Ballsofsteelandfury‘s book as he’s been writing about Aussie rules throughout the weeks at [DFO]. Despite its tiny stature, the CFL remains rich in history, quirks and charm, and I’m hoping to spread the joy of this strange, little league that we’ve grown to love so much of the border.

For our American and international audiences who may not be familiar with the CFL, here’s a few of the most important facts you need to know to get you off on the right foot while watching the CFL:

• The league was founded in 1958, though football in Canada dates back to the 1860s when rugby was first introduced, thanks to British army officers stationed here during the country’s formative years.
• Since 1909, football teams in Canada have competed for the Grey Cup, awarded to the national championship team (now the annual CFL champion); it takes its name from Albert Grey, the 4th Earl Grey and 9th Governor-General of Canada (the representative of the British monarchy in Canada), who donated the trophy. The Grey Cup is the second-oldest trophy in North American pro sports, behind only its other Canadian counterpart, the Stanley Cup.

• There are nine teams in all in the league – four in the East Division and five in the West. They are as follows:
  • British Columbia Lions
  • Calgary Stampeders
  • Edmonton Eskimos
  • Saskatchewan Roughriders
  • Winnipeg Blue Bombers
  • Hamilton Tiger-Cats
  • Toronto Argonauts
  • Ottawa REDBLACKS
  • Montreal Alouettes
• The regular season is 18 games long, with each team getting a minimum of one home and one away game against every other team; teams will play two additional games to round the schedule against opponents that rotate on a yearly basis. Each team receives two bye weeks during the 20-week regular season. The Grey Cup final is typically played during the last week of November.
• Stadiums are much smaller than in the U.S. – CFL teams on average draw between 24,000 to 30,000 fans per game, though BC Place (home of the Lions) and Commonwealth Stadium (home of the Eskimos) can both seat over 50,000. (Though a “sellout” is technically much lower than their full capacity. Think of Oakland tarping off Mount Davis at the Coliseum, etc. etc.)
• Many of you are familiar with some of the obvious differences between the Canadian and American games, but a very quick overview is as follows for those not as knowledgeable:
  • Teams play with 12 on a side instead of 11 (the 12th man is always in a backfield role).
  • Teams receive only 3 downs to advance the ball instead of 4.
  • The CFL field is much larger than the NFL field – 110 yards long by 65 yards wide (as opposed to 100 by 53 1/3).
  • Teams may have all their players (save for the QB) in the offensive backfield in motion, as opposed to just one.
  • The defensive team must stay back one yard from the line of scrimmage at the snap – this makes QB sneaks and power dives much more common in short-yardage situations.
  • While punting and kicking, teams must give the receiving player 5 yards to make a fair catch. Special teams have even more value because of this difference.
  • The defensive team may only block receivers within 1 yard of the line of scrimmage in the CFL, as opposed to up to 5 yards away in the NFL – this makes open plays much more common.
  • The goalposts are set at the front of the end zone as opposed to the back – extra points are set further back as well in order to compensate.
  • Missed field goals that go out of the back of the end zone are awarded a single point, called a rouge.
  • There are strict roster limits imposed on teams in order to maintain a large percentage of Canadian players on every team – rosters are up to 46, though just 42 will dress for a game, 20 of which must be Canadian.
• The CFL did try an expansion into the USA from 1993-1995, which ultimately failed miserably, with teams in Las Vegas, Sacramento, Birmingham AL, Shreveport LA, Memphis TN, San Antonio, and perhaps most famously, the Baltimore Stallions, 1995 Grey Cup winners and the only team outside of Canada to ever do so.

There’s a few other key rule differences which you can check out on Wikipedia if you’d care to find out more; otherwise, it’s pretty similar to the football we know and love (and incessantly whine about) all through the fall and winter here on [DFO]!

For the duration of the CFL Beat, I’ll be previewing all the regular-season games each week (of which there are only 4 per week, mercifully!) and recapping the previous week’s games as well. The regular season kicks off on June 23rd with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats taking on the Toronto Argonauts in the Battle of the Queen Elizabeth Way (the highway connecting the two cities). As the pre-season goes on, I’ll also be previewing all the teams of the league in the hopes we may all get to know them better – and the hopes you may end up picking a team to support as well! Next week will see write-ups on the four East teams while the week after will see the West previewed. After that, we should be into the full swing of things for this season!

ESPN regularly broadcasts CFL games (I believe on ESPN 2 & 3 and as well on the WatchESPN app for online viewers) for those of you who are interested in watching in the U.S. – games are more sporadically scheduled than in the NFL or college football, but for the most part tend to follow a general gist of happening on evenings and weekends. You can check out the schedule here if you want to see more.

I greatly look forward to bringing you regular information on the quirky charm of this storied sport! Can’t wait for some new distractions once the NHL and NBA playoffs have wrapped up.