Geoff Corfield
Geoffrey Corfield has been active in Conservative politics in Canada since 1976, both federally and provincially. But he won’t always write about politics because he has more experience with writing history and humour. He lives in London, Ontario, frequents used book shops, swims lengths, drinks beer, plays croquet, has his own town in north-central Queensland and six books published, and would very much like to find a publisher for this New Zealand book and its companion one for Australia.
There’s a lot of sports not being played these days. And one of them
is Canadian Football.
When William Webb Ellis picked up a round Association football (or
soccer ball), and ran with it at Rugby School in 1823, he created more
games that would eventually be played with an oval-shaped ball (easier
to hold onto) and use hands more than feet, than would ever develop
from the round ball that uses only feet.
There’s Gaelic Football, Australian Rules Football, Rugby Union
Football, Rugby League Football, American Football, and Canadian
Football. If you follow sports at all you’ve probably heard of the
first five listed, but I’m willing to wager a pint that not many New
Zealanders reading this will have heard of Canadian Football.
The whole world knows about American Football. The National Football
League (NFL). Super Bowl Sunday. How to make a game of 60 minutes
playing time last four hours. But north of the border, there’s another
game that’s actually older than American Football, and whose
championship game, the Grey Cup, is 58 years older than the Super
Bowl. It’s Canadian Football as played in The Canadian Football League
(CFL).
Canadian Football is to American Football as Rugby League is to Rugby
Union. Same game, different rules.
The NFL was formed in 1920, and following mergers of different
leagues, didn’t start playing the Super Bowl until 1967. At the end of that match
it hands out a big, gaudy trophy with the championship year marked on
it in Roman numerals (2019-2020 was LIV).
The CFL was formed in 1909 and at its championship game, The Grey Cup,
hands out a modest trophy donated in 1909 by Earl Grey, then
Governor-General of Canada.
They played Rugby Union Football at McGill University in Montreal,
Canada in 1865. In 1874 McGill sent a rugby team to the USA to play
Harvard University at “football”, and found that Harvard was set to
play soccer football. Thus was rugby introduced to the USA. From there
evolved the NFL and the CFL.
There are a lot of intricate rule differences between the NFL and the
CFL, but here are the main ones:
1. CFL has 12 players on the field per team at any one time; NFL 11 players.
2. CFL field is 110yds x 65yds with two 20yd endzones; NFL 100yds x 53
1/3yds with 10yd endzones.
3. Up until 2018, the CFL used a slightly larger ball, but they are now
uniform size, however, the CFL ball has two white stripes on it.
4. CFL has three downs (tries) to make 10yds, NFL four downs.
5. CFL teams line up 1yd apart, NFL on line of ball.
6. There are more ways to score in the CFL.
7. There is more player movement allowed in the CFL before the ball is
put into play.
8. The CFL season is June-November; NFL September-February.
When they start playing sports again see if you can find a televised
CFL game (good luck). I’ll collect my pints later.
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