Canadian Football Differences
The biggest difference between Canadian and American football is the size of the playing field. In Canada, football fields are 110 yards long and 65 yards wide. In America football fields are 100 yards long and 53 and 1/3 yards wide.
- The Canadian Football League plays a similar - yet distinctively different - brand of football than the National Football League. Mouse over the fields and the scoreboard to learn about key differences. Season: The CFL runs from June through November. The NFL runs from September through February.
- In many ways, it will look and feel like American football; however, there are some significant differences between the NFL and CFL. Below, we will provide a CFL primer so you can truly appreciate Canadian football for the electrifying sport that it is. A player from the Saskatchewan Roughriders during pregame in his X2E+ Helmet.
- Key difference: NFL and CFL are both popular football sport leagues. The main differences between the two games are based on their game play, field size, ball size and different rules and regulations. American Football and Canadian Football have both originated from Rugby.
NFL vs CFL
Though NFL and CFL have certain similarities, one can find very significant difference between the two. First of all when talking of the number of players, the CFL comprises of twelve players and the NFL has only eleven players. This means that the defensive and the offensive lines vary in both NFL and CFL.
Another significant difference seen between NFL and CFL is in the playing field. The CFL has a larger playing field than the NFL. While the CFL playing field length is 110 yards and width is 65 yards, the NFL field is 100 yard long and 53 ½ yards wide.
There is also difference in the balls that are played. The CFL balls come with a larger circumference than the NFL ones. Even in the stripes across the ball there is difference. When the balls used in NFL have no stripes, the balls used in CFL have white stripes.
When talking of time-outs, each team in NFL is allowed three time-outs in each half. In CFL, it is just one time out for each team in each half. Another difference that can be seen is that the first shot of the match should pass between the centres legs. This is not needed in NFL match. There is difference of positioning of the defensive team from the line of scrimmage in both the CFL and the NFL. While this distance in CFL is a full yard, it is eleven inches in NFL.
When referring to the play clock (time to start a play after the referee has whistled to play), the NFL teams get 40 seconds and the CFL teams get 20 seconds.
Another difference that can be noticed between the two leagues is that unlike the NFL, the CFL does not utilize sudden death to decide the game after time out. Each of the CFL teams is given 2 possessions to score. And even then if the two teams do not score, the match ends in a tie.
Coming to the number of Downs and Scoring Rules, the National Football League and the Canadian Football League are different. When teams playing in NFL are given four downs to earn a first down, the teams in CFL are only given three downs.
Summary
1.Each NFL team comprises of eleven players and it is 12 players on each side in CFL.
2.The CFL comes with a larger playing field than the NFL.
3.When the balls used in NFL have no stripes, the balls used in CFL have white stripes.
4.When talking of time-outs, each team in NFL is allowed three time-outs in each half. In CFL, it is just one time out for each team in each half.
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In football scoreboards news, we look at the history of football and why Canadian differs from American football in this important way.
The CFL has just a rich history as the NFL. Its origins can be traced back to the 1860’s when rugby football was played in Canada. Over the decades, as in American football, Canadian football slowly formed into the game we know today. The first gridiron match was played in Toronto in 1861, and it quickly took off in popularity. The development of the game at the beginning practically mirrored that of in the US, but a bit later on the relevant associations started making independent decisions and some different rules were adopted.
So what (and when?) exactly happened to make the Canadian game differ from the American game in such an important aspect: the number of downs?
“Football scoreboards news” found out that to start with you have to go way back to the 1890’s. Walter Camp, one of the forefathers of the game in North American as a whole, introduced the scrimmage and down and distance rules. There were a large number of rugby unions that time in Canada, and they liked the idea and implemented it. They did not, however, elect to change the number of players from 15 a side.
With the dawn of the new century, John Burnside, who captained the university football team in Toronto, reduced the quantity of players per side from 15 to 12, and brought in the rule in which teams must gain 10 years in 3 downs. In Camp’s original rule teams had 5 downs.
These new rules were resisted to start with by the provincial rugby unions in Canada, but they were eventually adopted. At this time, American football also had three downs, and this remained the case until 1912. In this year, the rule makers elected to increase the number of downs from 3 to 4. The Canadian Rugby Union stayed with the Burnside rules, and kept three downs. Perhaps they would have followed the American example, but World War 1 forced the suspension of all official games for 2 years, and by the time things got going again, in the beginning of the 1920’s, any thoughts of changing the rules to meet the US standards had been dropped.
The Canadians adopted the forward pass, but not until 1929, and the CRU did not make this rule official until 1931. The first touchdown pass in the history of the Grey Cup was made that year, by a guy called Warren Stevens. Since that time rules have come and gone, changes have constantly been made to the game, as in American football, but that one, all so important, rule has remained that distinguishes it from its Southern partner. Canadians are probably happy about that!
Canadian Football League Differences
For more information, go to:
en.wikipedia.org