I've started following the CFL since the demise of the XFL because of the awesome players and coaches that came to play for the XFL from the CFL.
That had me start wondering.. Is there a rule in the CFL that limits the numbers of foreign players on a given team?
Each team may have a maximum of 46 players, including 2 players who shall be identified as quarterbacks and 44 other players, of whom not more than 20 may be American players.
Each team must establish a reserve roster of 1 player.
Roster Breakdown
Nationals Global Americans Quarterbacks Reserve Total
Min. 21 Min. 2 Max. 20 2 1 46
Of the 46 players named to the roster, each team may dress an active roster of 45 players, broken down as follows:
The four designated American players are players who can play on special teams OR replace an American starter (they cannot start).
Of the 24 starters on a team, a minimum of seven starters will be nationals players. When applied to a starting roster of a team it breaks down as follows (when using the minimum number of national players):
On a roster of 46 players 3 are quarterbacks, 21 Canadians and 22 Internationals or Americans
7 Canadians must be starters on the field.
Thank you. That helps.
What about the coaching staff?
June Jones is a fellow Yank and was the head coach for Hamilton before coming to the Houston Roughnecks.
What are the rules/thoughts/feelings of having an American coaching a CFL team?
Limits on number of coaches but not nationality … although some (a relatively small minority IMO) are annoyed by the how few Canadian coaches/GMs there are,
Coaching doesn’t have those restrictions.
Need the best coaching available.
That’s so interesting.
How strict are the foreign player requirements? In other words, could a team potentially have 30 Canadians and the rest American/Global?
I did an internet search for what Global players are and found that there are quite a few Mexican players on the practice squads. This lead me to learn about the LFA, the fairly new Mexican pro football league and that the LFA is being used as a pool of potential players for the CFL.
I also read that once a year the CFL plays in Mexico. Is that true? How is that working out? I do know that from time to time the NFL plays in Mexico City. The Houston Texans have quite a large fan base in Mexico due to our rich heritage here in Texas.
The CFL has yet to play in Mexico.
They did, however, stage a game in 1951 in Philadelphia.
Ottawa vs Hamilton.
American content is a maximum, not a requirement … no limit on Canadians, other than meeting the minimum roster content for Global players the entire team could be Canadian
Very cool. So the entire team could be Canadian with the exception of the two Global players.
OK… here is a trivia question for you or for anyone else out there: which team in the history of the CFL had the greatest number of Canadian players?
Unfortunately there aren’t enough Canadians to fill an entire roster for one team.
For every 1 Canadian there are 10 Americans.
Can’t compete with that type of depth.
The rules about how many Americans are allowed have changed over the years (it used to be fewer), but there have occassionally been strong teams that carried more than the minimum mandated Canadians.
I can’t recall any specific ones at the moment, as they’re somewhat few and far between and when they do occur, they’re not that memorable. It’s not usually a case of having a roster filled with Canadian all-stars so much as it is just having a few more Canadians who are better than the lower-level Americans available.
And to complicate counting the "most" Canadians ever on one team, back in the 60s, at least, an American who "naturalized" by taking out Canadian citizenship, could then play as a Canadian. There were, of course, residency requirements, but I remember several Ti-Cat players doing that.
Pete, our problem is depth. We don't have the numbers to replace Canadians with Canadians. When one guy goes down, the level of the quality of his sub is very noticeable.
We only have 27 universities playing football even though most of our better players now play in the US where they can get a full scholarship. We also have 18 "junior" teams but they don't seem to be producing as much talent as they did in the 70s or 80s. I could be wrong on that but it is just my opinion.
The more successful teams up here usually have the best Canadians or find Canadians to play in the "skill" positions that allow an American to play somewhere else. Our guys traditionally our on the lines, safety, slot recievers and kickers. But running backs have come more into vogue in the last 15 years.
And to stray off-topic for a second, June Jones is a great coach. He did a fantastic job with our starting QB Masoli until he went down with an injury.
The Roughnecks were fun to watch.
You are not kidding!! June Jones was the awesome for the Roughnecks. He gave us an undefeated season (well, whatever season we were allowed to have). I attribute this to his ‘run and shoot’ play philosophy which is so necessary for the 3 down game in the CFL.
He was one of the reasons I decided to give the CFL a look since I enjoy the game of football but I am no fan of the NFL.
Now, I just have to pick a team to follow!
The Cats played Ottawa in 1958 in Philadelphia . Of course the Cats prevailed 24 - 18 to lead the east with a 5-0 record . Ottawa slid to 2 - 3 . The Cats were defending Grey Cup Champions with Bernie Faloney at QB .
My cousin took a train ride from Hamilton to Philly to see the game. Obviously she was a big Cat fan .
In 1961 the Cats played the Buffalo Bills in Hamilton . The Cats beat the Bills 38 - 21 .
Pat Lynch (a big TiCat fan)
Tell you what Pete. Take a thorough look at each team. Delve into their histories, what the names represent, see how the fans enjoy themselves…and then pick the Ti-Cats. lol
OSKEE WEE WEE
OSKEE WAA WAA
HOLY MACKINAW
TIGERS! EAT EM RAW!
Thank you for correcting the year of the game. Was off by quite a bit.
Hey... what's this new CFL thing? It has only been around since the 1860's.