CFL Questions

Now that I can watch most if not all CFL games on ESPN, I've become a real fan. I have not picked a "favorite" team-yet- but am enjoying watching all the teams.
As time goes on I'm sure I will have questions pertaining to the various aspects of the CFL. If you would prefer I not do that on this Forum just let me know, I don't plan to interfere with your Sport and Forum.
One question, I am wondering why the field was set at 110 yards, took a little while to get use to seeing the "C" and two 50 yard lines.

Welcome, glad to have you on board.

I am going to make an educated guess and say that the field was a carry over from the original owners of the Grey Cup which is the Canadian Amateur Rugby Union. I would guess that they simply adapted the rugby field for football.

Welcome Challenger99. Please bring your questions to the Forum. It's always nice to see new fans and where I can, I would be more than happy to help you through our game. Unfortunately, I am not aware of the particular history and/or development of the 110yard feild, but I'm pretty sure someone on the board will be able to help you.

Once again, Welcome to the board and to the CFL family.

:cowboy:

Welcome to the league. It's a great version of the game - better, in my opinion. But then, I was raised on it, so I'm probably a bit biased.

Shouldn't be a problem to post here. There is an "Xs and Os" forum, but it seems to be more about the intricacies, the tactics and strategies, and rule details. And not as many people follow that forum. So the occasional question about the game should be OK.

I think the larger field in the CFL came about because the game was played originally on rugby fields. Because of space limitations in cities, more and more American games were being played on smaller fields. Eventually they were standardized at the smaller size of today. It was this decision, and the corresponding higher difficulty in moving the ball, that resulted in four downs instead of three, and possibly the one fewer player on the field (not totally sure on this last part). For some reason, however, Canadian stadiums didn't seem to run into those same limitations, so stayed rugby sized.

Some more interesting reading, in case you're still questioning some of the different rules.
[url]13th Man
I haven't read the whole thing, so I can't vouch for its accuracy. What I did read looked correct.

Anyway, welcome aboard.

Thank you for the Posts and the welcome to the Forum. I won't jam it with junk.
Little info so you know who your talking to, Challenger 99 refers to Space Shuttle Challenger, 99 was her tail id number, my wife and both worked on the Shuttle Program. I am originally from PA and spent a lot of time in Canada especially the Thousand Islands and the Perth area fishing every summer.
We just returned from Canada after spending two weeks in the Niagara and Perth area. I have been to several CFL games and now really am enjoying seeing the different teams.
I do stand proud with my Canadian neighbors for "Oh Canada", salute the Maple Leaf and the aircraft crews when there is a fly over.

I read once that the different sized fields go back to an early challenge series between Harvard and McGill in one of the first games of tackle football.

Lore suggests the Harvard quad (where the game was played) was smaller than McGill's quad...and the field size stuck.

Might not be true but make for a good story!

Cool, I was lucky enough to see the shuttle Discovery take off, with a Canadian Astronaut (Roberta Bondar) on board.

Welcome aboard challenger. . .Mrs MadJack and I spend a weekend in Perth every April for their maple syrup festival; best small town fair in Ontario, in our opinion. Terrific little town, great people.

Oddly enough though, the extra 10 yards in field length doesn't change the game much, however the extra 12½ yards of field WIDTH changes the game radically. Not to mention the 20 yards deep endzones.

Glad you are enjoying. :thup:

And btw - your favourite team is Saskatchewan. 8)

True, it was the narrower American field that made it more difficult to make a first down in only three downs, so a fourth down was added in 1912.

The deeper end zones also make a big difference, allowing for a more wide open passing game even close to the goal line.

Just say no to Saskatchewan. I’d go with one of the teams close to the places you just visited - Ottawa (closest team to Perth) or Hamilton (closest team to Niagara falls).

The only US comparison to Saskatchewan is Arkansas except they are a little more backwards in Saskatchewan.

You really haven't visited the best of Canada if you haven't been west.

Welcome for sure, Post as often as you like, its free :stuck_out_tongue:

About the field size, it was discussed years ago on here, or on the old Ticat site, I believe, could be wrong, that the Canadian field is 100 meters, which worked out to 110 yards.

I liked to compare it to the American field this way,
U.S. field is up hill for offences, A trench battle

The Canadian field is uphill to the 55 yard line and down hill from there, more strategy as in outflanking etc. like in ww1. We don't waste downs

Just my take on it.

P.S. You should be a Tiger Cat fan because the TiCats Eat em Raw!!!

Except Arkansas doesn’t have a team. :wink:

Saskatchewan Roughriders since 1910. The smallest market (by far) but the fans are everywhere.

The only team in league that has 9 home games in Regina and 1 or 2 more in Calgary every year. :wink:

Saskatchewan: where watermelons are for wearing on your head!

Taylor Field: the modest little slapped together collection of bleachers in the country … that makes the MOST NOISE in the country. Show up on Labour Day, you’ll think you’re on the pad at Canaveral!

Saskatchewan: where all hail the mighty banjo!

Taylor Field: where folks bring their combines to the tailgate.

I cut my finger in the car door the other day and the green soaked through the bandage all day!

Saskatchewan: We aint got much, but damn we got a great football team!

GO GREEN!

Don’t deny it Challenger, you’re one of us! :rockin:

Note that these are the GOOD points about Saskatchewan. Need we say more?

Go ahead … show your stripes … sell your town! :smiley:

Come on everybody make your pitch. :thup: :thup:

(of course, as futile as it is, since he’s already a Rider fan … )

Bacillus, the CFL is an older version of he game. It wasn’t until 30 years after the US that we legalized the forward pass. You should be an Argo fan. If someone from Toronto heard there was an American Arto fanzine. They would get all warm inside and feel secure that Canada and not Britan is Americas girl

American fields could be the same size, but back in the day ,they could not afford to build new stadiums. So they put them in baseball stadiums that could not hold the big field.

Easy one here…

You don’t want to be on the Roughriders bandwagon. There’s no room! It’s jam-packed!

Now the Argonauts bandwagon - hell, you could set up your own condo with all the room we have on that!

:lol: :rockin:

For the poster who said the field was initially 100 metres, this is definitely wrong. Canada never moved the metric system until the mid 1970's after using the British imperial measurement system before then. I remember talk at that time of changing CFL fields to metres as well (note British "metre" spelling, not American "meter"!), but it never really caught any traction.

Tons of more information at these websites:

[url=http://www.sportsknowhow.com/football/field-dimensions/canadian-cfl-football-field-dimensions.html]http://www.sportsknowhow.com/football/f ... sions.html[/url] [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_American_and_Canadian_football]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... n_football[/url] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_football