Canadian football

• 1. Origins And Evolution

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  The first documented football match in Canada took place on the 9th of November 1861 at University College of the University of Toronto. Sir William Mulock participated in that practice game before a club formed shortly afterward with unclear rules. A written account from the 15th of October 1862 describes a contest between the First Battalion Grenadier Guards and the Second Battalion Scots Fusilier Guards on Montreal Cricket Grounds. The Grenadier Guards won that early encounter three goals to two rouges. F. Barlow Cumberland, Frederick A. Bethune, and Christopher Gwynn devised new rules based on rugby football at Trinity College in 1864. The Hamilton Football Club emerged on the 3rd of November 1869 while the Montreal Football Club appeared on the 8th of April 1872. The Toronto Argonaut Football Club formed on the 4th of October 1873 and remains the only one of those original clubs still operating today. McGill University popularized this rugby-football version before challenging Harvard University to a series in 1874 using hybrid English rugby rules. The Foot Ball Association of Canada organized itself on the 24th of March 1873 followed by the Canadian Rugby Football Union founded the 12th of June 1880. Teams from Ontario and Quebec joined the CRFU which reorganized into an umbrella organization called the Canadian Rugby Union in 1891. The immediate forerunner to the modern league established itself in 1956 when the IRFU and WIFU formed the Canadian Football Council. That council left the CRU in 1958 to become the Canadian Football League.

• 2. League Structure And History

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  The Grey Cup was established in 1909 after Albert Grey, 4th Earl Governor General of Canada donated it as the championship trophy. Initially an amateur competition the event eventually became dominated by professional teams during the 1940s and early 1950s. The ORFU withdrew from competition after the 1954 season ushering in the modern era of Canadian professional football. The CFL's controversial South Division attempted to place teams in the United States playing under Canadian rules starting in 1995. This expansion effort aborted after three years due to financial losses and a lack of proper venues. The Baltimore Stallions won the 83rd Grey Cup as the most successful American team during that brief period. Continuing financial losses combined with a pervasive belief that American teams were pawns for revenue prompted the end of play on the US side of the border. The return of the NFL to Baltimore sealed the fate of the American experiment. Atlantic Canada hosted Touchdown Atlantic regular season games in Nova Scotia in 2005 and New Brunswick in 2010, 2011, and 2013. Prince Edward Island has never hosted a CFL game while Newfoundland and Labrador became the last province to establish minor league football in 2013. Northern Canada territories have yet to host any college or CFL games.

• 3. Field Dimensions And Equipment

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  The Canadian football field measures 110 yards long and 65 yards wide within which goal areas are 20 yards deep. Weighted pylons mark the inside corner intersections of goal lines and end lines. Goalposts consist of two uprights joined by an eight-foot crossbar positioned ten feet above the goal line. Higher-calibre competitions prefer the tuning-fork design supported by a single curved post behind the goal line. White sidelines mark the sides of the field while yard lines appear every five yards from the goal line. Prior to the early 1980s arrows did not exist and all yard lines carried distance markers including the goal line itself marked with zero or double zero. Modern stadiums typically number only multiples of ten with the goal line sometimes marked G. The center fifty-five-yard line usually displays C or rarely 55. Hash marks painted parallel to yardage lines sit at fifteen yards apart under amateur rules but thirty-three yards apart in the CFL. Fields with surrounding running tracks often cut off end zone corners as seen at Molson Stadium and many universities. Until 1986 end zones measured twenty-four yards deep giving the field an overall length of one hundred forty-eight yards. Vancouver's BC Place opened in 1983 featuring the shorter twenty-yard end zone first. Toronto's BMO Field measures eighteen yards for its end zones instead of the standard twenty. Beginning in 2027 the playing field will shorten from 110 to 100 yards and end zones from 20 to 15 yards.

• 4. Gameplay Mechanics And Rules

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  Teams advance across the field through quick distinct plays involving possession of a brown prolate spheroid ball with two one-inch white stripes. Play begins at the start of each half with one team place-kicking the ball from its own 35-yard line in the CFL. The player who recovers the ball may run while holding it or laterally throw to a teammate. A forward pass must be made from behind the line of scrimmage with only one allowed per play. The offence must advance the ball at least ten yards towards opponents' goal line within three downs or forfeit possession. Once ten yards gained the offence receives another set of three downs rather than four as in American football. Downs do not accumulate if a team completes ten yards on their first play they lose the other two downs immediately. If a team fails to gain ten yards in two downs they usually punt on third down or attempt a field goal depending on position. Forward passes are subject to restrictions requiring them to go toward an eligible receiver or ten yards after the line of scrimmage. Each play constitutes a down where the offence must gain ten yards within three attempts or turn over the ball. The ball changes possession when the defence scores a safety bringing the ball down in the offence's own end zone worth two points. Incomplete forward passes result in the end of the play and are not returnable by either team. Fumbles allow recovery by either team but if a fumble goes out of bounds the last touching team gets possession.

• 5. Organizational Hierarchy

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  The top league is the professional nine-team Canadian Football League playing its regular season beginning in June. Playoffs for the Grey Cup complete by late November in cities like Edmonton Winnipeg Calgary and Regina. Amateur football governed by Football Canada includes 27 university teams playing in four conferences under U Sports auspices. The U Sports champion receives the Vanier Cup while junior football features 19 teams in three conferences competing for the Canadian Bowl. The Quebec Junior Football League includes Ontario and Quebec teams battling for the Manson Cup. Semi-professional leagues have grown in popularity with the Alberta Football League becoming especially popular recently. The Northern Football Conference formed in Ontario in 1954 surged for former college players not continuing to professional ranks. The Ontario champion plays against the Alberta champion for the National Championship under the Canadian Major Football League. Women's football gained attention starting with the Maritime Women's Football League operations in 2004. The largest women's league is the Western Women's Canadian Football League. The Canadian Football Hall of Fame resides in Hamilton, Ontario honoring the sport's history and legends.

• 6. International Recognition And Weather Protocols

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  On the 13th of February 2023 the International Federation of American Football and Football Canada announced a joint statement accepting the Canadian Amateur Football Rulebook for international play. This acceptance does not substitute for world championships or qualification but opens doors for friendlies and tournaments in Canada. Jim Mullin president of Football Canada stated this move allows communities to utilize infrastructure invested from coast to coast. In the CFL a game must delay if lightning strikes within ten kilometers of the stadium or other severe weather conditions occur. A regular season game stopped after one hour and half of the third quarter completed stands as final on the 9th of August 2019 during a Saskatchewan-Montreal match ending 26-23. Playoff or Grey Cup games may stop up to three hours then resume the following day at the point where they left off. If a playoff or Grey Cup game stops after three hours it terminates for that day entirely. Regular-season games stopped for three hours award a win to the leading team by specific margins depending on the quarter. Those margins are 21 points in the first quarter 17 in the second and 13 in the third. Neither team leading by those amounts results in a tie unless teams schedule another meeting later in the season. Stopped games decided by two-possession shootouts before the next scheduled game use the original score to determine starting yard lines.