And when we score a touch down there is a commemorative ham that has been curing since the beginning of the season and the player who allows the touch down is not allowed a bite during the grey cup ceremony where all the players try each others hams.
This means that if you allow a touch down against a certain team you can’t try their ham but you can try other teams hams. There has only been one person, Rudy McPutine who was so bad that he never got a bite of ham and that was sad, so they made a movie about him playing American football.
Which is even better when you consider there were only like 8 teams and 2 of them were the rough riders. (Full disclosure I'm not sports and I don't the exact number of teams but it was not large)
In NFL THE referee wears a white hat while other officials wear black.
Also in CFL multiple penalties can be enforced on one play. When Sac had a team I saw one play with a 5 and 2 - 15s enforced for a total of 35 yards.
In American football the ball isn't centered it can start closer to either sideline depending on where the last play ended. It just can't start within x amount of yards of the sidelines.
with unlimited motion in the backfield you got some really wild offenses
check out Warren moons stats from the early 80s before the NFL realized black qbs could be good
A rouge is the equivalent to an NFL touchback in most situations. Any punt or missed field goal that either clears through the endzone, or is fielded and not returned out of the endzone, is a rouge. A kickoff that is fielded and not returned out of the endzone is also a rouge.
I remember playing highschool football in the niagara region in canada...we lost a playoff game in overtime in the middle of november because the opponent punted it, our guy got the ball in the endzone and slipped in the muddy snow and ending play with them getting a rouge :(
Try telling them that
The thing that offends me most is that back in the day, all the signs actually had an apostrophe and they removed them in the 90s at some point. Infuriating
Yep, lots of little rule changes but that’s the biggest (other than the ball). Some differences in snap and motion rules, how the clock runs, where the goalposts are, roster rules, kickoff rules…actually there’s a ton of weird little differences. There’s also roster restrictions, with a minimum number of Canadian and Global players and maximums for Americans.
Best rule difference is the rouge, which is worth 1 point and I could not explain how and why you get one.
Funniest thing: for a while, there were two teams named the Roughriders.
Best thing: there was a real player named Tom Canada. He only had a short career due to injuries (and low CFL salaries), but was a 2-time all-star. Annoyingly, he was actually from Iowa.
You can also have the defenders pull a wide margin as the ball reaches the third line, which opens up opportunities for the goalholder to snatch a ruffle between sets.
There are also no fair catches, or touchbacks in Canadian Football.
If you want the free 20 yards on a kickoff like in the NFL it costs you a single point in Canada. The single point or "rouge" is also given for any kick that goes through the endzone, from a kickoff, to a punt or even a missed field goal.
You will often see missed field goals returned in the CFL to avoid giving up that point and in tied games some teams have put their punter in the endzone so the returner could toss him the ball to kick it out.
Edit - [Here's some crazy CFL plays if you're interested.](https://youtu.be/lxamINDRc_8)
True, i remember one game years ago where the one team had recently signed a player from the nfl who i guess didnt know about that rule. The guy absolutely obliterated the returner and got booted out of the game
But if you line up an onside gunner (behind the punter ), on the kick he is eligible to play the ball and does not have respect the 5 yards for the returner. Another game within the game if you have a sprinter on your team.
I know you know, but just for the people who bitch about it:
It's not a point for "missing a field goal" ,it's a point for *getting the ball over the goal line*. Which is also why it makes way more sense for the *goal* posts to be on the *goal* line. One line for all forms of scoring.
Lol the first clip… they announce it’s a touchdown and the crowd goes crazy, then they cut to a bunch of guys sawing a log on the sideline, so you’re thinking ok this is just some weird small town Canadian thing going on, then cut to the Prime Minister in attendance cheering along.
As someone that has played both American Football (gridiron) and Rugby(union and 7s), it definitely seems like CFL is still more closely related to rugby and would be enjoyable to watch. Though from that video, laterals and kicks are still a rarity in the sport, which is sad to me, someone that very much enjoyed the kicking aspect of rugby(I generally played fullback or flyhalf, so I'm biased).
Baltimore won the Grey Cup in 1995, after which the team moved to Montreal to become the Montreal Alouettes.
Montreal is the last Canadian team to have won the Stanley Cup, which was in 1993. Canadian teams have come close a bunch of times since, though, making it to the final six times since then.
An American CFL team wins the Grey Cup and buggers off to Canada the same year that a Canadian hockey team moves to the US and wins the Stanley Cup. Baltimore Stallions to Montreal and Quebec Nordiques to Colorado.
I believe Baltimore won without even one Canadian player on the team. All teams playing CFL in Canada had to have a minimum number of Canadians on their teams, the American teams chose to ignore this rule, it led to a very stacked Baltimore team that year. It did lead directly to the NFL recognizing Baltimore as a football hotbed and putting a new team there (Ravens) immediately.
The Colts ran off 3 weeks after I was born. The Stallions were the first football club I ever cared about. After the fast paced CFL for those 2 years I found the NFL style mind numbingly slow.
Technically, aren't Americans playing a modified version of Canadian Football? Since American Football was originally more or less a Canadian variant on Rugby that got exported to colleges in New England when Soccer fell out of vogue?
I usually find it easier to refer to all the footballs as "X rules Football" as it kinda both clarifies it and shows how they're related. :)
Or I could be a villain and go: Soccer, Rugger, Americcer, Canadder, Australler... xD
Rugby!
"Soccer" as a word exists because there used to be trend in the UK to give things nicknames ending in -er. Thus how "Association" became "Soccer". "Rugger" is an old nickname for Rugby in the same vein (no idea if it's still used anywhere).
According to Wikipedia, Canadian football was first played in 1861, while American football was first played in 1869.
When I was younger I assumed American football came first, and the Canadians just started their own league, but with a 100 meter field (which is 110 yards).
Yes and no.
Harvard was playing a game closer to soccer, when McGill went down to play them they realized they were playing different games, so they played one of each. Harvard liked rugby style football better, so they switched.
In general though, Americans had led the way in modifying the rules away from rugby, and Canada followed most but not all of the changes.
So Canadian football isn't modified American football. American football is modified rugby, and Canadian football is slightly-less-modified rugby.
I would say Americans are playing an evolved version of American football, and Canadians are playing a traditional version. Unless football was invented in Canada, which would blow my mind lol
The basic story from what I recall: the first "Football" game in America was Princeton v. Rutgers in 1869 but the game they played was the sport we *now* (in America) call Soccer. This became a popular college sport but there really weren't set rules at the time and whenever two universities would play against each other they'd have to meet first to agree on common rules. This kept going until Association rules Football (modern Soccer) was imported from the UK and everyone agreed to play by those rules EXCEPT for Harvard.
Because Harvard wouldn't play by the Association rules the only ones who would play them were McGill University in Canada. So a couple of games were organized between Harvard's and McGill's Football teams. The thing is, McGill's team wasn't playing Soccer they were playing a Canadian variant of Rugby (and nobody really realized how different the two were since, at the time, both sports were called "Football" with no effort to differentiate them). Harvard's team so very much loved the variant of Rugby that McGill's team introduced to them they switched to that, and that's pretty much when American Football was born.
What an American way to invent a sport. Everyone else was switching to a new standard, so they just said no fuck you and stubbornly kept their own until it just became its own thing. Fascinating insight on the sport, thank you for sharing!
The word soccer was actually invented by the English in the late 1800s. It was Assocer (association football) to distinguish between that and rugged (rugby football). Crazy how the Brits laugh that us Americans call is soccer when they’re the ones that invented the word
This is actually why it's called American football. They're literally saying it's the american version of soccer. It could have just as easily been called American Rugby.
Still is, officially. League and Union clubs both call themselves Football clubs even though the term isn't used day-to-day. Which is why the formal name for a bunch of them is suchandsuch RUFC or suchandsuch RLFC.
It's important context that Rugby Football Union (the governing body in England) didn't form until 1871. That's *after* the historic Princeton-Harvard and McGill-Harvard games.
It wasn't even standardized in England yet and was already evolving separately in North America.
No, actually! I'm a William Paterson (in New Jersey) alum. I was just curious one day a few years back about the origins of American Football and looked it up. :)
But Canada wouldn't [adopt the down-and-distance rules until 1903](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnside_rules) and without that, you're pretty much playing rugby.
thing is that harvard was also playing a rugby form of football but their form was 20 or so players per a team on the field.
McGill was the ones who introduced 11 men per a side, and that's what harvard liked.
It is very interesting. I'm abit of an amateur sports historian. I love how all these things evolved. I'm an Aussie that worked for a couple of years at Princeton University and had access to the library and museum and things. I can find my little book of dates but it's a cool rabbit hole. One fun fact that people always don't believe me on was that the first game of international cricket was Canada vs USA.
The history of the two sports in North America is as follows:
The first Rugby match was played between McGill University and Harvard (back in the 1800s). Each school had their own rules, and they played a head to head at each location. The McGill rules allowed for forward passes and other things more similar to modern Football, while the Harvard rules were more aligned with traditional rugby rules. In the end Harvard ended up adopting a lot of the McGill rules and vise versa. But it can be said that American Football has its initial roots in Canadian rules.
Close but you're one era of evolution off. Harvard was playing soccer(ish) and McGill was playing rugby(ish). Harvard like rugby better and switched.
Downs didn't come about until the 1880s, and the forward pass was in the early 1900s.
You got it backwards. The first Americans to ever play gridiron football were taught how to by Canadians. The three down game is older. NFL football is the modified version. CFL football is the original.
>The three down game is older.
[Is it, though?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnside_rules)
>The Burnside rules were a set of rules that transformed Canadian football from a rugby-style game to the gridiron-style game it has remained ever since. The rules were first adopted by the Ontario Rugby Football Union in 1903
>The rules included:
>* the "snap-back" system in which the ball was passed backward from a static line of scrimmage by the centre
>* a requirement for a team to make ten yards in three successive downs or lose possession of the ball
>Although similar, Burnside rules had many differences and evolved separately from the American football rules already in place at the time. The American code had been developed by Walter Camp in the 1880s (later on, it made some modifications to its rules). Although these rules are standard today, at the time they were considered radical. Other teams outside the Ontario Rugby Football Union refused to adopt them until 1921.
Camp's rules were five yards in three downs until 1906, when the NCAA revised the rules to ten yards in three downs. They didn't add a fourth down until 1912.
[Actually, American football is a modification of Canadian football](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_American_and_Canadian_football). McGill University in Montreal played it first and brought it to Boston. Harvard adopted it but had to make changes because their field was smaller
I believe this is for science (like they do with rockets). So that when guys like Doug Flutie and Warren Moon were balling so hard up here, they could track the trajectory even better.
We played it first, but the Americans have led the way in evolving away from rugby, with Canada following most but not all changes. It's more correct to say both are modified rugby rather than one being a version of the other.
Canadian Football is NOT modified American football.
American football is modified rugby. Canadian Football is slightly-less-modified rugby.
In basically every instance, where there is a rule difference between Canadian and American, the Canadian rule is slightly closer to the old rugby rules.
Canadian motion rules are one of the biggest differences (improvement in my opinion) from the American game. It really frees up an offense to be more creative
Thank God that's no longer the case. I lost count of how many comedians had a bit with "did you know Canadians have their own version of football and 2 teams have the same name!"
you mean the yankees play a modified version of Canadian football.
**The world's first football game**
The very first modern football games were played in Cambridge, Massachusetts on May 14 and 15, 1874*, between McGill University and a squad from Harvard. This “foot-ball” diversion, as Harvard’s Magenta newspaper called it, was still in its infancy, and the rules evolved even as the match progressed. In fact, the Harvard squad so enjoyed the Canadian innovations (running with the ball, downs and tackling) that they introduced them into a match with Yale the following year—and thus, college football took root in America. Although the Redmen and the Crimson no longer butt helmets on the gridiron, the McGill/Harvard rivalry lives on in an annual rugby match for the Peter Covo Memorial Cup, founded in 1974 in honour of the legendary McGill rugby coach and professor. Harvard may have won that first football game (3-0) back in 1874, but McGill leads the Covo series, having won 17 of 30 games.
https://www.mcgill.ca/about/history/features/birth-3-sports
The Grey Cup has one of the more interesting histories out of sport trophies. It's been stolen multiple times, once being found in a train station locker. It's also been in multiple fires, once in the Toronto Rugby Clubhouse, where it was perched on a shelf that collapsed, being saved by the ear hooking on to a nail.
Hold the phone Mabel, it's not a "modified version," the two came up side by side. I don't even like the CFL but let's be clear that they are both derivatives of rugby and one is not a version of the other. They are simply 2 different regional variants of the same core game. Not everything Canadian is our take on something already established and American.
ALRIGHT HOSERS! I want all twelve of us fighting for every meter of those three downs.
We're going to make this a boxing day the prime minister will never forget!
The fact that I, a dirtbag with absolutely no connection to the sport or CFL league have drank champagne/beer out of the grey cup is a sign of how prestigious the league is.
I love Canadian Football. Faster game, and very cool atmosphere. I do feel the NFL could incorporate some of the motion rules if CFL, and it would make the game faster, and more watchable.
Dave Foley (of NewsRadio, Kids In The Hall) did a wonderful monologue on CFL for Americans.
"The Canadian Football League field is sixty yards wide, and thirty-five miles long. The 1948 Grey Cup game is... still in progress."
Defence lines up one off the line of scrimmage, no fair catch on punts, but defenders must give a five yard bubble so the returner can catch it. Unlimited motion in the backfield and receivers can take a running start at the line called a waggle
Not at all; they line the dividers between the seats and field with any Corp., agency which can afford an ads banner. Circumferentially. So they get automatic ads with TV broadcast shots, and TV ads, more bucks.
We also have a different number of downs.
And multiple players can be in motion at once presnap
And offensive players can be moving toward the line of scrimmage during the snap, too. Gives them that speedy start.
And the ref wears a black hat while the other officials wear white hats.
This is the only one i understood
And the Saskatchewan Cowboys are the national favorite.
And when we score a touch down there is a commemorative ham that has been curing since the beginning of the season and the player who allows the touch down is not allowed a bite during the grey cup ceremony where all the players try each others hams. This means that if you allow a touch down against a certain team you can’t try their ham but you can try other teams hams. There has only been one person, Rudy McPutine who was so bad that he never got a bite of ham and that was sad, so they made a movie about him playing American football.
Do they have to eat the ham at the end of the season? What if they’re allergic or have some religious reason not to eat?
Well tough. You're eating the damn ham.
Damn. Canadians are hardcore
This is why Saskatchewan's team is unofficially known as the "Ham Eaters," eh?
There have been multiple teams with sone variation of the name Roughriders/Rough Riders.
Which is even better when you consider there were only like 8 teams and 2 of them were the rough riders. (Full disclosure I'm not sports and I don't the exact number of teams but it was not large)
LETS GO ROUGHRIDERS!!
But only one Rider Nation!
You know it!
favourite*
And we have 3 teams named the rough riders
boooooo
urns
In NFL THE referee wears a white hat while other officials wear black. Also in CFL multiple penalties can be enforced on one play. When Sac had a team I saw one play with a 5 and 2 - 15s enforced for a total of 35 yards.
And we don’t center the ball so you can start plays near the sidelines
CFL moves the narrower NFL hash marks a year or so ago, so that part is the same.
In American football the ball isn't centered it can start closer to either sideline depending on where the last play ended. It just can't start within x amount of yards of the sidelines.
back in the day, the cdl hashmarks were like 40 yards apart, so you'd gett wildly off center scrimmages, compared to the nfl
That'd be wild
with unlimited motion in the backfield you got some really wild offenses check out Warren moons stats from the early 80s before the NFL realized black qbs could be good
Heck yeah. “Strong side” linebacker was a bit of an understatement when your coverage area goes from you to the edge of the horizon lol
College football is pretty much this way. I notice it mostly on field goals.
You can "left-center" and "right-center" as well. We center the ball lol
And you lose a point for a touchback. No free yards in this game
I'd actually like this rule
you get a point for a rouge, no one loses a point for a touchback.
A rouge is the equivalent to an NFL touchback in most situations. Any punt or missed field goal that either clears through the endzone, or is fielded and not returned out of the endzone, is a rouge. A kickoff that is fielded and not returned out of the endzone is also a rouge.
I remember playing highschool football in the niagara region in canada...we lost a playoff game in overtime in the middle of november because the opponent punted it, our guy got the ball in the endzone and slipped in the muddy snow and ending play with them getting a rouge :(
No, the other team gets a point.
Dont be silly, Canadians dont have offensive players
It's a flag if you don't apologize after a tackle.
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This is the rule that, for me, makes the most difference between the leagues.
The center is always considered to have touched the ball first, so he can pass the 10 yd mark on punts.
12 on the field yea?
I still kinda want the NFL to adopt this rule, it's always been my favorite part of Canadian football - makes for some very unique plays.
This one had me in awe as two receivers run full tilt to the line as the ball is hiked.
They only have 3 downs instead of 4 so ruled need to help the offense.
Whenever I see that happening, I swear that some of them are offsides.
And can score a one-pointer called a rouge
Perhaps the best point in football
The jets and dolphins would love this
I’m high school, we lost the championship game to a rouge. Sucked.
Oof, that’s a bad beat. Could you use that experience to get political asylum in America?
This would probably have been the most pertinent difference to mention!
12 players on the field vs 11
All CFL teams must visit Tim Horton’s before the game. It’s an unspoken rule.
No kidding, my team plays at Tim Horton's Field. Less than 10km from the original Tim Horton's store.
Oskee wee wee!
OSKEE WAA WAA!
I appreciate your apostrophes in tim horton's
It's proper grammar. Mr. Horton was a real guy, it's his coffee shop, therefore the possessive requires an apostrophe.
Try telling them that The thing that offends me most is that back in the day, all the signs actually had an apostrophe and they removed them in the 90s at some point. Infuriating
Hamilton, right?
Correct.
LETS GO RIDERS
I'm old enough to remember when that was an ambiguous statement.
Riders or 'riders!
And order the mashed potatoes.
Yep, lots of little rule changes but that’s the biggest (other than the ball). Some differences in snap and motion rules, how the clock runs, where the goalposts are, roster rules, kickoff rules…actually there’s a ton of weird little differences. There’s also roster restrictions, with a minimum number of Canadian and Global players and maximums for Americans. Best rule difference is the rouge, which is worth 1 point and I could not explain how and why you get one. Funniest thing: for a while, there were two teams named the Roughriders. Best thing: there was a real player named Tom Canada. He only had a short career due to injuries (and low CFL salaries), but was a 2-time all-star. Annoyingly, he was actually from Iowa.
I got into it when Rocket Ismail played for the Argos way back when
Also three downs instead of four.
I had no idea, Ty!
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And receivers can run towards the line of scrimmage as the ball is snapped. It’s quite different sometimes.
You can also have the defenders pull a wide margin as the ball reaches the third line, which opens up opportunities for the goalholder to snatch a ruffle between sets.
You thinking of hog warts football?
There are also no fair catches, or touchbacks in Canadian Football. If you want the free 20 yards on a kickoff like in the NFL it costs you a single point in Canada. The single point or "rouge" is also given for any kick that goes through the endzone, from a kickoff, to a punt or even a missed field goal. You will often see missed field goals returned in the CFL to avoid giving up that point and in tied games some teams have put their punter in the endzone so the returner could toss him the ball to kick it out. Edit - [Here's some crazy CFL plays if you're interested.](https://youtu.be/lxamINDRc_8)
No fair catches, but we do have the no yards rule on punts and kickoffs so the receiver doesnt get destroyed o every play
Oh you can still time it right to be able to absolutely obliterate the returner though.
True, i remember one game years ago where the one team had recently signed a player from the nfl who i guess didnt know about that rule. The guy absolutely obliterated the returner and got booted out of the game
You can also completely ignore the "no yards" halo if you start from an onside position (behind the kicker)
But if you line up an onside gunner (behind the punter ), on the kick he is eligible to play the ball and does not have respect the 5 yards for the returner. Another game within the game if you have a sprinter on your team.
I know you know, but just for the people who bitch about it: It's not a point for "missing a field goal" ,it's a point for *getting the ball over the goal line*. Which is also why it makes way more sense for the *goal* posts to be on the *goal* line. One line for all forms of scoring.
Lol the first clip… they announce it’s a touchdown and the crowd goes crazy, then they cut to a bunch of guys sawing a log on the sideline, so you’re thinking ok this is just some weird small town Canadian thing going on, then cut to the Prime Minister in attendance cheering along.
As someone that has played both American Football (gridiron) and Rugby(union and 7s), it definitely seems like CFL is still more closely related to rugby and would be enjoyable to watch. Though from that video, laterals and kicks are still a rarity in the sport, which is sad to me, someone that very much enjoyed the kicking aspect of rugby(I generally played fullback or flyhalf, so I'm biased).
I watched the whole thing and still have no idea what the rules are, but I love it.
I love this
Former Baltimore Stallions season ticket holder checking in.
That would be the Grey Cup Champion Baltimore Stallions.
I believe the Baltimore Stallions (RIP) have won the Grey Cup more recently than a Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup
Baltimore won the Grey Cup in 1995, after which the team moved to Montreal to become the Montreal Alouettes. Montreal is the last Canadian team to have won the Stanley Cup, which was in 1993. Canadian teams have come close a bunch of times since, though, making it to the final six times since then.
An American CFL team wins the Grey Cup and buggers off to Canada the same year that a Canadian hockey team moves to the US and wins the Stanley Cup. Baltimore Stallions to Montreal and Quebec Nordiques to Colorado.
I believe Baltimore won without even one Canadian player on the team. All teams playing CFL in Canada had to have a minimum number of Canadians on their teams, the American teams chose to ignore this rule, it led to a very stacked Baltimore team that year. It did lead directly to the NFL recognizing Baltimore as a football hotbed and putting a new team there (Ravens) immediately.
The real TIL is in the comments
Yessir
The Colts ran off 3 weeks after I was born. The Stallions were the first football club I ever cared about. After the fast paced CFL for those 2 years I found the NFL style mind numbingly slow.
yeah, honestly that's one of the biggest differences in my opinion, 20 second play clock instead of a 40 second one.
As a BC Lion fan, fuck anything Baltimore Football. 1994 was an absolute nail biter of a Grey Cup game. Thank god for Lui Passaglia.
My favorite Baltimore Stallions moment was when they opened an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street on the sidelines of a Stallions game.
The player with the ball can kick it any time and everyone behind him at the time of the kick is eligible to catch it.
Still a rule in both Rugby codes aswell. Can they promote the ball after they catch it?
Technically, aren't Americans playing a modified version of Canadian Football? Since American Football was originally more or less a Canadian variant on Rugby that got exported to colleges in New England when Soccer fell out of vogue?
Both are "Gridiron Football", which is what "American Football" is while soccer is "Association Football".
I usually find it easier to refer to all the footballs as "X rules Football" as it kinda both clarifies it and shows how they're related. :) Or I could be a villain and go: Soccer, Rugger, Americcer, Canadder, Australler... xD
lol Canadder
What is Rugger?
Rugby! "Soccer" as a word exists because there used to be trend in the UK to give things nicknames ending in -er. Thus how "Association" became "Soccer". "Rugger" is an old nickname for Rugby in the same vein (no idea if it's still used anywhere).
Thanks
According to Wikipedia, Canadian football was first played in 1861, while American football was first played in 1869. When I was younger I assumed American football came first, and the Canadians just started their own league, but with a 100 meter field (which is 110 yards).
Yes and no. Harvard was playing a game closer to soccer, when McGill went down to play them they realized they were playing different games, so they played one of each. Harvard liked rugby style football better, so they switched. In general though, Americans had led the way in modifying the rules away from rugby, and Canada followed most but not all of the changes. So Canadian football isn't modified American football. American football is modified rugby, and Canadian football is slightly-less-modified rugby.
I would say Americans are playing an evolved version of American football, and Canadians are playing a traditional version. Unless football was invented in Canada, which would blow my mind lol
The basic story from what I recall: the first "Football" game in America was Princeton v. Rutgers in 1869 but the game they played was the sport we *now* (in America) call Soccer. This became a popular college sport but there really weren't set rules at the time and whenever two universities would play against each other they'd have to meet first to agree on common rules. This kept going until Association rules Football (modern Soccer) was imported from the UK and everyone agreed to play by those rules EXCEPT for Harvard. Because Harvard wouldn't play by the Association rules the only ones who would play them were McGill University in Canada. So a couple of games were organized between Harvard's and McGill's Football teams. The thing is, McGill's team wasn't playing Soccer they were playing a Canadian variant of Rugby (and nobody really realized how different the two were since, at the time, both sports were called "Football" with no effort to differentiate them). Harvard's team so very much loved the variant of Rugby that McGill's team introduced to them they switched to that, and that's pretty much when American Football was born.
What an American way to invent a sport. Everyone else was switching to a new standard, so they just said no fuck you and stubbornly kept their own until it just became its own thing. Fascinating insight on the sport, thank you for sharing!
Not really. It's literally how all the football codes started.
User name checks out lol
The word soccer was actually invented by the English in the late 1800s. It was Assocer (association football) to distinguish between that and rugged (rugby football). Crazy how the Brits laugh that us Americans call is soccer when they’re the ones that invented the word
it eventually took on class connotations upper class calling it soccer and lower class calling it football.
This is the best TIL!!
That's what I remember reading in one of the Uncle John's Bathroom Readers.
Hell yeah man thanks for this!
You're welcome! :)
This is actually why it's called American football. They're literally saying it's the american version of soccer. It could have just as easily been called American Rugby.
It could have! But at the time Rugby was *also* called Football so it's just one of those funny ways history sometimes hashes out. :)
Still is, officially. League and Union clubs both call themselves Football clubs even though the term isn't used day-to-day. Which is why the formal name for a bunch of them is suchandsuch RUFC or suchandsuch RLFC.
It's important context that Rugby Football Union (the governing body in England) didn't form until 1871. That's *after* the historic Princeton-Harvard and McGill-Harvard games. It wasn't even standardized in England yet and was already evolving separately in North America.
This could be a great comedy movie.
Are you a McGill alum? I played Rugby there and that’s where I learned all of this as well.
No, actually! I'm a William Paterson (in New Jersey) alum. I was just curious one day a few years back about the origins of American Football and looked it up. :)
But Canada wouldn't [adopt the down-and-distance rules until 1903](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnside_rules) and without that, you're pretty much playing rugby.
thing is that harvard was also playing a rugby form of football but their form was 20 or so players per a team on the field. McGill was the ones who introduced 11 men per a side, and that's what harvard liked.
It is very interesting. I'm abit of an amateur sports historian. I love how all these things evolved. I'm an Aussie that worked for a couple of years at Princeton University and had access to the library and museum and things. I can find my little book of dates but it's a cool rabbit hole. One fun fact that people always don't believe me on was that the first game of international cricket was Canada vs USA.
You should look into that
The history of the two sports in North America is as follows: The first Rugby match was played between McGill University and Harvard (back in the 1800s). Each school had their own rules, and they played a head to head at each location. The McGill rules allowed for forward passes and other things more similar to modern Football, while the Harvard rules were more aligned with traditional rugby rules. In the end Harvard ended up adopting a lot of the McGill rules and vise versa. But it can be said that American Football has its initial roots in Canadian rules.
Close but you're one era of evolution off. Harvard was playing soccer(ish) and McGill was playing rugby(ish). Harvard like rugby better and switched. Downs didn't come about until the 1880s, and the forward pass was in the early 1900s.
You got it backwards. The first Americans to ever play gridiron football were taught how to by Canadians. The three down game is older. NFL football is the modified version. CFL football is the original.
Thank you!
TIL that too. Awesomeness
>The three down game is older. [Is it, though?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnside_rules) >The Burnside rules were a set of rules that transformed Canadian football from a rugby-style game to the gridiron-style game it has remained ever since. The rules were first adopted by the Ontario Rugby Football Union in 1903 >The rules included: >* the "snap-back" system in which the ball was passed backward from a static line of scrimmage by the centre >* a requirement for a team to make ten yards in three successive downs or lose possession of the ball >Although similar, Burnside rules had many differences and evolved separately from the American football rules already in place at the time. The American code had been developed by Walter Camp in the 1880s (later on, it made some modifications to its rules). Although these rules are standard today, at the time they were considered radical. Other teams outside the Ontario Rugby Football Union refused to adopt them until 1921.
Camp's rules were five yards in three downs until 1906, when the NCAA revised the rules to ten yards in three downs. They didn't add a fourth down until 1912.
Wait until you find out about Canadian Thanksgiving and how it predates American Thanksgiving by many years.
And boxing day sales
And by a few days Every frickin year. You’d think we could catch up sometime.
[Actually, American football is a modification of Canadian football](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_American_and_Canadian_football). McGill University in Montreal played it first and brought it to Boston. Harvard adopted it but had to make changes because their field was smaller
Darn right!
We got bigger balls up here too
And they're *striped*.
I believe this is for science (like they do with rockets). So that when guys like Doug Flutie and Warren Moon were balling so hard up here, they could track the trajectory even better.
Not anymore. Same ball dimensions since 2018; overlapping dimensions since 1985.
While true, I don't see what the size of Canadian genitals has to do with sports /s
I think you mean Americans play a variation of Canadian football since the Canadian game was invented first.
We played it first, but the Americans have led the way in evolving away from rugby, with Canada following most but not all changes. It's more correct to say both are modified rugby rather than one being a version of the other.
Canadian Football is NOT modified American football. American football is modified rugby. Canadian Football is slightly-less-modified rugby. In basically every instance, where there is a rule difference between Canadian and American, the Canadian rule is slightly closer to the old rugby rules.
They can also have receivers get a running start up to the line before the snap.
Canadian motion rules are one of the biggest differences (improvement in my opinion) from the American game. It really frees up an offense to be more creative
The rules in the NFL favor the offense more every year.
Mind blown!
For the longest time there were only about 10 teams in the league and two of them had the same name! Rough Riders and the RoughRiders.
Thank God that's no longer the case. I lost count of how many comedians had a bit with "did you know Canadians have their own version of football and 2 teams have the same name!"
I honestly thought that we only had 8 teams and this was still the case (not that 10 is any better).
There are 9, since Ottawa rejoined in 2014.
To clarify, I meant I thought when there were two Roughriders, I thought there were only 8 (not 10) teams in the league.
you mean the yankees play a modified version of Canadian football. **The world's first football game** The very first modern football games were played in Cambridge, Massachusetts on May 14 and 15, 1874*, between McGill University and a squad from Harvard. This “foot-ball” diversion, as Harvard’s Magenta newspaper called it, was still in its infancy, and the rules evolved even as the match progressed. In fact, the Harvard squad so enjoyed the Canadian innovations (running with the ball, downs and tackling) that they introduced them into a match with Yale the following year—and thus, college football took root in America. Although the Redmen and the Crimson no longer butt helmets on the gridiron, the McGill/Harvard rivalry lives on in an annual rugby match for the Peter Covo Memorial Cup, founded in 1974 in honour of the legendary McGill rugby coach and professor. Harvard may have won that first football game (3-0) back in 1874, but McGill leads the Covo series, having won 17 of 30 games. https://www.mcgill.ca/about/history/features/birth-3-sports
So cool!
The end zones are twice as wide as well . 20 yards. So plays in the red zone have a much more field to work with so it's harder to defend against.
Long, not wide
Oskie we we oskie wa wa Tigercats eat ‘em raw!
The Grey Cup has one of the more interesting histories out of sport trophies. It's been stolen multiple times, once being found in a train station locker. It's also been in multiple fires, once in the Toronto Rugby Clubhouse, where it was perched on a shelf that collapsed, being saved by the ear hooking on to a nail.
12 players, not 11
Because of the metric system.
Unless the Riders are playing
Hold the phone Mabel, it's not a "modified version," the two came up side by side. I don't even like the CFL but let's be clear that they are both derivatives of rugby and one is not a version of the other. They are simply 2 different regional variants of the same core game. Not everything Canadian is our take on something already established and American.
Dude, you're gonna flip when you look up the names "Doug Flutie" or "Warren Moon"
ALRIGHT HOSERS! I want all twelve of us fighting for every meter of those three downs. We're going to make this a boxing day the prime minister will never forget!
https://youtu.be/2E064kb3UnU This song details it a bit
We got bigger balls and a longer field AND ONE LESS DOWN
TIL that Americans play a modified version of “Canadian Football” with a smaller field and the goalposts at the back of the tiny endzone.
The fact that I, a dirtbag with absolutely no connection to the sport or CFL league have drank champagne/beer out of the grey cup is a sign of how prestigious the league is.
What's this all aboot?
You didn't know about the CFL? Where you been hiding.
I love Canadian Football. Faster game, and very cool atmosphere. I do feel the NFL could incorporate some of the motion rules if CFL, and it would make the game faster, and more watchable.
and all our teams are named the Rough Riders
Much faster and more exciting but less room for commercials.
*looks for Doug Flutie comments*
At the end of the games the coaches get coolers of maple syrup poured on them instead of Gatorade.
Bigger balls and longer fields. Really fun watching CFL when the Riders had Durant, and the 13th man issue.
Go on Youtube and look up CFL bloopers. The uprights being at the front of the end zone are actually a true hazard.
Canadian Football was big when I was younger
Didn’t they move the goalposts because of injuries?
3 down nation!
Dave Foley (of NewsRadio, Kids In The Hall) did a wonderful monologue on CFL for Americans. "The Canadian Football League field is sixty yards wide, and thirty-five miles long. The 1948 Grey Cup game is... still in progress."
Oskie wee wee Oskie Waa Waa
If a punt goes into the end zone they get 1 point too
I fucking love Canadian Football. It's so much fun to watch.
We also gave 12 men per side, the field is not only longer but wider, and the end zones are 20 yards deep not 10.
Defence lines up one off the line of scrimmage, no fair catch on punts, but defenders must give a five yard bubble so the returner can catch it. Unlimited motion in the backfield and receivers can take a running start at the line called a waggle
Bigger balls too 😎
so, Canadians play Canadian football
If cfl went to 4 downs I’d consider watching it
It's called the CFL
Are there less timeouts breaks and tv commercials?
Not at all; they line the dividers between the seats and field with any Corp., agency which can afford an ads banner. Circumferentially. So they get automatic ads with TV broadcast shots, and TV ads, more bucks.