February 26, 2021 - Canadian Football League (CFL) - Toronto Argonauts News Release

American football. Mike Morbeck via Compfight cc Although the Canadian Football League does hold a nationally-televised doubleheader on the Monday afternoon called the Thanksgiving Day Classic, growing up in Canada, my family never turned it on — and none of my friends' families did either. 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.

TORONTO - The Toronto Argonauts announced today that the team has agreed to a restructured contract with American LB Bear Woods.

'Bear is the ultimate teammate with a work ethic that is unmatched,' said Argos Linebackers coach Kevin Eiben. 'He is as professional as they come and his knowledge of the game mixed with his preparedness and competitiveness is an incredible resource for our younger guys to learn from. On top of all that, Bear is one of the best tacklers I have ever been around, we're lucky to have him.'

Woods, 34, will play be playing his fourth season in Double Blue after coming to Toronto in 2017 via free agency from Montreal. The seven-year CFL veteran re-joined the Argos in late July 2019, playing in three games while recording at least seven tackles in each contest, including 10 in a win vs Ottawa in Week 13. The Troy University product has racked up 144 tackles and three sacks in 24 games in his Toronto career. Woods began his CFL career in Montreal (2013-2016) where he would go on to earn two CFL All-Star nods (2014, 2016) and the East nominee for Most Outstanding Defensive Player in 2016 after recording the sixth-most tackles in a season in CFL history with 126. The 2017 Grey Cup champion now has 376 defensive tackles, 15 sacks, three interceptions and six forced fumbles in 64 games for his career.

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Canadian Football League Stories from February 26, 2021

• Two-Time CFL All-Star LB Bear Woods Agrees to Restructured Contract - Toronto Argonauts
• Brandon Rutley Announces Retirement from Pro Football - B.C. Lions
• Alouettes Add Two More Local Players - Montreal Alouettes

Canadian Football Rules Vs American

The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

In football scoreboards news, we look at the history of football and why Canadian differs from American football in this important way.

Canadian Football On American Tv

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 Vs American Football

For more information, go to:
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