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# Postcard from Canada: 11 August 2020
- URL: https://goodoil.news/postcard-from-canada-11-august-2020/
- Published: 2020-08-11T04:15:00.000Z
- Updated: 2020-08-10T22:25:49.000Z
- Author: Guest Post
- Tags: History, Sport, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-17 03:00

**Geoff Corfield**

*Geoffrey Corfield has been active in Conservative politics in Canada since 1976, both federally and provincially. But he won’t always write about politics because he has more experience with writing history and humour. He lives in London, Ontario, frequents used book shops, swims lengths, drinks beer, plays croquet, has his own town in north-central Queensland and six books published, and would very much like to find a publisher for [this New Zealand book](https://www.amazon.com/Geoffrey-Corfield/e/B001K8XFA8?ref%5F=dbs%5Fp%5Febk%5Fr00%5Fabau%5F000000&ref=goodoil.news) and its companion one for Australia.*

There’s a lot of sports not being played these days. And one of them  
is Canadian Football.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/31/f4/31f4e20a-0315-499e-83ff-139e8eab53bf/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/joffreyreynolds.jpg)

Canadian Football. By IcE MaN – originally posted to Flickr as Open Field Ahead, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6159989

When **William Webb** Ellis picked up a round Association football (or  
soccer ball), and ran with it at Rugby School in 1823, he created more  
games that would eventually be played with an oval-shaped ball (easier  
to hold onto) and use hands more than feet, than would ever develop  
from the round ball that uses only feet.

There’s Gaelic Football, Australian Rules Football, Rugby Union  
Football, Rugby League Football, American Football, and Canadian  
Football. If you follow sports at all you’ve probably heard of the  
first five listed, but I’m willing to wager a pint that not many New  
Zealanders reading this will have heard of **Canadian Football.**

The whole world knows about American Football. The National Football  
League (NFL). Super Bowl Sunday. How to make a game of 60 minutes  
playing time last four hours. But north of the border, there’s another  
game that’s actually older than American Football, and whose  
championship game, the Grey Cup, is 58 years older than the Super  
Bowl. It’s Canadian Football as played in The Canadian Football League  
(CFL).

Canadian Football is to American Football as Rugby League is to Rugby  
Union. **Same game, different rules.**

The NFL was formed in 1920, and following mergers of different  
leagues, didn’t start playing the Super Bowl until 1967\. At the end of that match  
it hands out a big, gaudy trophy with the championship year marked on  
it in Roman numerals (2019-2020 was LIV).

The CFL was formed in 1909 and at its championship game, The Grey Cup,  
hands out a modest trophy donated in 1909 by Earl Grey, then  
Governor-General of Canada.

They played Rugby Union Football at McGill University in Montreal,  
Canada in 1865\. In 1874 McGill sent a rugby team to the USA to play  
Harvard University at “football”, and found that Harvard was set to  
play soccer football. Thus was rugby introduced to the USA. From there  
evolved the NFL and the CFL.

There are a lot of intricate rule differences between the NFL and the  
CFL, but here are the main ones:

  
1\. CFL has 12 players on the field per team at any one time; NFL 11 players.  
2\. CFL field is 110yds x 65yds with two 20yd endzones; NFL 100yds x 53  
1/3yds with 10yd endzones.  
3\. Up until 2018, the CFL used a slightly larger ball, but they are now  
uniform size, however, the CFL ball has two white stripes on it.  
4\. CFL has three downs (tries) to make 10yds, NFL four downs.  
5\. CFL teams line up 1yd apart, NFL on line of ball.  
6\. There are more ways to score in the CFL.  
7\. There is more player movement allowed in the CFL before the ball is  
put into play.  
8\. The CFL season is June-November; NFL September-February.

When they start playing sports again see if you can find a televised  
CFL game (good luck). I’ll collect my pints later.

*If you enjoyed this BFD article please share it.*