Many, perhaps most, of the rules differences have arisen because of rules changes in American football in the early twentieth century which have not been copied by Canadian football. The major Canadian codes never abolished the onside scrimmage kick see Kicker advancing the ball below or restricted backfield motion, while the American college football from whose code all American codes derive did.
Canadian football was later in adopting the hand snap and the forward pass, although one would not suspect the latter from play today. Additionally, Canadian football was slower in removing restrictions on blocking, but caught up by the s so that no significant differences remain today.
Similarly, differences in scoring the Canadian game valuing touchdowns less opened up from the late 19th century but were erased by the s. An area in which American football has been more conservative is the retention of the fair catch see below. The Canadian Mustangs defeated the U. Pirates Drinkwater of Canada shake hands. In some regions along the Canada-USA border, especially western areas, some high schools from opposite sides of the border will regularly play games against one another typically one or two per team per season.
By agreement between the governing bodies involved, the field of the home team is considered a legal field, although it is a different size from one school's normal field. In all but a few cases, the rules of the home team are followed throughout the game.
Furthermore, the classifications of import non-Canadian and non-import Canadian are highly restrictive and require a player to have been in Canada since childhood to qualify as a non-import i. For individuals who played both American and Canadian football professionally, their career statistic totals are considered to be their combined totals from their careers in both the CFL and NFL.
Warren Moon , for example, was the all-time professional football leader in passing yards after an illustrious career in both leagues. He was surpassed in by Damon Allen who in turn was surpassed by Anthony Calvillo in , both of whose careers were exclusively in the CFL.
There are several important specific differences between the Canadian and American versions of the game of football:. The official playing field in Canadian football is larger than the American, and similar to American fields prior to The end zones in Canadian football are ten yards deeper than American football end zones as the CFL uses 20 yard 18 m deep end zones.
Occasionally, however, the Canadian field will have its end zone truncated at the corners so that the field fits in the infield of a track. The goalposts for kicking are placed at the goal line in Canadian football and the end line in the American game.
In Canadian rules, the distance between the sideline and hash marks is 24 yards 22 m ; in American amateur rules, at the high school level, the distance is 17 yards, 2 feet, 4 inches 16m , virtually sectioning the field into three equal columns. The hash marks are closer together at the American college level, where they are 20 yards Because of the larger field, many American football venues are generally unfit for the Canadian game.
In many smaller venues, this would be the entire endzone section, losing seating for at least 3, spectators. During the CFL's failed expansion to American cities , Canadian football was either played on converted baseball grounds, or in some cases, on a field designed for American football for instance, the Memphis Mad Dogs and the Birmingham Barracudas of the CFL, playing in the Liberty Bowl and at Legion Field , respectively, played the Canadian game on American fields because of the inability of the stadiums to adapt to the larger field.
Similarly, Hornet Stadium fairly easily adapted to both the Canadian and American game, as it was built with a running track in which the Canadian field fits with only some cuts to the corners. American teams use eleven players, while Canadian teams have twelve players on the field per side.
Both games have the same number of players required at the line of scrimmage, so the twelfth player in the Canadian game plays a backfield position. Because of this, position designations of the various offensive and defensive lines vary. For example, there is no tight end in most formations in Canadian football.
The typical offensive arrangement in Canadian football is for there to be two slotbacks instead of the American tight end, while on the defensive end of the ball, two defensive halfbacks and one safety are employed instead of two safeties. While all the sizes of American and Canadian footballs are slightly different, the same ball can fall within the requirements of each.
Some professional quarterbacks do notice the difference in size. Another difference between NFL and CFL balls is that Canadian balls have two 1 inch 25 mm complete white stripes around the football 3 inches 76 mm from the largest diameter of the ball and NFL balls have no stripes at all.
College football and high school football both specify the use of stripes, but only on two of the football's four panels the ones adjacent to the laces. In both games, a team will have a limited number of downs to advance the ball ten yards. In American football there are four downs, while in Canadian football there are three. In both games, the ball is placed at a line of scrimmage , in which a player known as the centre or center performs a snap to start a football play.
In Canadian football, the snap is required to go between the centre's legs; there is no such requirement in American football, but it is invariably done this way anyway, so the center is in position to block following the snap.
The defensive team must stay a set distance away from the line of scrimmage on their side of the line. In Canadian football, the distance between the line of scrimmage and the defensive team is a full yard. Because of this one-yard distance, teams will tend to gamble on third and one. If a team has possession within one yard of either goal line, the line of scrimmage is moved to the one-yard line. In American football, the set distance between the offensive and defensive teams is eleven inches — the length of the ball, creating the illusion of the teams being "nose-to-nose" against each other.
While large, relatively immobile offensive line players used to form a line that cannot be easily penetrated by the defence are valued in American football, the extra distance from the defensive team means Canadian football finds value in more nimble athletes.
In American football, if a punt returner sees that, in his judgment, he will be unable to advance the ball after catching it, he may signal for a fair catch by waving his hand in the air, and forgo the attempt to advance. If he makes this signal, the opposing team must allow him to attempt to catch the ball cleanly; if he is interfered with, the team covering the kick will be penalized fifteen yards.
In contrast, there is no fair catch rule in Canadian football: instead no player from the kicking team, except the kicker or any player who was behind him when he kicked the ball, may approach within five yards of the ball until it has been touched by an opponent. If they do, a "no yards" penalty is called against the kicking team. Penalties for "no yards" calls vary on whether the ball made contact with the ground or not. The penalty is 5 yards if the ball has bounced and 15 if the ball is caught in the air.
Furthermore, in American football the receiving team may elect not to play the ball if the prospects for a return are not good and the returner is not certain he can successfully catch the ball on the fly; American players are generally taught not to attempt to touch a bouncing football. If any member of the kicking team touches the ball after the kick is made, without an intervening touch by the member of the receiving team, the receiving team may elect to scrimmage the ball from that spot of first touching , regardless of anything else other than a penalty that happens during the rest of the play.
If the kicking team gains possession of the ball during the kick before it is touched by the receiving team, the ball is then dead. Often, the ball hits the ground and is surrounded by players from the kicking team, who allow it to roll as far as possible downfield — without going into the end zone — before grasping or holding the ball against the ground.
If a punt bounces into the receiving team's end zone, it is dead, and a touchback is awarded. On the other hand, if the ball touches a member of the receiving team without him ever gaining possession a "muff" , then the ball can be recovered by either team but cannot be advanced by the kicking team. If the kicking team recovers the ball, they regain possession and are awarded a first down at the spot of the recovery.
Following a fair catch in American football, the receiving team can elect a free kick called a fair catch kick from the spot the ball is received — and if the kick goes through the opposite goal posts a field goal is scored. Fair catch kicks are rarely attempted in the NFL and are usually unsuccessful The last successful fair catch kick was in In Canadian football, if the receiving team does not play the ball, the kicker, and any teammates behind the kicker at the time of the kick, can attempt to retrieve and advance the ball.
This is further explained in the kicker advancing the ball section. In American football, after all players are set, only one offensive player is allowed to be in motion, and he cannot be moving toward the line of scrimmage while the ball is snapped. The motion player must also be behind the line of scrimmage; players on the line cannot be in motion because big noob.
In Canadian football, all offensive backfield players , except the quarterback, may be in motion at the snap — players in motion may move in any direction as long as they are behind the line of scrimmage at the snap. In addition, the two players on the ends of the line of scrimmage generally wide receivers may also be in motion along the line.
It also provides receivers the advantage of a running start, timing their runs so they cross the line of scrimmage at speed when the ball is snapped, allowing them to get downfield faster than receivers in American football, allowing for comparatively longer throws in the same amount of time after the snap, or quicker throws for a given distance. In American football, the offensive team must run a play within 25 seconds of the referee whistling the play in — except in the NCAA college and the NFL where teams have 40 seconds from the end of the previous play, or 25 seconds following a penalty or timeout.
In Canadian football, teams have 20 seconds. American football rules allow each team to have three timeouts in each half, and the NFL stops play for a two-minute warning. However, NCAA football has no two-minute warning. In the CFL, each team has only one time-out per half, while at lower levels of Canadian football each team has two.
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 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. The Canadians adopted the forward pass, but not until , and the CRU did not make this rule official until The first touchdown pass in the history of the Grey Cup was made that year, by a guy called Warren Stevens. After a down is recorded, the game moves on to the next down. This new down corresponds to the next play. In Canadian football, things are a bit different. They play with only three downs, whereas in American football there are four.
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