Canadian football, or simply football, is a sport in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete on a field 110 yards (101 m) long and 65 yards (59 m) wide, attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's end zone.
The Canadian Football League is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a city in Canada. They are divided into two divisions: four teams in the East Division and five teams in the West Division. As of 2024, it features a 21-week regular season in which each team plays 18 games with three bye weeks. This season traditionally runs from mid-June to early November. Following the regular season, six teams compete in the league's three-week playoffs, which culminate in the Grey Cup championship game in late November. The Grey Cup is one of Canada's largest annual sports and television events. The CFL was officially named on January 19, 1958, upon the merger between the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union or "Big Four" and the Western Interprovincial Football Union.
Russell Stanley Jackson is a former professional Canadian football player. Jackson spent his entire 12-year professional football career with the Ottawa Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He is a member of the Order of Canada, the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, and Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, and has been described as the best Canadian-born quarterback to play in the CFL. In 2006, Jackson was voted one of the CFL's Top 50 players (#8) of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN, the highest-ranked Canadian-born player on the list.
Scott Flory is the head coach of the University of Saskatchewan's Huskies football team. He is also a former professional Canadian football offensive lineman who played for 15 years for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League.
The CFL draft is an annual sports draft in which the teams of the Canadian Football League (CFL) select eligible Canadian/non-import players, typically from the ranks of U Sports football or NCAA college football. Member clubs make selections based on the reverse order of the previous year's standings, with the team with the worst record being awarded the first selection, the Grey Cup runner-up getting the second-to-last selection and the Grey Cup champion selecting last. The draft is held once every year, approximately six weeks prior to the start of the upcoming season.
The Canadian Football League (CFL), which features teams based in Canada, has made efforts to gain further audience in the United States, most directly through expansion into the country from the 1993 CFL season through the 1995 CFL season. The CFL plays Canadian football, a form of gridiron football which is somewhat different from the more common American football played in the United States and other parts of the world.
William Norman "Mouse" Fieldgate was a professional Canadian football player. Fieldgate played defensive end and linebacker with the Canadian Football League BC Lions for his entire 14-year career. Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Fieldgate was a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, the BC Sports Hall of Fame, and the BC Lions Wall of Fame. Fieldgate's #75 jersey is one of ten numbers retired by the BC Lions. In 2006, Fieldgate was voted to the Honour Roll of the CFL's top 50 players of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN.
Eagle Keys was an American born professional Canadian football player who played and coached in the Canadian Football League (CFL). He is currently fifth all-time in regular season wins with 131 as a head coach in the CFL. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1990.
Canadian Football League attendance has averaged no fewer than 20,000 spectators per game for every season since 1963. The CFL consistently draws, on average, the third or fourth largest crowds to its games of any professional sports league in North America, ranking behind the National Football League and Major League Baseball, about on par with Liga MX and ahead of Major League Soccer, the National Basketball Association, National Hockey League and the National Lacrosse League.
The Thanksgiving Day Classic is an annual doubleheader held on Thanksgiving in the Canadian Football League (CFL). It is typically one of two days in which the league plays on a Monday afternoon; the other is the Labour Day Classic. Unlike the Labour Day Classic, the teams in the Thanksgiving Day Classic rotate each year. Purolator is the presenting sponsor of the event as of 2022.
The CFL Combine is a three-day program in which athletes from Canadian universities and Canadians in the NCAA are scouted by general managers, coaches and scouts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The goal of the camp is for the nine CFL franchises to have a better idea of whom they would like to draft in the CFL draft which usually takes place roughly six weeks after the camp. The first combined Evaluation Camp took place in 2000 in Toronto and continued every year in Toronto until 2016 when it was announced that Regina would host the combine in 2017. It was also suggested that the league would begin rotating the Combine hosts every year. Winnipeg hosted in 2018 and the event returned to Toronto in 2019 and 2020 with the hiatus of the CFL Week event. In 2021, the event was purely remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada but was brought back to Toronto in 2022. The event's hosts began to rotate again with Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Regina hosting in the three subsequent years.
Canadian Football League Canada Day games are an occasional part of the league's schedule and occur only when the league schedule begins on or before July 1. The games are not an annual occurrence, unlike the Labour Day or Thanksgiving Day games. As of the 2023 CFL season, there have been 24 games played on Canada Day.
The 2019 CFL season was the 66th season of modern-day Canadian football. Officially, it was the 62nd Canadian Football League season. The regular season began on June 13 and concluded with the playing of the 107th Grey Cup in Calgary on November 24 —where the Winnipeg Blue Bombers defeated the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 33–12 to win their first Grey Cup since 1990.
The 2020 CFL Draft took place on April 30, 2020 at 8:00 pm ET and was broadcast on TSN and RDS. 73 players were chosen from among eligible players from Canadian Universities across the country, as well as Canadian players playing in the NCAA. This was the second year in a row that featured territorial picks after they were re-introduced in the 2019 CFL Draft.
The 2020 CFL season would have been the 67th season of modern-day Canadian football. Officially, it would have been the 63rd season of the Canadian Football League.
The 2021 Toronto Argonauts season was the 63rd season for the team in the Canadian Football League and their 148th year of existence. The Argonauts improved on their 4–14 record from their previous season in 2019 with a win in week 10 against the Ottawa Redblacks on October 6, 2021. The team qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 2017, on October 30, 2021, with a win over the BC Lions. The Argonauts then clinched first place in the East Division after defeating the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on November 12, 2021. However, the Argonauts lost to the same Tiger-Cats in the East Final after holding a 12–0 halftime lead, but were unable to score a touchdown and lost 27–19.
The 2022 CFL season was the 68th season of modern-day Canadian football. Officially, it was the 64th season of the Canadian Football League. The regular season began on June 9 and ended on October 29, with 18 games played per team over 21 weeks. Regina hosted the 109th Grey Cup on November 20, 2022.
The 2023 CFL season was the 69th season of modern professional Canadian football. Officially, it was the 65th season of the Canadian Football League. Hamilton hosted the 110th Grey Cup on November 19. The regular season began on June 8, and ended on October 28, with 18 games played per team over 21 weeks.
