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.
The Montreal Alouettes are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and are the current Grey Cup champions, defeating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the 110th Grey Cup Game in 2023. Their home field is Percival Molson Memorial Stadium for the regular season and as of 2014 also home of their playoff games.
The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at Commonwealth Stadium. The Elks were founded in 1949 as the Edmonton Eskimos and have won the Grey Cup championship fourteen times, most recently in 2015 and the most of any CFL club based in Western Canada. The team has a rivalry with the Calgary Stampeders and is one of the three community-owned teams in the CFL. The team discontinued using the Eskimos name in 2020, with the new name Elks formally announced on June 1, 2021.
Damon L. Allen is a former professional Canadian football quarterback. He played 23 years in the Canadian Football League (CFL). He is currently fourth in all-time professional football passing yards and second in all-time CFL passing yards after he was surpassed for first place by the Montréal Alouettes' Anthony Calvillo on October 10, 2011. Allen retired as professional football's all-time leading passer with 72,381 passing yards after he surpassed Warren Moon's total of 70,553 yards on September 4, 2006, in the annual Labour Day Classic. He also retired in third place in all-time CFL rushing yards with 11,920 yards, behind Mike Pringle and George Reed. The 2007 season marked Allen's twenty-third season in the CFL and he officially announced his retirement on May 28, 2008, at age 44. Allen is the younger brother of Pro Football Hall of Famer Marcus Allen.
Michael O'Shea is the head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He is a former Canadian football linebacker and former special teams coordinator of the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL from 2010 to 2013, winning the Grey Cup in 2012. O'Shea played 16 seasons in the CFL for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Toronto Argonauts from 1993 to 2008. He retired second all-time in career tackles with 1,154 and is one of only three players to record over 1,000 tackles. He won the CFL's Most Outstanding Canadian Award in 1999 after recording 84 tackles, 13 special teams tackles and three interceptions that year. O'Shea is a three-time Grey Cup champion as a player, having won all three with the Argonauts in 1996, 1997, and 2004. He is also a two-time Grey Cup winning head coach, having won with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 2019 and 2021; O'Shea also won the Grey Cup previously as a special teams coach with the Toronto Argonauts in the 100th Grey Cup.
The 1990 CFL season is considered to be the 37th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 33rd Canadian Football League season.
The 1989 CFL season is considered to be the 36th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 32nd Canadian Football League season.
The 1987 CFL season is considered to be the 34th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 30th Canadian Football League season.
The 1986 CFL season is considered to be the 33rd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 29th Canadian Football League season.
The 1985 CFL season is considered to be the 32nd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 28th Canadian Football League season.
The Lew Hayman Trophy is a Canadian Football League trophy, awarded to the outstanding Canadian player in the East Division. Each team in the East Division nominates a player, from which the winner is chosen. Either the winner of the Hayman trophy or the Dr. Beattie Martin Trophy will also win the Canadian Football League Most Outstanding Canadian award.
Anthony Michael Peter Gabriel is a former professional Canadian football pass receiver who played in the Canadian Football League from 1971 to 1981. He played for both the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Ottawa Rough Riders. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in August 1985. In 2014, he was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
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.
Jonathan Michael Cornish is a former Canadian football running back who played nine seasons with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was drafted 13th overall in the 2006 CFL Draft after playing college football at the University of Kansas. Cornish was inducted as a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2019 on his first ballot.
The 1989 Ottawa Rough Riders finished the season in fourth place in the East Division with a 4–14 record and failed to qualify for the post-season.
The 2014 CFL season was the 61st season of modern-day Canadian football. It was the 57th Canadian Football League season. Vancouver hosted the 102nd Grey Cup on November 30. The league expanded to nine teams with the addition of the Ottawa Redblacks, giving the CFL nine teams for the first time since the 2005 season. As a result of the expansion, the schedule shifted to a 20-week regular season plus three weeks of playoffs ; the season started on June 26, 2014.
Michael Allen is a former Canadian football defensive back who played seven seasons in the Canadian Football League (CFL) with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Ottawa Rough Riders and BC Lions. He was drafted by the Blue Bombers in the fourth round of the 1988 CFL Draft. He played at Bemidji State University, Division II NCAA in Bemidji, Minnesota, USA in 1984. He then transferred to CIS football at Carleton University in 1986. Allen won three Grey Cup championships, two with the Blue Bombers and one with the Lions.
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 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.
