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 Memphis Mad Dogs were a Canadian football team that played the 1995 season in the Canadian Football League. The Mad Dogs were part of a failed attempt to expand the CFL into the United States. They played at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.
The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver,British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL),and play their home games at BC Place.
FieldTurf is a brand of artificial turf playing surface. It is manufactured and installed by FieldTurf Tarkett,a division of French company Tarkett. FieldTurf is headquartered in Montreal,Quebec,Canada,and its primary manufacturing facility is located in Calhoun,Georgia,United States. With a design intended to more accurately replicate real grass,the new product rapidly gained popularity in the late 1990s.
Anthony Calvillo is an American coach and retired player of Canadian football. He is the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and a former professional Canadian football quarterback. He was professional football's all-time passing yards leader from 2011 to 2020,and is first in all-time CFL passing yards. In his career,he passed for 79,816 yards and is one of ten professional quarterbacks to have completed over 400 touchdown passes. His passing-yards reign ended in 2020 when Brees surpassed his record.
Pasquale "Wally" Buono is a Canadian ex-football coach currently working as the vice president of football operations,alternate governor and the former head coach of the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League (CFL),and one of the most successful head coaches in league history. He has spent 22 years as head coach of the Calgary Stampeders and the Lions,which is tied for the most seasons coached all-time. On September 19,2009,Buono became the CFL's all-time winningest coach when his Lions beat the Toronto Argonauts 23–17,giving him 232 regular-season victories,passing Don Matthews. He retired in 2011 with a CFL record 254 regular-season wins as head coach,to focus on duties as general manager for the Lions. In 2016,Buono came out of retirement to coach the Lions again through the 2018 season. In the final home game of the 2018 season,Buono was honored with the Bob Ackles Award as he was retiring from football with the most wins as a coach.
Samuel Etcheverry,nicknamed "the Rifle",was a professional American and Canadian football player and head coach. Etcheverry played the quarterback position,most famously with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League,and was named Canadian football's Most Outstanding Player in 1954. Etcheverry's jersey #92 is one of seven retired by the Alouettes.
James Thomas Popp is an American sports executive and coach. Popp is Vice President,Player Personnel,for the United States Football League (USFL). In 2021,Popp was Chief of Staff,Advisor to the Head Coach for the Charlotte 49ers football and also a running back coach and assistant head coach for the Alabama State Hornets. He worked extensively in the Canadian Football League,and was most recently the general manager of the Toronto Argonauts. Popp spent over two decades as General Manager of the Montreal Alouettes including several stints as Head Coach. Popp served as General Manager for two years for Baltimore Stallions,and the Director of Player Personnel for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. As a CFL general manager,three separate franchises under Popp have won five Grey Cup championship wins out of 11 appearances.
Robert Patrick Geary was a player and general manager of the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL).
Marc Marlyn Trestman is a Canadian football and American football coach. He led the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL) to back-to-back Grey Cup victories in 2009 and 2010,and another as head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2017. He was also named CFL Coach of the Year in 2009 and 2017.
John Roland "Big John" Huard is an American business executive and a former football player and coach. After playing college football at the University of Maine,he played professionally as a linebacker with the Denver Broncos of the American Football League (AFL) from 1967 to 1969,with the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League (NFL) in 1971,with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL) in 1973,and with the CFL's Toronto Argonauts from 1973 to 1975. Huard served as the head football coach at the Maine Maritime Academy from 1987 to 1993. He was the head coach of the CFL's Shreveport Pirates in 1994 and the Toronto Argonauts in 2000.
Michael P. McCarthy is a professional football executive and scout. He was born in Oneida,New York and raised in Rome,New York. McCarthy began playing football at Rome (NY) Free Academy H.S. where he earned All-State football honours and was an all-star in lacrosse and wrestling. Currently,he is a pro football player personnel consultant.
American Youth Football (AYF),established in 1996,is an international organization that promotes the development of youth through their association with adult leaders in American football. Rules and regulations ensure players are in a safe environment with a competitive balance between teams. The National Football League (NFL) has made AYF a national youth football partner. The President of American Youth Football is Joe Galat.
Gary Durchik is a Canadian football coach.
African Americans have played prominent roles in the Canadian Football League (CFL) and its precursors since 1946. In many cases black Americans have been able to pursue professional football opportunities in the CFL that were for one reason or another unavailable in the United States. Especially in the mid-20th century,many African American players came to Canada to avoid the racially charged atmosphere of segregation-era America. For many years,blacks were better represented in the CFL than they were in the National Football League (NFL),and achieved a number of "firsts" in the CFL years before the same was accomplished in the NFL. More recently,the CFL has provided opportunities for black,as well as other,Americans unable to break into the NFL.
The 1986 Montreal Alouettes finished the season in third place in the East Division with a 4–14 record and missed the playoffs. The Montreal Concordes were renamed the Alouettes following the 1985 season to mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Alouettes. The Montreal Alouettes were facing severe financial difficulty,having lost close to $15 million between 1982–86,so having the CFL give a fourth place team in one division a playoff spot if its record was better than the third-place finisher in the other division was a disaster. When Calgary got a playoff spot over the Alouettes,the lost revenue for a playoff game further crippled the franchise,contributing to its demise shortly after the start of the following season. General manager Joe Galat left the team prior to the end of the season to take a position with the B.C. Lions on August 1. President Norm Kimball took over as GM until the end of the season
Matt Sheldon is the game management coach for the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). He is a professional football coach,analyst and researcher with extensive NFL experience in research/analytics,in-game strategy,coaching and video editing with the New York Jets,Miami Dolphins,Chicago Bears,Minnesota Vikings,Buffalo Bills,St. Louis Rams and New Orleans Saints. Additionally,he has worked with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the Wisconsin Badgers of the NCAA. Sheldon also served as director of sports solutions development with Zebra Sports,the official provider of player tracking for the NFL. Sheldon has consulted with teams and leagues at the professional,olympic,collegiate and high school levels in North America and Europe. His areas of focus include strategy/tactics and decision-making,athlete tracking systems and elite athlete performance. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management and the University University of Wisconsin M.B.A. Program.
The 2017 CFL season was the 64th season of modern-day Canadian football. Officially,it was the 60th season of the Canadian Football League. The regular season began on June 22 and concluded on November 4. The playoffs commenced on November 12 and concluded on November 26 with the Toronto Argonauts defeating the Calgary Stampeders to win the 105th Grey Cup.
