For the next few months, I’m going to be doing something a little different and trying my hand at some sports writing. I’ll be following the 2024 CFL season and posting weekly analysis and commentary on the games and the season as a whole. I’ll be covering the entire season, from the first pre-season game all the way to the Grey Cup. Hopefully this is something that interests you, but if you’re here for my fiction writing and don’t want to see any of this, I’ll be tagging all of these with #whitenoisesports, so you can silence that tag to hide these posts.
WHAT IS THE CFL?
The Canadian Football League is a professional gridiron football league in Canada that formed in 1958 and uses the rules of Canadian football. It has 9 teams, split into 2 divisions, and plays games from late May until early November. The league grew out of several amateur leagues, and many current teams can trace their origins back over a century. Canadian football is very similar to American football as played by the NFL, and the two games actually developed in parallel. The biggest differences are that fields are larger (110x65 yds vs 100x53.3 yds), three downs instead of four, and the single point kick (or rouge). If you’re really curious about the nitty-gritty of the CFL rules, you can read the rulebook here. If you have any familiarity with American football, the CFL game should be pretty easy to pick up.
If you know nothing about football and don’t want to read the rulebook, here’s the short (and extremely simplified) version of the rules:
• Each team is trying to score points by either running the ball into the opponents’ endzone (a “touchdown”) or kicking the ball through the opponents’ goalposts (a “field goal”)
• One team starts with the ball, and has 3 attempts (called “downs”) to move it 10 yards from where they started
• If they move it at least 10 yards within their 3 downs, they keep the ball and get another 3 downs to move it 10 more yards
• If they fail to move the ball 10 yards in 3 downs, the other team gets the ball and starts their 3 downs
• Teams will often choose to kick the ball hard down the field (called a “punt”) on their 3rd down if they do not believe they will manage to get to the 10 yard mark or score a field goal, so that the other team gets the ball further away from the kicking team’s endzone
HOW CAN I WATCH THE CFL?
There are four games every week, with one team getting a bye every week due to the odd number of teams in the league. All CFL games are broadcast on TSN in Canada. In the USA, a little under half the games are broadcast on CBS Sports, with the rest streamed for free on CFL+. Outside Canada and the USA, all games are streamed for free on CFL+. If you can’t, or don’t want to, watch the games live, Calgary Stampeders Classics and Waders27 both upload full games to Youtube within a day or two after they’re played.
WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?
I’ve followed the CFL for years, but mostly casually and focused on my favourite team. This year I want to watch more games and develop a better understanding of the game itself, why teams are good and bad, and how teams change and adapt over the course of a season. Writing about the games will force me to take notes and think about what I’m seeing, as well as organize my thoughts into coherent posts. Also, there’s a serious lack of CFL content on cohost, and I’d like to see that change. I’m really looking forward to this little project, and I hope that some of my love for the league rubs off on you.
WHAT NEXT?
Next week, I’ll dive into the teams themselves, starting with the East Division. We’ll look at how they did last year and speculate wildly on how they’ll perform this season. See you next week!