Changes to CFL rules will bring it more in line with the NFL, writer James McCarthy doesn’t think that’s a good thing

So the Canadian Football League is getting a re-design. Count me out.

Stewart Johnston, the league’s commissioner, announced a spate of changes on Monday to the way our version of gridiron football is going to be played going forward. The field is being shrunk, the play clock is being increased, and they’re screwing with the rouge. 

In short, it’s basically taking what we’ve known for decades and turning into NFL Lite.

Johnston told a press conference that the changes will be phased in with some starting next season and others in 2027. Here’s what will be happening beginning next season:

The play clock is being bumped from 20 seconds to 35 seconds. That’s the time a team on offence has to snap the ball and get a play going. Under the current rule, the 20-second clock doesn’t start until the referee manually tells the timer to start it. The new rule will see the clock reset to 35 seconds after every completed down and will start automatically.

This won’t speed things up at all. The NFL has a 40-second play clock and it makes that version of the game just go slower. The CFL’s clock keeps the offence on its toes because you have less time to come up with a play. Once the referee blows it in, you basically need to have your play. The new rule means it’s nothing more than a watered-down version of what the NFL uses.

Teams will now have to be on opposite ends of the field as opposed to being on the same sideline. That’s designed to get rid of the possibility of players having to sprint long distances in order to make substitutions. I’m okay with this one, especially when you consider that some players would have to run as long as 50 yards depending on where the ball was. That change will make a good difference.

And then there’s the rouge, that dastardly single point which has decided more football games than people would like. No longer will you get the point if a missed field goal attempt goes wide of the goalposts, nor will it be awarded if a punt or kickoff sails through or rolls out the back, or sides, of an end zone without being touched by a returner. If a punt, field goal or kickoff settles in the end zone, and the returner fails to take it out or takes a knee, a single point will still be awarded.

People have been sneering at the rouge for years, calling it a reward for failure.

No.

What it does it ensure that a player waiting for the ball in the end zone runs that ball out and keeps every play alive. And yes – it can end a game. It happened earlier this season when the Toronto Argonauts beat the Saskatchewan Roughriders earlier this season on a missed field goal by Argos kicker Lirim Hajrullahu. It’s a point, but that’s what makes it great. It’s quirky and it sets the CFL apart from other leagues.

But returners can still do that, James, you’ll tell me. Well, not after what’s coming in 2027.

That’s when the field itself will be shrunk to 100 yards from 110 yards, meaning the 55-yard line will disappear. Again, this is what sets Canadian football apart and makes it our game. That extra 10 yards made things meant teams had to earn that first down and made for more exciting offensive plays. At least the field width will be kept at 65 yards. Don’t want to be too much like the NFL, now.

The end zones will be shrunk as well from 20 yards deep to 15 yards and the goal posts will be moved to the back of the end zone. That will almost certainly make a missed field goal return a thing of the past.

Again, these are things which made Canadian football unique. A larger scoring zone meant offences could stretch defences more knowing that there was room to work with. As for the goal posts on the goal line, it means quarterbacks have to be creative. Yes, they’re in the way, so you have to move around that and figure out something else.

As much as I don’t like almost all of these rule changes, Nathan Rourke of the B.C. Lions didn’t hold back and told reporters on Monday how he really felt.

“We have a commissioner who hasn’t been here for a year, who’s already trying to change the game, and I don’t believe he loves football as much as I do, as much as many fans do,” he was quoted as saying.

Rourke isn’t totally wrong in my opinion. If the goal is to grow the game in Canada, you have to keep the game Canadian. Moving the goal posts to the back of the end zone, shrinking the field, modifying the rouge and tinkering with the game clock sets the CFL apart from the NFL. 

We’ve had to listen to people talk about how the CFL has to become more like the NFL in order to survive. No, the CFL has done just fine for more than 100 years, thank you kindly. What Johnston should’ve done is come up with a better marketing plan for the league. Let the word know that players are able to move and run with more ease. Hammer home the idea that a team has just three downs to make 10 yards and not four. The rouge? That is as Canadian as it gets.

And besides, isn’t that what we were clamouring about during the last federal election? Support more Canadian products? Wasn’t that the rallying cry from the ‘Elbows Up’ brigade? Buy Canadian? Or something like that?

At least Johnston and the board of governors, which approved these rule changes, didn’t screw around with the three-down rule or the ‘waggle rule’. But Johnston didn’t exactly rule out the possibility of going to four downs in the future. Oy.

Being more like the NFL will not make the CFL better. We need to keep the CFL as Canadian as it’s been for more than a century. That’s what will make the CFL better.

And if a game ends on a walk-off rouge, so what? That’s Canadian.