No one waves the maple leaf flag more fervently than Mike Miller, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers special teams coordinator who calls Riverview, New Brunswick home and managed to carve out a 12-year career in the Canadian Football League as an undrafted homegrown product.

And so, when the CFL unveiled its rule changes for the 2026-27 seasons on Monday Miller’s first reaction was honest, passionate and from the heart.

He agreed with the idea of opposite field benches and was indifferent to the changes to the play clock, but among the changes he disliked because they remove part of the Canadian aspects to the game were the decision to move the goalposts and the shortening of the field — which will be implemented in 2007 — and the changes to the rouge, which comes into play next season.

“When I heard the news and watched the press conference, I had a really weird feeling in my gut when they announced it,” Miller said after the club’s practice on Tuesday to a scrum of media. “It was kind of a little sickening. I didn’t expect it and just felt it in my stomach, and it didn’t sit well with me at the time, like I ate something bad.

“A lot of the stadiums, they put the ‘C’ at the centre and to me that was for Canadian as well. The rouge is talked about, made fun of or whatever, but it was just part of the Canadian game. To see those two major changes and take 20 yards away from the field that we usually have…

“… Shocked with the news and it didn’t sit well. Not the greatest news yesterday.”

Miller was among four coaches/players who spoke to the media on Tuesday about the rule changes which are outlined in this piece we posted yesterday.

We also dedicated the entire episode of this week’s Huddle to the rule changes in our visit with veteran guard Pat Neufeld.

Immediate reaction across the Blue Bombers locker room — indeed across the entire CFL — has been varied and began with the response of B.C. Lions quarterback Nathan Rourke on Monday.

“I thought Nathan delivered a very passionate case from the players’ point of view, from the Canadian purist point of view,” said Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea. “We love the Canadian brand of football. We love the CFL and Canadian football across Canada. It’s a great game.

“Where do I stand? I think everyone understands where I would stand, I’ll say it: if we’re going to be altering the game and removing the uniquely Canadian items from the game, I would never be in favour of that.

… This is uniquely ours. I love it. It’s an exciting game.”

O’Shea did add there were a couple of items he was OK with, “but will still require a little more research on my part where I sit down and actually put a game on and go through the items, go through the plays and see how it’s going to work.

“That’s our job in the offseason.”

O’Shea spoke of how moving the goalpost to the back of the end zone will likely eliminate a play that was so critical in Winnipeg’s most-recent win — Trey Vaval’s 128-yard missed field goal return for a touchdown, one that was followed up with an additional 71 yards on another miss, with the 199 yards on those two runs establishing a new CFL record.

“It would be highly unlikely anyone is ever going to do that again once they move the posts,” he said. “I don’t know what the numbers are down south, but how many (missed field goal) returns have there been in the last decade and the answer would be next to none.

“So, we get two in one game, and we’ve scored on one and had one scored against us, let alone all the yardage that was accumulated. It’s an exciting part of the game.”

Asked if he was afraid this might be a step toward the further Americanization of the CFL, he added:

“I’m generally not afraid of much so ‘fear’ is probably a strong word. We’re not privy to the extended plan. The idea that after two years this is where the changes stop? I don’t know. That would be all speculation on my part.”

That’s part of the foundation for the beef by players and coaches — the people most impacted by the changes weren’t part of the discussion before the announcement. And when asked if he thought that was a problem, O’Shea said, “Well, I would think transparency would be important.

“… I have no clue why we wouldn’t have been asked.”

Much of the reaction would fall in the ‘wait and see’ category, including how moving the goalposts might impact scoring — CFL analytics suggested it could mean 60 more touchdowns — and the new 35-second play clock that will see it automatically begin as soon as the previous play is whistled dead. Currently, the 20-second play clock does not start until manually initiated by an official.

“Honestly, I don’t think too much of them — not in a negative way or not in a positive way. It’s just part of growth, it’s part of growing the league,” said receiver Nic Demski. “I don’t look at all the stats and how to make bigger plays, I just trust the process.

“This league pays my bills, and I’ve had a lot of good years here, so I don’t have any complaints. There’s some things you scratch your head at, but there are other things that make sense. Again, you’re never going to be completely happy with everything especially when they change something that has been around for so long but at the end of the day my voice isn’t really going to change that.

“I play here. I love this game and there are still a lot of good things that are part of this game that we play. Some things got taken out but at the end of the day, it is what it is.”

There was a lot of fear-mongering beginning on Sunday when the league sent out a press release saying Monday’s media conference would outline ‘major changes’ to the game. And so the fact that much of the key factors in that — the ratio, the three downs, the motion — remain intact did impact some of the reaction a day later.

“I’m not nostalgic about the CFL pre-2012 (his first year in the league) because it just wasn’t on television for us in the U.S.,” added quarterback Zach Collaros. “I understand fans and players and coaches alike that don’t want things to change.

“On the other hand, if the task is to increase revenue and get more eyeballs on the game then I would imagine those people making those decisions would have thought those things through.

“I don’t think it’s changing the CFL game that much or, really, at all. Obviously, the biggest change would be you’re not going to get as many returns on (missed) field goals. That’s something I’ll miss, fans will miss. But there’s still 12 players, the Waggle, the yard off the ball (at the line of scrimmage), the ratio didn’t change — those things to me are the CFL.”