A day after Canadian quarterback Nathan Rourke blasted the CFL\u2019s changes as \u201cgarbage,\u201d veteran passer Bo Levi Mitchell backed the moves as a way to push the game forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not about Americanizing the game, this is about modernizing the game,\u201d Mitchell, a 12-year veteran and twice the league’s outstanding player, told reporters in Hamilton on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat can we do to put a better product on the field, a product that people want to watch, that’s a faster pace? This is not taking away the unique things (about the CFL).\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats quarterback’s comments were in response to a series of sweeping changes unveiled Monday by CFL commissioner Stewart Johnston, including a shorter field in 2027 and next year doing away with singles being awarded for missed field goals that sail out of the end zone.<\/p>\n
The moves sparked strong reactions \u2014 both for and against \u2014 from fans and players across the country.<\/p>\n
Rourke, a star player for the B.C. Lions who spent two seasons in the NFL, was loudest, calling the shift a step toward NFL rules and lamenting that players weren’t consulted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re moving toward is not the Canadian football game that I grew up loving, that I\u2019m passionate about, that I came back and played,\u201d said Rourke in one of several critical comments. \u201cI went down and played in the NFL and I came back knowing that this is a game for me because of the uniqueness of it, what\u2019s special about it, and we\u2019re getting away from that.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrankly, makes me pretty pissed off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnston’s changes, which he said were unanimously approved by the CFL\u2019s Board of Governors, will roll out in a two-year plan.<\/p>\n
Next season, the league will introduce a modified rouge, disallowing teams from scoring a single off a missed field goal and a 35-second automatic reset on the play clock. Team benches will also be on opposite sides of all CFL fields.<\/p>\n
In 2027, the goalposts will be moved to the back of the end zone, which will be shortened from 20 to 15 yards. The length of the field will also be trimmed from 110 yards to 100 yards, while maintaining its 65-yard width.<\/p>\n
Mitchell, the CFL\u2019s passing leader this year, said he understood Rourke\u2019s passionate comments but ultimately believes the CFL \u2014 which has seen its attendance and profitability drop over the years \u2014 needed to move.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love this game, I love the CFL game, I love this country,\u201d the 35-year-old Texan said. \u201cI’ve seen Nathan’s reactions to it, I think you gotta give the guy a little bit of grace, to understand that he’s an icon to a lot of Canadians, right? He’s probably got hundreds of DMs from Canadians all over the place telling him to protect this game.\u201d<\/p>\n
“This isn’t about changing the CFL game and taking away from it,\u201d Mitchell added. \u201cThis is about trying to create an entertainment factor that can add a dollar, that can make sure that seven out of nine teams aren’t losing money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alouettes general manager Danny Maciocia also insists the league is still preserving its Canadian fabric.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t think it’s too drastic. We’re still Canadian,\u201d Maciocia said Tuesday in Montreal. \u201cWe haven\u2019t touched the ratio, we haven\u2019t touched three downs. It\u2019s still unlimited motion, no fair catch. We just tweaked it a bit, and I think you need to be open-minded.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody is sometimes apprehensive towards any form of change. Everybody loves the status quo. ‘Why change, why change, why change?’ And then people are constantly critical of our game. I think it needed a little bit of a facelift. I think it needed some refreshing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Calgary Stampeders kicker Rene Paredes, who trails only Mark McLaughlin for the franchise lead in all-time points, laments the diminished role for kickers under the impending changes.<\/p>\n
Pushing the goalposts to the back of the end zone \u2014 and altering the rouge \u2014 will give kickers fewer opportunities to score points.<\/p>\n
“Usually I go between 45 to 60 attempts per year,” Paredes stated Tuesday at McMahon Stadium. “I think (everybody) will be under 45 attempts, so less kicking, less field goals.<\/p>\n
“Kickers, it’s a big part of the CFL game. There’s a lot of game-winners, so there’s a lot of points on the board by kickers. Sometimes the kicker’s the only guy making the points.”<\/p>\n
While Paredes doesn’t love it when it happens to him, the 14-year veteran acknowledges that a returned missed field goal for a touchdown is an exciting CFL element.<\/p>\n
“They’re taking away the biggest play in the CFL which is the missed field goal return,” he stated. “As a kicker, if it happens to me it sucks but it’s a big part of the game that changes the game. Fans love it.”<\/p>\n
Paredes, who has already said 2026 will be his last season, says he’s not sorry to see the rouge extinguished. But he feels the CFL’s next era won’t value his job.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I feel bad for the kickers,” he said before adding: “Most likely they won’t catch up to my points record, so that’s a good thing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A day after Canadian quarterback Nathan Rourke blasted the CFL\u2019s changes as \u201cgarbage,\u201d veteran passer Bo Levi Mitchell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-164904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}