{"id":166878,"date":"2025-09-24T20:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T20:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/166878\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T20:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T20:36:09","slug":"commissioner-stewart-johnston-wants-to-connect-with-superstar-nathan-rourke-over-cfl-rule-change-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/166878\/","title":{"rendered":"Commissioner Stewart Johnston wants to ‘connect’ with ‘superstar’ Nathan Rourke over CFL rule change comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Courtesy: CFL<\/p>\n

Commissioner Stewart Johnston is hoping to have a heart-to-heart with his league\u2019s biggest star regarding his resistance to the CFL\u2019s recent rule changes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Canadian quarterback Nathan Rourke stole the thunder from the league\u2019s unveiling of several major structural amendments, calling the moves \u201cgarbage\u201d in his post-practice media availability<\/a>. The Oakville, Ont. native expressed displeasure that players and coaches were not consulted in advance of the announcement and accused league leadership of trying to more closely resemble the NFL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Asked to respond to those comments in an appearance on TSN 1050\u2018s popular OverDrive radio show<\/a>, Johnston chose to treat the B.C. Lions\u2019 pivot with compassion.<\/p>\n

\u201cNathan, of course, is an important voice in the league, and I know he\u2019s busy preparing for actual games. When the time is right, I would love to connect with Nathan and walk him through kind of the reasoning behind what we\u2019re doing, and also kind of the really core group of a lot of football experts that were involved in looking at this,\u201d Johnston said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m incredibly confident that these are the right moves for the league, but, of course, I respect anyone\u2019s opinion. Whether it\u2019s Nathan Rourke or a passionate season-ticket holder, I want to listen to what they have to say and hopefully be able to explain the reasoning and the process that we went through.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sweeping changes to the CFL\u2019s rules<\/a> will be rolled out over the next two years. Beginning in 2026, the league will modify the infamous rouge to eliminate a point being scored for a missed field goal (or any other kick) sent past the dead line. The 20-second play clock, which was previously whistled in by the officials, will also change to a 35-second running clock. Then in 2027, the field goal posts will move from the goal line to the dead line, while the field will shrink from 110 yards with 20-yard end zones to 100 yards long with 15-yard end zones.<\/p>\n

Several other key players, including quarterbacks like Bo Levi Mitchell<\/a>, Zach Collaros<\/a>, Nick Arbuckle, and Davis Alexander<\/a>, weighed in in favour of the rule changes. However, Rourke became a spokesperson for a section of the fan base deeply concerned by the prospect of Americanization<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get it; change is hard. Nobody really likes change, except for maybe wet babies. It\u2019s a very difficult thing to kind of change, especially things that have been around for a while,\u201d Johnston said sympathetically. \u201cHaving said that, what I would say is, if anyone\u2019s critiquing that are worried we\u2019re transitioning to a more American style game, I\u2019d point to what really defines us as a Canadian Football League and Canadian brand of football. I do think it\u2019s three downs, 12 players, a 65-yard wide field, big end zones, motion, yard off the ball, five yards on catches, all of that\u00a0 \u2014 that\u2019s all in play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do here is create a playing surface or, as I said in the press conference, a canvas that really is going to allow the Canadian game to flourish even more so. If there\u2019s doubt that\u2019s the intention, I can just say with all sincerity that we think we\u2019re going to have more touchdowns scored, we\u2019re going to have a safer field, we\u2019re going to have a better presentation for our broadcaster and our fans, we\u2019re going to take some idiosyncrasies out that I think don\u2019t make sense. All of that, that\u2019s what this was.\u201d<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen if the CFL will fine Rourke for his public comments, which could be categorized as bringing the league into disrepute. On a personal level, it does not appear that the harsh wording has soured Johnston\u2019s affection for his most marketable employee.<\/p>\n

\u201cNathan is a superstar in our league, and I think he\u2019s having a historic season,\u201d the commissioner said. \u201cI will tell you, on a personal level, I was such a fan of his first time around in B.C., and then when he tried his hand in the NFL, I was cheering so hard for him. I felt like if he could just get his opportunity, he would show the world just what an amazing player he is. And then, of course, selfishly, I\u2019m thrilled he\u2019s back in Canada and having a season like he is, which is awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

The B.C. Lions (7-7) will host the Toronto Argonauts (5-9) at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver on Friday night with kickoff slated for 10:00 p.m. EDT. The Argonauts are coming off a narrow loss to the Montreal Alouettes, while the Lions dominated the Calgary Stampeders.<\/p>\n

The game will be broadcast on TSN in Canada and CFL+ internationally. Radio listeners can tune-in on TSN 1050 in Toronto and 730 CKNW in Vancouver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Courtesy: CFL Commissioner Stewart Johnston is hoping to have a heart-to-heart with his league\u2019s biggest star regarding his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-166878","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\/166878","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=166878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}