![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/corey-grant-carleton-ravens-coach-cfl-reaction-2025.jpg\")
Corey Grant, head coach for the\u00a0Carleton Ravens football team and a former player in the CFL, said he’s open to innovation and wants to see how the changes will affect the game. (Michel Aspirot\/CBC)<\/p>\nChanges being introduced by the CFL\u00a0are drawing mixed reaction from football fans, players and coaches in Ottawa, with some welcoming the new rules and others warning they threaten the unique elements that\u00a0make\u00a0the Canadian game special.<\/p>\n
CFL\u00a0commissioner Stewart Johnston unveiled the changes Monday as part of the league’s two-part plan to improve the game and make it more entertaining for fans.<\/p>\n
Starting next season, teams will no longer be able to win games with a “rouge”\u00a0\u2014 a single point gained off a kick that clears the end zone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
More changes will come\u00a0in 2027\u00a0when the field will be shortened from 110 yards to 100, and\u00a0the end zones will be reduced from 20 yards to 15.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The goalposts will also\u00a0move from the goal line to the back of the reconfigured end zone.<\/p>\n
Johnston said the changes will lead to higher scores and a better fan experience.<\/p>\n
“This is going to create more touchdowns, more touchdowns creates more highlights and highlights drive through all forms of media,” he\u00a0said during a news conference. “And that does drive fandom.”<\/p>\n
Corey Grant, head coach for the\u00a0Carleton Ravens football team and a former player in the CFL, said he’s open to innovation and wants to see how the changes will affect the game. (Michel Aspirot\/CBC)<\/p>\n
Players appear divided on the changes, however: B.C. Lions quarterback Nathan Rourke called them “garbage,” while\u00a0Hamilton Tiger-Cats quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell\u00a0embraced the new rules\u00a0as a way of “modernizing the game.”<\/p>\n
‘Too much like the NFL’<\/p>\n
Anastasio Deller, a Grade 12 student at St. Mathew\u00a0High School in\u00a0Orl\u00e9ans\u00a0and quarterback for the St. Matthew Tigers,\u00a0worried the game could lose its unique Canadian character once the new rules are in place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Up here in Canada, we’re known for our CFL football. We’re known to have these crazier plays, these bigger fields, bigger balls, everything like that, so I feel like it’s kind of\u00a0taken away our Canadian pride from the game,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s still football,\u00a0but I\u00a0think it’s a little bit too much like the NFL now.”<\/p>\n
Deller’s teammate Tristian Plante, a middle linebacker, said he’s a fan of the rouge and doesn’t understand the point of getting rid of it, but he welcomes some of the changes.<\/p>\n
“Honestly,\u00a0I like a bit of change,” he said. “[It]\u00a0makes it a bit harder, a little more of a challenge for everyone.”<\/p>\n
Corey Grant, head coach of the\u00a0Carleton Ravens football team and a former CFL player, called the changes “shocking” because the current rules have been around for so long,\u00a0but also said he’s open to innovation.<\/p>\n
“The rules have been the rules and it’s so uniquely Canadian, but when you see the changes you see, OK we’re trying to get innovative and move with the times and change things up,” he said.<\/p>\n
On Monday afternoon, U Sports, the national governing body for university athletics in Canada, issued a statement saying it\u00a0will begin engaging with its members to determine the ramifications of the CFL changes.<\/p>\n
“We’re not worried about what they’re doing in the pros, but we’re worried about what can make our game better and making sure we’re getting fans out there and are getting our support here,” Grant said.<\/p>\n
CBC News contacted the Ottawa Redblacks for comment but the team said no players were available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Changes being introduced by the CFL\u00a0are drawing mixed reaction from football fans, players and coaches in Ottawa, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-168284","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\/168284","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=168284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}