Episode 9 of Luke Willson\u2019s \u201dFilm Never Lies”<\/a> podcast. \u201cNot a person, not a thought, nothing. It [the accusation] truly took us aback, because it was never a consideration. This was about some modernization of some rules that will allow our game to be exposed in the best possible light.<\/p>\n\u201c\u2026At the state of the league [address], we wanted to make sure we addressed this as clearly as possible. We are focused on what we believe truly makes the CFL game so special: three downs, 12 players, wide field, big end zones, a yard off the ball, motion, halo. When we do surveys, those are the things that come up and reflect so wonderfully about our game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The moves were announced after Johnston and the league spent the summer taking a look at these rules before presenting and discussing the modifications with the Board of Governors, where there was a unanimous vote in favour of the changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got an amazing team at our football operations group at the league office,\u201d said Johnston. \u201cWe spent the summer with that group, and said, let\u2019s look at a couple of things that can modernize the game, while making sure the core of our game is absolutely protected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey ran the data; they did the research. The absolute catalyst of it all was taking that obstruction that\u2019s in the middle of our field, the goalposts, and opening up our end zones. In looking at that, we realized the benefits are almost countless to moving those goalposts back.\u201d<\/p>\n
The moving of the goalposts is designed to allow passing offences to target the middle of the end zone more effectively and to make settling for field goals less attractive. The CFL is projecting 10 per cent more end-zone completions and 60 more touchdowns per year, better sight lines for fans in-stadium and on broadcast, and improved player safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it is an obstruction,\u201d Johnston said of the current goalpost location. \u201cIt affects your offence coming down, it affects your defence getting picked, it affects your punt game from your own end zone, and it affects your offensive game when you\u2019re on your own one-yard line, [as] you\u2019re completely blocked from half the field. It is without a doubt the most important in terms of modernizing our game.\u201d<\/p>\n
All the upcoming changes go hand in hand, and with the goal posts being moved back, the end zones will also be shortened by five yards. While they will still remain the largest end zone in professional football, the change is almost necessary to keep the kicking game relevant.<\/p>\n
As for the 2026 changes, all teams will be required to have their bench areas on opposite sides of the field. The purpose is to eliminate cases where players have to run 50 to 60 yards to make a substitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talk about being a top-tier major professional sports league. I don\u2019t think you can do that with two football benches on the same side of the field. It\u2019s small, but I think important,\u201d said Johnston.<\/p>\n
Replacing the current 20-second play clock, which does not start until manually initiated by an official, will be a 35-second play clock that will automatically begin as soon as the previous play is whistled dead.<\/p>\n
The purpose of this change is to eliminate inconsistencies across the board and to improve game flow.<\/p>\n
\u201cA standard play clock allows us to give an expectation of our coaches and players of how long there is between each play, and it\u2019s not random,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cWith benches on both sides, that issue of a long run in a substitution gets mitigated because you can have your subs much closer to the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The most talked about topic of Stewart Johnston\u2019s first year as CFL commissioner has been the rule changes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[712,49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-351536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351536","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=351536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}