{"id":460013,"date":"2026-02-07T16:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T16:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/460013\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T16:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T16:12:09","slug":"theyre-trying-to-americanize-it-doug-flutie-doesnt-like-cfl-rule-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/460013\/","title":{"rendered":"‘They’re trying to Americanize it’: Doug Flutie doesn’t like CFL rule changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo courtesy: Bob Butrym\/RFB Sport Photography<\/p>\n

CFL commissioner Stewart Johnston insists becoming more like the league\u2019s southern neighbours is not the aim of his structural rule changes, but the most dominant player to grace a Canadian field doesn\u2019t see it that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, they\u2019re trying to Americanize it a little bit, and I don\u2019t like it,\u201d Doug Flutie told Bob \u2018The Moj\u2019 Marjanovich from Super Bowl LX radio row<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s a unique game, and I think you\u2019ve got to keep it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CFL announced several controversial structural changes<\/a> in September, which will be rolled out over the next two seasons. Beginning in 2026, the rouge will be modified to eliminate points for missed field goals, and the play clock will be changed to 35 seconds of running time. In 2027, goal posts will be moved to the back of the end zone, the end zone will be shortened to 15 yards, and the field itself will shrink to 100 yards, eliminating the iconic 55-yard line.<\/p>\n

The league opted not to discuss these changes with general managers, coaches, or players prior to their announcement, believing such substantial proposals would become bogged down in debate<\/a>. Johnston claimed he received no pushback at the CFL winter meetings in January<\/a>, though the moves remain divisive amongst fans and players<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Canadian quarterback and CFL Most Outstanding Player Nathan Rourke was the most vocal critic of the changes<\/a>, lending his voice to those who fear the announcement was the first step on a slippery slope towards four-down football<\/a>. Flutie appears to share some of those reservations, though he believes there is a broader motivation for these decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is where I think it\u2019s going. It\u2019s hard to fit the field in a lot of stadiums, and they\u2019re trying to make that happen for expansion purposes,\u201d he mused.<\/p>\n

Flutie played for the B.C. Lions, Calgary Stampeders, and Toronto Argonauts from 1990 to 1997, witnessing the rise and fall of the CFL\u2019s American expansion project. While the league has fielded calls from prospective franchise owners on both sides of the border<\/a>, there are no concrete plans to expand in the near future<\/a>, and Johnston has stated that his desire is to see a 10th team in Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A shortened field will allow the CFL to play in more venues both at home and abroad, though the length of the end zones and width of the playing surface will remain larger than their American counterpart. Flutie conceded that cropping five-yards off the end zone might be acceptable and credits much of his success to the wide-open expanses Canada will continue to provide.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the width of the field opens it up and allows for more\u00a0space,\u201d the 63-year-old said in a separate interview with 620 CKRM\u2019s The SportsCage<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI go back to the first game I played in. It was a preseason game with British\u00a0Columbia in Winnipeg. It was a three-step drop, quick throw. It wasn\u2019t there. I kind of pump fake and I go to scramble right. Muscle memory kind of kicks in, you take off,\u00a0get around the edge, and you go to turn it upfield. I go to turn it upfield, and I\u2019ve got\u00a0another 15 yards over here. I\u2019ve got all kinds of space. By the end of the first game or two\u00a0that I played, I\u2019m thinking this feels like cheating. I had all this room to run around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flutie used that extra space to throw for 41,355 yards, 270 touchdowns, and 155 interceptions, while rushing for 4,660 yards and 66 scores. He won a record six Most Outstanding Player awards and three Grey Cups, earning induction into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2008.<\/p>\n

Despite leaving the CFL for a renewed NFL shot entering the 1998 season, Flutie has continued to keep tabs on the league up north, particularly quarterbacks like Rourke and Bo Levi Mitchell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201c(I follow it) loosely. I\u2019m still close with Dave Dickenson out in\u00a0Calgary and John Hufnagel, Huf, I think went to help out in Toronto now,\u201d he said. \u201cI watch the\u00a0games, during the summer a\u00a0lot of times I\u2019ll find them. And once I find it, boom, I\u2019m watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CFL will always hold a special place in Flutie\u2019s heart because of what it did for his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than anything, it put the fun back in football for me. I didn\u2019t even know the game yet, and I\u2019m calling my own plays in British Columbia. It was a little different,\u201d he told Marjanovich.<\/p>\n

\u201cBob O\u2019Billovich came in the middle of that season and kind of put me in a CFL offence, and it started rolling. Just the nature of the game, the style, the size of the field, all that stuff lent itself to my abilities, and I regained my confidence and really started enjoying it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the structural foundation that allowed Flutie\u2019s resurgence to take shape may be shifting, hopefully, it never cracks or collapses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy: Bob Butrym\/RFB Sport Photography CFL commissioner Stewart Johnston insists becoming more like the league\u2019s southern neighbours…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,188111,49,48,7028,521,522,520,188112,22551,527,2002,41816,82,84996],"class_list":["post-460013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-americanization","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-doug-flutie","tag-expansion","tag-football","tag-league","tag-rule-changes","tag-sports","tag-stewart-johnston"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460013","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=460013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}