Difference Between American And Canadian Football

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American football. Mike Morbeck via Compfight cc Although the Canadian Football League does hold a nationally-televised doubleheader on the Monday afternoon called the Thanksgiving Day Classic, growing up in Canada, my family never turned it on — and none of my friends' families did either. The biggest difference between Canadian and American football is the size of the playing field. In Canada, football fields are 110 yards long and 65 yards wide. In America football fields are 100 yards long and 53 and 1/3 yards wide.

American

Difference between american and canadian football

Both Canada and USA are in the continent of North America. But the epithet 'American' usually applies to people and products from the U.S. Likewise 'America' usually refers to the US.

Portrayal of Canadians in the U.S.

Football

American sitcoms usually poke fun at their neighbor (e.g. 'Oh honey, Canadians don't matter' in That 70s Show) and often portray a stereotype of Canadians as polite people who are passionate about hockey.

Portrayal of Americans in Canada

Canadian television often portrays Americans as loud, opinionated people with a limited knowledge of things outside the U.S. Rick Mercer's Talking to Americans included Governor Mike Huckabee believing that Canada was building a dome over its 'National Igloo' to protect it from global warming.

American film can also portray Americans this way. Canadian Bacon, an American film, had John Candy's character say 'There is a time for thinking and a time for action and this, gentlemen, is no time to think,' when debating whether to initiate an attack.

Sports

Football, baseball and basketball are the most popular sports in the U.S. while ice hockey is the most popular Canadian sport.

Video Explaining the Differences

Below is a comical look at the differences between Canadians and Americans.

In football scoreboards news, we look at the history of football and why Canadian differs from American football in this important way.

The CFL has just a rich history as the NFL. Its origins can be traced back to the 1860’s when rugby football was played in Canada. Over the decades, as in American football, Canadian football slowly formed into the game we know today. The first gridiron match was played in Toronto in 1861, and it quickly took off in popularity. The development of the game at the beginning practically mirrored that of in the US, but a bit later on the relevant associations started making independent decisions and some different rules were adopted.

So what (and when?) exactly happened to make the Canadian game differ from the American game in such an important aspect: the number of downs?

Difference Between American And Canadian Football

“Football scoreboards news” found out that to start with you have to go way back to the 1890’s. Walter Camp, one of the forefathers of the game in North American as a whole, introduced the scrimmage and down and distance rules. There were a large number of rugby unions that time in Canada, and they liked the idea and implemented it. They did not, however, elect to change the number of players from 15 a side.

With the dawn of the new century, John Burnside, who captained the university football team in Toronto, reduced the quantity of players per side from 15 to 12, and brought in the rule in which teams must gain 10 years in 3 downs. In Camp’s original rule teams had 5 downs.

These new rules were resisted to start with by the provincial rugby unions in Canada, but they were eventually adopted. At this time, American football also had three downs, and this remained the case until 1912. In this year, the rule makers elected to increase the number of downs from 3 to 4. The Canadian Rugby Union stayed with the Burnside rules, and kept three downs. Perhaps they would have followed the American example, but World War 1 forced the suspension of all official games for 2 years, and by the time things got going again, in the beginning of the 1920’s, any thoughts of changing the rules to meet the US standards had been dropped.

The Canadians adopted the forward pass, but not until 1929, and the CRU did not make this rule official until 1931. The first touchdown pass in the history of the Grey Cup was made that year, by a guy called Warren Stevens. Since that time rules have come and gone, changes have constantly been made to the game, as in American football, but that one, all so important, rule has remained that distinguishes it from its Southern partner. Canadians are probably happy about that!

Difference Between American And Canadian Football Coaches

For more information, go to:
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