Comparison of American and Canadian Football - History

History

Football was introduced to North America in Canada by the British Army garrison in Montreal, which played a series of games with McGill University. In 1874, USA's Harvard University hosted Canada's McGill University to play the new game derived from Rugby football in a home and home series. When the Canadians arrived several days early, in order to take advantage of the trip to see Boston and the surrounding areas, they held daily practices. During this time the Americans were surprised to see the Canadians kick, chase, and then run with the ball. Picking up and running with the ball violated a basic rule of the American game of the day; when the US captain (Henry Grant) pointed this out to the captain of the Canadian team (David Roger) the reply was simple: Running with the ball is a core part of the Canadian game. When the American asked which game the Canadians played, David replied "Rugby". After some negotiation it was decided to play a game with half and half Canadian/US rules. Thus many of the similarities and differences between the Canadian and American games indeed came out of this original home and home series where each home team set the rules. For instance, Harvard, because of a lack of campus space, did not have a full-sized rugby pitch. Their pitch was only 100 yards (91 m) long by 50 yards (46 m) wide with undersized endzones (slightly less than the 53⅓-yard width of the current regulation size for American Football). Because of the reduced field, the Harvard team opted for 11 players per side, four fewer than the regulation 15 of Rugby Union. To generate more offense, Harvard also increased the number of downs from 3, as set by McGill, to 4. Furthermore, the Harvard players so enjoyed running with the ball that this rule was wholly adopted into all Harvard play following the two games with McGill. While the American team bested the Canadian (3-0 and a following tie game), both countries' flavours of football were forever changed and linked to one another. Both the Canadian and American games still have some things in common with the two varieties of rugby, especially rugby league, and because of the similarities, the National Football League (NFL) has established a formal relationship with the Canadian Football League (CFL).

Many, perhaps most, of the rules differences have arisen because of rules changes in American football in the early twentieth century which have not been copied by Canadian football. The major Canadian codes never abolished the onside scrimmage kick (see Kicker advancing the ball below) or restricted backfield motion, while the American college football (from whose code all American codes derive) did. Canadian football was later in adopting the hand snap and the forward pass, although one would not suspect the latter from play today. Additionally, Canadian football was slower in removing restrictions on blocking, but caught up by the 1970s so that no significant differences remain today. Similarly, differences in scoring (the Canadian game valuing touchdowns less) opened up from the late 19th century but were erased by the 1950s. An area in which American football has been more conservative is the retention of the fair catch (see below).

In some regions along the Canada-USA border, especially western areas, some high schools from opposite sides of the border will regularly play games against one another (typically one or two per team per season). By agreement between the governing bodies involved, the field of the home team is considered a legal field, although it is a different size from one school's normal field. In all but a few cases, the rules of the home team are followed throughout the game.

Many CFL players are Americans who grew up playing American football and cannot find a place in the NFL, or who prefer to play in the CFL; strict import quotas restrict the number of non-Canadian players. Furthermore, the classifications of import (non-Canadian) and non-import (Canadian) are highly restrictive and require a player to have been in Canada since childhood to qualify as a non-import (i.e. a player cannot simply become a Canadian citizen and become a non-import, nor can he arrive in Canada during high school or college; both scenarios would still have the player in question classified as an import and counted against the team's maximum). For individuals who played both American and Canadian football professionally, their career statistic totals are considered to be their combined totals from their careers in both the CFL and NFL. Warren Moon, for example, was the all-time professional football leader in passing yards after an illustrious career in both leagues. He was surpassed in 2006 by Damon Allen who in turn was surpassed by Anthony Calvillo in 2011, both of whose careers were exclusively in the CFL.