Have you ever noticed that Europeans get upset whenever an American refers to “football” as “soccer”? And how about the fact that Americans refer to their own most popular sport as “football” even though it isn’t soccer? I’m not trying to confuse you here. This seems to be a legitimate concern for many in Europe, especially the British. For their part, Americans don’t really care what other people think about their sports preferences.
But, to avoid confusion here, let’s refer to “American football” by its technically correct name: “gridiron” or “football.”
Gridiron evolved in the 1800s in North America out of soccer and rugby, which were imported by the British. Notice I said North America? Yes, that’s because gridiron is the second most popular sport in Canada, right behind hockey. As much as Canadians may want to distance themselves from their neighbors south of their border, the reality is that they have as much in common with them, if not more, than they do with their British cousins across the pond.
In fact, the modern rules of gridiron football were first developed at McGill University in Montreal in the late 1800s and then adopted by schools and clubs in the United States.
The game then developed quickly in both countries to resemble its current method of play. The field of play is a one-hundred-yard field divided into “yard markers,” giving it a gridiron look (thus, the name). The ball is spherical, like in rugby, and the teams attempt to score by either running the ball into the end zones or kicking it through goalposts, also like in rugby. But that’s where the similarities end.
Instead of constant play, gridiron play is divided into “downs” where the team with possession of the ball has three to four attempts to get a fresh set of downs. If the team in possession of the ball fails to get a new set of downs then the other teams gains possession. Six points are awarded for running the ball into the end zone (a touchdown), while either one point or three points are awarded for kicking the ball through the goalposts. Teams that score a touchdown can either attempt to get one “extra point” by kicking the ball through the goalposts or two “extra points” by getting the ball into the end zone on one play.
To a Brit who thinks gridiron is dumb or boring, the rules and play of a National Football League (NFL) game may look the same as that of a Canadian Football League (CFL) game. But to Americans and Canadians, they are quite different.
Both games use the same type of ball. They also advance the ball and score in similar fashion, and the length of the games are the same. Beyond that, however, there are some notable differences.
CFL teams field twelve men on a team at a time, while NFL teams only field eleven. The CFL fields are also slightly longer in the end zones and wider, which makes for quicker play. There are also only three downs per possession in the CFL versus four in the NFL, which creates higher scoring games and much more passing.
The goalposts are in the front of the end zones in the CFL, instead of in the back as they are in the NFL.
Scoring is pretty much the same in both leagues, except the CFL has a “single,” which can be scored when the team kicking off kicks the ball through the end zone.
Because Canada is a much smaller country, the CFL is a much smaller league and generates much less revenue. The top CFL players earn about five hundred thousand dollars, which is great for the average Canadian or American, but nothing compared to their NFL counterparts. There are also only nine teams in the CFL, and the stadiums are much smaller than those in the NFL.
Because winter starts so early in much of Canada, especially in the plains and Rocky Mountain provinces, the CFL begins play in June and wraps up with the championship game (known as the Grey Cup) in late November. The early start also allows the CFL to pick up some fans south of the border since the NFL doesn’t begin its regular season until early September.
There have been attempts, usually by American businessmen, to export gridiron from North America to other parts of the world, but they have largely failed. The NFL established a minor league in Europe that folded, and although there are minor leagues in several non-North American countries, they haven’t generated very much interest. So, for the foreseeable future, gridiron—or football as Americans and Canadians like to call it—will stay primarily north of the Rio Grande.