Comparison of American and Canadian Footballs: Main Differences

North America is famous for playing a different kind of football from the rest of the world. The game is a close relative of what other regions refer to as rugby, which is no surprise considering this version of football descended from it. Professional football fans hailing from North America have two choices of the famous game.

One is the National Football League (NFL), hailing from the United States, and one of the largest sports leagues worldwide. The second is the Canadian Football League (CFL), which is played in Canada. Both kinds of football are very similar to each other, but they have some main differences that set them apart.

Pitch Size 

The official playing field used in Canadian football is bigger than that of American football. The former is 100.6 by 59.44 meters, which is similar to American fields before 1912. The latter is 91.44 by 48.77 meters. Canada added 20-yard end zones in 1986, making them 10 yards deeper than those of American football. Previously, the end zones covered 25 yards, and it was Vancouver’s B.C. The place that shaved it down to 20 yards in 1986. The Toronto Argonauts broke it down further to 18 yards in 2016. With these end zones, Canadian fields are 34% bigger than those used in the United States.

The fields also differ in their placement of the goalposts for kicking. In American football, they are at the end line, while in the Canadian version, they are at the goal line. Canadian rules have 21.9 meters between the sideline and hash marks. In America, there are three different distances depending on the level being played as follows: 

•  Amateur (high school level) – 16.26 meters
•  NCAA (college level) – 18.29 meters
•  NFL (professional level) – 21.56 meters

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Team Size

Canadian football plays with twelve players on each team, while the American variant has eleven. Both sports feature the same number of offensive players placed at the scrimmage line, and the twelfth player in Canadian teams holds a backfield position.

This influences the position designations of different offensive and defensive lines. For instance, American football has tight ends that were faced out in the Canadian version in 1980. Instead, Canadian teams have two slotbacks.

Ball Size

Historically, the Canadian Football League has used a slightly larger ball than the National Football League. The CFL had bigger specifications, and Canadian manufacturers tended to create balls that fell on the larger end of the allowed tolerance. The NFL, on the other hand, made balls that were on the smaller tolerance end. However, Canada has since updated its specifications as recently as 2018 to adopt the NFL specifications.

Motion at the Snap

Canadian football allows all offensive backfield players to be in motion at the snap except the quarterback. The players can move in any direction as long as they remain behind the scrimmage line at the snap. Also, the two wide receivers at each end of the line of scrimmage can be in motion.

Teams encourage a lot of movement to confuse the opponent’s defence and give receivers a running start advantage. That way, they can cross the line of scrimmage fast when the ball is snapped and get downfield more quickly than if they had not been moving initially.

On the other hand, American football allows only one offensive player to be in motion after all the others are set. He cannot move toward the line of scrimmage as the ball is being snapped. The player’s motion must start behind the line of scrimmage while those on the line cannot move.

Time

In Canadian football, teams must run a play within 20 seconds despite the preceding situation. However, in American football, the offensive team has 25 seconds after the referee whistles the play-in at the high school level. This changes in the NCAA and NFL, where teams have to run a play in 40 seconds from the previous play’s end. They also get 25 seconds after a timeout or penalty.

Canadian football also has a three-minute warning that traverses all levels of the sport, and the clock is stopped after every play that occurs during the last three minutes of each half. American football cuts it down to a two-minute warning and grants three timeouts in each half. However, in the NCAA, the two-minute warning is scrapped, but the clock stops on a first down. The game continues when the ball is ready to play.

Scrimmage

Both American and Canadian football sports place the ball at a line of scrimmage. The center player performs a snap that kicks off a football play. Canadian football laws dictate that the snap must go between the center’s legs. American football has no such rule, but it is performed the same way regardless to ensure the center is in a blocking position after the snap. Canadian football places one yard between the line of scrimmage and the defensive team. This distance is reduced to eleven inches in American football, making it seem like players are head-to-head against each other.

Downs

Both football versions offer a team a set number of downs to get the ball across ten yards. In Canadian football, they are limited to three, and American football raises them to four.

Salaries

Football mainly revolves around money, and the NFL is loaded in this respect. Therefore, its players’ salaries are a lot higher than those of CFL players. Averagely the salary of an NFL player is about USD2.7 million, while that of a CFL player is CAD96,857. Canadian players often have to hold second jobs during the off-season to supplement their football income. The highest-paid NFL player, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, earns an annuals salary of USD45 million. Others that top the list include;

•  Dak Prescott (Cowboys Q.B.) – USD40 million
•  Deshaun Watson (Texans Q.B.) – USD39 million
•  Russell Wilson (Seahawks Q.B.) – USD35 million
•  Aaron Rodgers (Packers Q.B.) – USD33.5 million
•  Jared Goff (Rams Q.B.) – USD33.5 million
•  Kirk Cousins (Vikings QB) – USD33 million

These salaries are miles ahead of the CAD2.9 million paid to B.C. Lions QB Mike Reilly, which is the highest-earning Canadian football player.

Verdict

Canadian and American football are both entertaining in similar and different ways. The CFL and NFL run tournaments every year that can be watched on various sports channels.

(Devdiscourse's journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)