Quote Originally Posted by Gill The Thrill View Post
Thank God they never adopted any of those suggestions by Frank Clair from that 1974 article...that would have been ridiculous. 8 yds to get a first down, or go to 4 downs for 12 yds to get a first. Could you imagine what a Canadian Football Field would look like today. Possible stripes between 4 or 6 yds....lol. Could you imagine the equipment companies having to make exclusive 8 or 12 yd chains for Canadian Football. I'm glad there was a strong sense of Canadiana to keep the game the way it mostly was...Conversely, I'm glad we didn't go over the top and respected the football tradition and not change the unit of measurement to metres after Canada went to metric. That would've been just as ridiculous.
Only the chains would change, not the field. The field and its markings have nothing to do with how many yards it takes to make a first down. That being said, it would be viewed as ridiculous because the majority of people base Canadian football against American football. So for critics of the game, 3 downs is "weird" because in the NFL there are 4. The rouge is "stupid" because American football doesn't have it. Its a stupid argument because if there was no American football, those would just be the rules, and no one would think differently about it. Of course if there were no American football, Canadian football would be called Canadian Rugby, and it would look a lot different than it does now.

But that being said, there is nothing actually stupid or weird about it, and if Frank Clair's changes had come to fruition it would just be what it is. And in a Canadian football vacuum, it would mean nothing. Except there is no Canadian football vacuum. There is a constant pull from American football. Not to say that's an entirely bad thing.

So to the point, scoring is down comparable to the NFL, so what? High scoring games in itself are not what makes Canadian football exciting. Its the fact that you can score at any given time, late in the game due clock rules, or at any times given the field dimensions. Its the fact that if you are up by 1 you have to concern yourself that much more if the opposing team misses that FG. What do you do? Run it out, kick it out? Its the fact that by design or by luck you can recover your own kick. Its not weird or different, its just the way the game is.

And if American football never existed, we never would have these discussions about how to make the game better vs them. It would just be how to make the game better. Would the rouge stay the same? Maybe, or maybe it would change because there would be no push to keep the game Canadian. I asked the Mark Cohen on a reddit AMA if he was willing to change the rules of the single point so that a ball that was not returnable and sailed through the end zone could be considered a touchback. His answer was that they have no plan to change the rouge rule as that would alter the Canadiana of the game. WTF?

If there were no NFL, or American football, there's no need to protect the Canadiana of the game, it would just be what it is. But I know, there is the NFL, and there is American football, and they need to consider that, because people in general just believe that the CFL is some sort of off shoot of American football. Its not, it is its own game, with its own rules, but its too integrated into American football.