J.Bartel to the CFL?

No, no, no, All-Australian Jimmy Bartel isn’t going anywhere, but Australian Josh Bartel is.

Who is Josh Bartel?

He’s one of a growing number of Aussie Rules players who are trying their hand at North America’s version of ‘footy’. At the moment, he is currently punting for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League.

While most non North Americans will be oblivious to its existence, the CFL is Canada’s answer to the NFL but with some unique differences.

Here are the main variances:

The official playing field in Canadian football is larger than the American field, and similar to American fields prior to 1912. The Canadian field of play is 110 yards long by 65 yards wide (101 m by 59 m), rather than 100 yards long by 53 yards wide (91 m by 49 m) as in American football. The end zones in Canadian football are ten yards deeper than American football end zones as the CFL uses 20 yard (18 m) deep end zones.

In American football there are four downs, while in Canadian football there are three.

These differences translate to more space and less opportunity to advance the ball with running. This encourages more of a passing game in the CFL and I personally love watching the risky long bomb passes that are a regular occurrence in the Canadian game.

American teams use eleven players, while Canadian teams have twelve players on the field per side. Both games have the same number of players required at the line of scrimmage, so the twelfth player in the Canadian game plays a backfield position.

With a dramatically larger playing surface and a higher percentage of throwing plays, the extra player occupies defensive space to prevent the field from being too open to the offensive team.

There are a few more differences to the Canadian derivative of football but to my untrained eye the rest is very similar to the American version. So similar in fact, that many of the players in the Canadian system are drafted from the American NCAA system. Players typically use the CFL as a launching pad for their football careers and often promising players are drafted from the CFL to the NFL after standout seasons. Indeed the CFL is a bit of a ‘farm league’ for the bigger, more powerful NFL. 

In geographical terms the CFL is most popular in the prairie (middle) region of Canada but is also widely played in the eastern provinces such as Ontario and Quebec. Being from British Columbia (the most westerly province) I had minimal expose to football and unfortunately have never played. Maybe it’s not too late…

Yours in all things Canadian,

Mike Pyke

P.S. Thanks to Canadian Rob Trainor, who wrote in on the subject.

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