Rule Changes in CFL Football

Wow, practically every governing body for every sport in the world has altered rules to make that sport better, faster, more exciting, etc. That is, with maybe the exception of soccer, which is so mired in what is thought of as necessary tradition that it will never move into the 21st century or beyond. Volleyball, badminton, baseball, hockey, NFL football, basketball, curling and so many more have all made changes to rules that served to improve the games for participants and officials but especially for spectators of the game. Even chess has evolved versions of its game to include speed chess (blitz chess) and matches including multiple opponents and combinations of the two and resulting in games lasting less than one minute.

I used to play, coach and officiate volleyball before net serves were allowed and before the games were played to 25 points via the rally-point scoring system. Those 15 point, serve-to-score games were so brutally mind-draining and could (and would) last far beyond my own will to live or beyond the endurance of any bum in any seat in the house.

Curling games before the time-clock and time out limits were, indeed marathon events. Changes to overtime rules in the NFL have changed our way of thinking about tie games. The goal-tender trapezoidal area, elimination of the 2-line pass and tag-up offsides in hockey have made it a better game to play and to watch. Ball/strike challenges and the pitching clock in baseball have kept baseball alive and well. The list goes on.

Recent changes in some of the rules that govern the game of football in the Canadian Football League have angered some long-standing Canadian fans – you know, the fans that used to park on the street near the stadium and then pay two bucks to see the game and sit on hard old benches and eat 50-cent hot dogs, then wash them down with smuggled-in whiskey and concession-stand coke. The changes basically center around the size of the field to make it consistent throughout the league and to deemphasize the kicking game and promote more exciting plays from scrimmage. Basically, the game has not changed at all when you really think about it. Some fans simply have their backs up because they love saying, “How dare you?” and because they have little else to complain about in their lives.

We Canadian Football League fans live in a different world than we did in the days of George and Ronnie and Jackie Parker and Angela Mosca. There may be a few of us ancient traditionalists left, but we won't be around forever, and if the rules in our second favorite Canadian sport, don't change to keep up with the rest of the world, then it could soon become our third or fourth or tenth favorite sport. The interest of the next generation of fans, and the next and the next will soon wane to the point of extinction. It's not about having a Canadian game or an American game, as so many traditionalists are so quick to point out - it's about what the new generation of fan can stand to watch. The sport has to eventually cater to this new generation of fan. Attention span in the general population is decreasing rapidly whether we like it or not. There is little if anything we can do to reverse this trend. And besides, we baby-boomers will soon be watching the game from the comfort of our rooms in the retirement homes. And guess what? The game will still be recognizable to those of us with any remaining degree of faculty.

Time has become of equivalent importance to money, and right behind these two entities comes the "do something to blow me away" factor. If viewing audiences can't get immediate excitement and satisfaction within seconds of commencing their sports experience, then there are plenty of realistic and nearly perfect video games out there that can do it for them. Modern day fans will not pay top dollar to watch a football game, or any sport or game for that matter, that doesn’t render them hard and/or wet. Take Rodeo for instance. It has been around for ages but other than the safety gear now worn by bareback and bull riders, they haven’t changed anything. And, that’s because they didn’t have to. They got it down right from the beginning.

Put a cool handsome hero of sorts – a cowboy – on a monstrous violent beast and see if he can stay on it for 8 seconds, without getting thrown, maimed or killed. Then let’s watch some bull fighters for a minute so we can catch our breath before the whole thing happens again. There’s a touch of the whole Roman Gladiator vibe going on in rodeo. I am not suggesting that every sport adopt that sort of vibe to appease its audience but something other than lullaby performance has to be present for the bulk of the game.

How big is auto racing (Indy car or Formula 1) in the world right now? Giant crowds appear whenever and wherever there is an event. And guess what, they don’t come out by the tens of thousands to watch a car go around an oval or enhanced track a hundred times in three hours, they come out to see 30 cars go around a track a hundred times at 200 miles an hour with the genuine possibility of one or more serious collisions, pile-ups or crashes.

If the freeways in our major cities were packed with cars travelling on the north side of 200 mph each rush hour with no police intervention, they would also be packed with raving fans and spectators.

All of us old guys need to be patient with rule changes in the sports we have been playing, officiating, coaching and watching since we were kids. The changes aren't arbitrary nor made without thought, just to piss us off and make the Canadian game more "American". They are made with future viewership in mind, and by future, I mean those watching this game 5, 10, 20, 40, 50 years from now. Without occasional upgrades to our system, our 9-team CFL could easily become an 8 or 7-team league again, and that WOULD spell the end of it. I plan on sticking around to watch how the new rules pan out, and I am quite sure that will be the case for the vast majority of CFL fans. And, I am also quite sure that before the first season with new rules is over, we will be enjoying it as much or more than ever. Oh, and by the way – Go Riders!!!