DANKOCHIK’S DRAFTINGS COLUMN: CFL’s rule changes baffling

Any small “welcome back,” style of column for Dankochik’s Draftings was put immediately on hold Sept. 22, as the CFL announced rule changes.

Canadian football has been my favourite sport for a long time and I am a staunch traditionalist when it comes to the CFL (I still hate the narrowing of the hashmarks). It should be no surprise I am strongly against any and all rule changes.

Changing the rouge is one rule I would have liked, had it been in isolation. I’ve always viewed the rouge as punishment for not returning a kick. If a ball isn’t returnable, the team shouldn’t be punished. But with the other field changes (shortened end zones/field, field goal posts at the back), even the one good rule change ends up as the negative to me.

Moving the goalpost location is the true reason the rouge change makes no sense. Getting rid of missed field goal returns and kick-outs is just a flat-out negative for the CFL. Even at the high school level, it’s rare to see the posts come into play, and when it does, it’s a cool moment.

I would have preferred a “fly through,” instead of “bounce through” tweak, especially given the new, shorter endzones.

The 35-second play clock seems bad to me, specifically for its impact on the final minutes of the game. I don’t like the change for the entire game, but that’s probably just my bias for keeping things the way they are.

For a league with a tagline of “no lead is safe,” mucking around with the timing rules in the final minutes seems dangerous.

The best thing about the Canadian game is it’s quirks and weirdness. Keep Canadian football weird. These philosophy behind these rule changes seems to be the exact opposite.

I hate shortening the end zones. One of the coolest things about the CFL was the custom end zones. I would have embraced that further, and make every team able to build their own end zone with minimums and maximums, instead of cutting off for track space.

Moving the field down to 100 yards is the biggest red flag. Why? Who didn’t like the 55-yard line? It’s just further Americanizing the game for no reason.

The league claims these changes will increase scoring. I’m not sure I believe them. I think we’ll see way more punts instead of field goals.

My biggest question with these rule changes is — what’s the point? It seems like a complete half-measure, designed to appeal to no one. If the CFL is going to move to full NFL rules eventually, I’d rather they just rip the Band-Aid off and get it over with.

Canadian football haters in Canada don’t care about the history, they don’t care about the rules, they just enjoy lording the superior quality of players the NFL has over the CFL. Even exactly copying the NFL will do nothing to appeal to those people.

One has to question why these rule changes were done under a veil of secrecy, with neither college, junior, the players or coaches consulted. These rules are decrees from the league’s overlords, without any kind of consultation.

Why were they announced as a sure thing, instead of a thing that will be tested? The best rule change in the history of sports (basketball introducing the shot clock) was tested in scrimmages before being immediately implemented.

If changes were to come to Canadian football, I would have preferred a shift back to rugby compared to American rules. League brass has even refused to rule out moving to four downs in the future, which was terrifying to hear.

The only truly Canadian thing (aside from the ratio, which isn’t going anywhere even with full NFL rules) left in the league will be the waggle and three downs.