PonyFans.com

So someone told me the 100th Canadian championship game is today, and will be on US TV on some NBC channel. If you've never checked it out, go read the rules. Sounds like a game may be worth watching in an arena ball kind of way.

Some rule highlights:

- 3 downs
- 12 men (extra man in backfield)
- unlimited motion for men in backfield
- 120 yard long field, wider also, with 20 yard deep endzones
- goalpost on the goalline
- more liberal rules about the kicking team recovering a punt/field goal, including the ball is always live and recoverable by the kicker or anyone behind the kicker when it is kicked.
- you can dropkick or punt from anywhere, including past the line of scrimmage.

Perhaps the biggest rule difference affecting strategy:
- If you miss a fieldgoal and it goes out the back of the endzone or the other team doesn't return it from the endzone you get a point
- Since the endzone is 20 yards deep and the upright is on the goalline, this happens frequently

So here's an example of using kicking like a hailmary to try to win a tied game as time runs out:

Team tries to kick a fieldgoal, misses.
Other team punts it out to avoid the missed kick being downed in the endzone for 1 point
Original kicking team punts it back in to try to get some points, the receiving team touches it and it becomes live and is recovered for a TD. If the receiving team had caught it and not run/kicked it out, or if nobody picked up the ball, the kicking team would have gotten 1 point.

I think.

Whacky.

You forgot to mention the absurdity at the use of Canadian athletes in sport.

The one rule I would take from the CFL and adopt in American football is the "rouge point" or "single point." Which awards the kicking team a point if the ball is kicked into the end zone and the receiving team fails to return it.

Currently, if you have a kicker that can boom a kickoff or punt into the EZ, you are essentially penalized 20 yards for his ability. The rouge point would eliminate that and change kicking strategy.