Canadian Football

The man in the bar was puzzled as he looked at the television screen. No doubt about it, he was watching a football game. He could even recognize some of the players' names: Choo-Choo Roberts from the New York Giants, Al Pfeifer, who once played end for Fordham, Tom McHugh from Notre Dame. Still, something was wrong. There were twelve men on the field for each team, and no whistles blew.

To the U.S. fan's surprise, nothing was wrong at all. He was watching a Canadian game between the Toronto Argonauts and the Ottawa Rough Riders, televised from Toronto by NBC, which will carry such football all season.

Longer & Wider. Even in Canada pro football is a relative newcomer to big-time sport. Prewar clubs drew small crowds, were no match for the hopped-up enthusiasm of intercollegiate competition. Then the pros began to import popular American stars, and as the quality of pro football picked up, so did the size of the rooting sections. November's Grey Cup. classic--the playoff for the professional championship--began to pack Toronto's Varsity Stadium (capacity: 27,500).

U.S. players who traveled north had little trouble switching to the Canadian game. Touchdowns, they discovered, count only five points. Fields are ten yards longer than the standard 100-yd. gridirons at home; end zones are 25 rather than ten yards deep; kicks that carry over the end zone or are not run out by a defending player score one point (a rouge), a factor that helps eliminate tie games. Fields are also wider than at home (65 yds. v. 53 1/3), tempting offensive teams to try wide, sweeping, running plays.

The twelfth man is a fifth wheel in the backfield, and all five can be in motion before the ball is snapped. There is ample opportunity for the organized confusion of trick plays and hipper-dipper, crowdpleasing football. There are no time outs except for injury, and Canadian football takes on an even more frantic pace because a team is allowed only three downs to gain ten yards. Passes come fast and frequently as quarterbacks shoot for the distance. The ball changes hands so often that kicking takes on an exaggerated importance. Downfield, a punt receiver is allowed no fair catches, gets only the dubious protection of a five-yard safety zone until the ball is caught. Long run-backs, as a result, are few and far between. Hocus-Pocus. Despite the warm (70DEG) Toronto weather, last week's game was a satisfactory curtain raiser for the Canadian football season. Both teams cut loose with some of the spectacular football that home-town fans take for granted. One interception resulted in a triple lateral: Al Pfeifer brought the shirtsleeved crowd to its feet with a wild, diving catch of a 31-yd. scoring pass. There was enough hocus-pocus in each backfield to catch U.S. camera crews continually off guard. Often they focused on a decoy runner as he bucked and twisted downfield. Final score: Argonauts 13, Rough Riders 6.

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