Friday Morning Football: Football Variations - CFL

There are a number of people out there who only follow one kind of football. There are people who only watch the NFL or who only watch NCAA football. Then, even further, many of those fans don't even think that the Canadian version of football or the Arena version are real football.

Me? Well, I love it all. I am a fan of all versions of football and I love to play, coach, watch, keep up with, and collect stuff from all football leagues. So, I thought I might spend the next few blogs discussing what I like about each of the different levels and variations of football. I am doing this in no particular order so I am going to start with our neighbors to the North; the Canadian Football League (CFL). (www.cfl.ca)

In the CFL there are a number of obvious differences. Let's start with the field. It is 110 yards in length with the 55 yard line being midfield. The field is 65 yards in width and the end zones are 20 yards deep. In addition, the field goal posts are at the front of the end zone. In other words, it is a much larger field than a standard 11-man football field.

The larger size of the field is taken advantage of in Canadian football because they play with 12 players on the field for each team. Both the American and Canadian versions of the game require the same number of players at the line of scrimmage at the snap, so in the Canadian version the 12th player is a skill player on offense and a secondary/safety type player on defense.

The scoring in Canadian football is also different and while I am not going to go into all the ways you can score, I will mention that touchdowns are still 6pts with a PAT it becomes 7. However, in Canadian football you can still score a single point on certain types of plays and the kicking game is far more involved in the scoring and the game in general. One other thing is that in the Canadian game you have 3 downs to advance 10 yards while in the American game it is 4 downs.

The history of how the Canadian game developed and the changes made in the American game derived from a home and home set of games between McGill University and Harvard in 1874 is fascinating. Each version of the game was significantly impacted by this interesting 2 game series where it was decided to play half of each game with the other teams rules.

There are many other subtle and not so subtle differences between the games, but I enjoy the larger field and more players on the field. You would think that with the larger field and more space to work with Canadian games would be overly high scoring, however, the lack of a 4th down is definitely an equalizer in that regard. You can catch CFL football on tv on occasion here in the US. When I was in college, I played at the University of Puget Sound and we played a Canadian college in Simon Fraser University which was in British Columbia. The fascinating thing is that Simon Fraser would play 11-man American football against us (and a few other US universities) and the next week play 12-man Canadian football against other Canadian universities the next week. There is so much more that could be discussed about Canadian football but I simply don't have the time. If you haven't ever watched a game, I suggest you check it out, eh. You can see their website here: www.cfl.ca

Friday Morning Football: Tradition vs Change in College Football

There is a huge discussion that constantly rages through football and makes for some great water cooler debate. It is the idea of Tradition vs Change. While Tradition vs Change is a debate in many areas of the game, for the sake of this blog, I am going to direct the majority of my comments towards uniforms and helmets. There is a significant segment of football fans, coaches, etc who prefer the simpler uniforms of tradition laden schools such as Alabama, Penn State, Michigan, Nebraska, and USC for example. Often the demographic for those with this preference is 40's and older males who grew up watching those uniforms when only a handful of college football games were on each Saturday.



Then, there is the younger generation who has seen the coverage of football grow to epic proportions and like how daring Oregon has been and enjoys seeing Arizona State or Oklahoma State or the mighty Wyoming Cowboys in a different colored/design helmet depending on the weekend.


For me, I fall in between both groups. As an unabashed Nebraska fan, I love the traditional look of the simple N on the white helmet. One thing to keep in mind is that even this traditional helmet has gone through a number of look changes. At one point the Cornhuskers wore red helmet shells. On the white helmets they started with player numbers, moved to an offset NU on the helmet before finally just going with the N. The facemasks went from gray to red. So even traditional looks have had small changes over time.

I prefer my Huskers stay with the traditional white helmet, red facemask, red stripe and red N for 10 or so of their 12 games each season. However, for the other 1 or 2 games each year, I have no issues with them sporting an alternate look. And as for that alternate look, go as crazy as you want to! Put them in black helmets or red helmets with alternate logos. One helmet design recently had the helmet look like corn! I say, if you are going to go alternate, go big or don't go at all.

Unlike some who have hated how Oregon changes it's look more often than a chameleon, I have been okay with it. Some uniforms are going to suck when you do that. But some are going to be awesome! It is the risk you take. As for Oregon, it feels as if their tradition is actually just to change. If they stopped and wore just one home uniform combo and one away uniform combo at this point, we would have a lot less to talk about at the water cooler!

In a later blog, I will discuss the helmet and uniforms of the NFL. But for now, where you stand in the debate? Who is your school and what do you think of their uniforms and what they have done with it over the years?

Friday Morning Football: The Calm before the Storm

I have been fortunate enough to have been either a player or coach for over 20 years. To this day one of my favorite parts of being involved in the game is pregame. That last hour or so before kickoff. As a player, you are dealing with those butterflies; trying to focus and work yourself into a frenzy so that when you hit the field you are in that zone where you aren't having to think but rather just hitting and playing. A players pregame ritual is sacred and very individual. Some guys prefer it quiet and just spend time visualizing themselves making great plays. Many players prefer to have their headphones in listening to music that gets them going. In my day that included a lot of AC/DC or Guns N Roses. Again, what you listen to is a very personal choice. One of my favorites lately is 'Til I Collapse by Eminem. Even as a coach, I have my own pregame ritual. I try to eat the same meal, wear certain things, do certain responsibilities in a certain order because the fact of the matter is, it all matters. If a player or coach feels more confident because he does things a certain way or wears certain things, then they will most likely play or coach more confidently.

Then it is time to get out for warm-ups. Each team has their own methods for warm-ups. The idea is to get the body warmed up and ready to go along with giving the team time to focus on details and build their intensity. To me, these are the moments. Out on the field on a Friday Night under the lights there is nothing better. You can feel the electricity in the air. The energy carried by each player and coach and the restraint and focus to maintain that energy to the point you get to unleash it on the opponent.

For us, where I coach, we come out to do warm-ups and then go back into the lockerroom for one last review of details and then comes the pregame speech. Our head coach might be the best I have ever heard during a pregame speech. It has been more than once where I have left the lockerroom fired up enough to run through a wall myself after one of his speeches.

Then, with all that energy and intensity, just about every team enters the stadium (mostly at home games) with a last ritual. At Clemson, they enter through the crowd and touch a rock; at Nebraska they have the Tunnel Walk which very much involves the crowd; at Notre Dame they tap a sign that says, "Play Like a Champion Today". (Despite the fact I hate Notre Dame football, I love that sign) At the high school where I coach, we tap a sign above the door that says, "48 minutes to play, a lifetime to remember".


And then its on.


 

Friday Morning Football: A New Beginning

It has been quite a while since I have posted on my blog. I always had this vision of the blog here at HelmetNation being a cutting edge commentary on football and in particular football helmets as well as a place we showed the helmets we have made for youth leagues, high schools, colleges, businesses, semi-pro and arena/indoor teams. However, the thought that occurred to me this week as I was walking is that perhaps all I really need to do is post my thoughts on the game I love. So, that is what I intend to do.

I am not sure what it was that caused me to first love football. It certainly wasn't something I observed as I was the oldest child and my father isn't even remotely athletic or really interested in athletics. I suppose as a child I might have just loved how "cool" the players looked in their uniforms. But I know what it is about this game that I love now. To me all sports or athletic contests are commendable and anytime someone has a passion for anything from cycling to ice skating I think it is great. However, I feel no other sport challenges the athlete like football. All of the values of hard work, overcoming adversity, perseverance, mental toughness, compassion, teamwork, selflessness, and just about any other superlative you can come up with is taught in football when it is taught right.

"It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great."

- Tom Hanks, A League of Their Own

While the quote was used in a movie about women's baseball, that sums up football in three short sentences. The game isn't for everyone and there are certainly risks. But it is the "hard" in football that makes it the greatest game.

I have been fortunate to have been involved in football as either a player or a coach for most of my life. I don't have much natural athletic ability so I have always felt I was a better coach than I was a player. But either way, I love the game. So, it is here where I will explore both the positive and negative as I discuss the game.