Tag:sport=canadian_football

sport = canadian_football

Description

A sport played by two teams of 12 players on a rectangular field with goal posts at each end.

Group: sports

Used on these elements

Useful combination

Summary

Canadian football is a form of gridiron football played in Canada, in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field with goal posts at each end. Points are scored by advancing the ball to the opponent's goal area (also known as the "end zone") and retaining possession of the ball in the goal area, or kicking the ball through the goal posts or out of bounds in the goal area. In Canada this sport is known simply as "football", however we use the more precise tag sport=canadian_football to disambiguate it from other sports known as "football".

Description

Canadian football is a form of gridiron football played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play 110 yards (101 m) long and 65 yards (59 m) wide attempting to advance a pointed prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team's scoring area (end zone). In Canada, the term football may refer to Canadian football and American football collectively, or either sport specifically, depending on context. The two sports have shared origins and are closely related but have significant differences. In particular, Canadian football has 12 players on the field per team rather than 11; the field is roughly 10 yards wider, and 10 yards longer between end zones that are themselves 10 yards deeper; and a team has only three downs to gain 10 yards, which results in less offensive rushing than in the American game. In the Canadian game all players on the defending team, when a down begins, must be at least 1 yard from the line of scrimmage. (The American game has a similar "neutral zone" but it is only the width of the football.)

Rugby football in Canada originated in the early 1860s, and over time, the unique game known as Canadian football developed. Both the Canadian Football League (CFL), the sport's top professional league, and Football Canada, the governing body for amateur play, trace their roots to 1880 and the founding of the Canadian Rugby Football Union. Currently active teams such as the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats have similar longevity. The CFL is the most popular and only major professional Canadian football league. Its championship game, the Grey Cup, is the country's single largest sporting event, attracting a broad television audience (in 2009, about 40% of Canada's population watched part of the game).^[1] Canadian football is also played at the high school, junior, collegiate, and semi-professional levels: the Canadian Junior Football League, formed May 8, 1974, and Quebec Junior Football League are leagues for players aged 18–22, many post-secondary institutions compete in Canadian Interuniversity Sport for the Vanier Cup, and senior leagues such as the Alberta Football League have grown in popularity in recent years. Great achievements in Canadian football are enshrined in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

Other organizations across Canada perform senior league Canadian football during the summer.

How to Map

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sport=canadian_football

Useful Combination

Since this is a non-physical tag it should always be combined with some other (physical) tags, eg:* leisure=pitch

Canadian vs. American football fields

sport=canadian_football and sport=american_football fields appear similar at a glance but are in fact dimensionally different. Some fields may accommodate the markings for both Canadian and American codes, but most do not. The differences should be obvious on the ground or from higher resolution aerial imagery:

	`sport=canadian_football`	`sport=american_football`
Length between goal lines	110 yards "C" or "55" at the centre, with two "50" yard lines on either side	100 yards "50" yard line at the center
Goal posts	At the front of the end zone	At the back of the end zone
End zone	20 yards deep	10 yards deep
Diagram

The Canadian field is also wider (65 yards vs. 53 1/3 yards for American) and has different hash mark placement, however these relative dimensions aren't as obvious. See Comparison of American and Canadian football#Playing area on Wikipedia for a fuller description.

A gridiron field in the US is probably for American football, whereas one in Canada is probably for Canadian football.