Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the best football league on the planet!

Not the EPL
Not La Ligue
Not the NFL

You got it! The CFL season is now upon us!

3 down football!

Wider & longer fields!

Unlimited men in motion!

Single points for missed field goals!

This year will feature reviewable pass interference calls and also add a 9th team in the Ottawa Redblacks

Let's take a quick recap of what happened in 2013:

The Saskatchewan Roughriders won their 4th Grey Cup on home soil last year and the city of Regina had a party.



This year is a special year as it marks the return of a franchise in Ottawa who are now called the Redblacks.

Here are your teams that will be vying for the 102 Grey Cup:

West:

Saskatchewan Roughriders



The defending champions will look to repeat but it will not be easy with them losing some really solid core players. Grey Cup MVP Kory Sheets and standout WR Weston Dressler both headed south for the NFL. The Riders also lost 2 great defensive players in the expansion draft (Shologun, Butler). However, many of the core players are still in Saskatchewan and they should contend for the title again this year, including in my mind the best O-Line in the league.

Key Player: Darian Durant

There is no position like the starting QB for the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the CFL. With the largest fanbase and the guy that faces the most pressure, Durant had a great season last year and led the Riders to the promised land. Their will be expectations on him to do this once again for this glorious franchise.

Departures: Butler, Dressler, Hall, McElveen, Sanders, Schmitt, Sheets, Willy, Shologan, Rey Williams, McCullough, Simon

Arrivals: Lee, Shomari Williams, Bartel

Calgary Stampeders



The Stampeders had the best record in the West last year and expectations will once again be high for this team. The team has the best RB in the league in Jon Cornish and they have very dependable WR. The Stamps also have one of the best D-Lines in the league so this team is a team to look out for and should be one of the favorites to win the Grey Cup this year.

Key Player: Jon Cornish

Cornish won the league's Most Outstanding Player award last year by putting up a league leading 1800+ yards rushing. This guy is hands down the best RB in the league and he will be leading the Stamps again this year.

Departures: Glenn, Gott, Tsoumpas, Deane, Phillips, Law, Jackson, Fraser, Heffney, Taylor

Arrivals: Moniz, Lavertu, Charbonneau-Campeau, Smith, Evans, Whonder, Shell, Williams, Harris, Thibault

BC Lions



The BC Lions will host the 102 Grey Cup this year which is great news for them as the previous 3 years has had the host city hoisting the Grey Cup at the end of the year. Lulay is still recovering from surgery so the Lions will look at veteran Kevin Glenn to lead them to the promised land. For the past several years the teams to beat in the West have been the Lions, Stamps & Riders and I believe that this year will be the same.

Key player: Adam Bighill

Bighill will lead this team defensively and he has a pretty kick ass last name so he gets the nod as the key player.

Departures: Moore, Reid, Shell, Banks, Kobongo, Archibald, McKenzie

Arrivals: Glenn, Mitchell, Johnson, Poblah, Schmitt

Edmonton Eskimos:



Last year was a rough year for the Eskimos that ended up seeing their head coach replaced so it will be interesting to see how they fare this year. Unfortunately for them they are in the tough West division so I don't expect big things from them this year.

Key player: Mike Reilly

The Edmonton QB is responsible for all the Esks offence as he led the team in rushing last year. They need a big year from Reilly if they want to contend for a playoff spot this year.

Departures: Joseph, Charles, Hill, Thompson, Gatlin, Laurent

Arrivals: Sorensen, Watkins, Foster

Winnipeg Blue Bombers:



Wait what? Yup, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are now in the West division. With the addition of Ottawa that means that the Bombers are moved out into a very tough West division. The Bombers are trying to forget last year as they had a brutal start and will look to improve on last year's campaign but find themselves in tough competing in a 5 team division with the likes of the Stamps, Lions & Riders.

Key Player: Drew Willy

Drew Willy was the backup in Saskatchewan but now has a chance to prove himself in Winnipeg and so far so good. The Bombers are starting the year off 2-0 and primarily this has been done by scoring points. Willy will be a key player in whether Winnipeg has success or not this season.

Departures: Muamby brothers, Sorensen, Foster, Matthews, Edwards

Arrivals: Willy, Moore, Kuale, Brohm, Banks, Vega, Bucknor

East:

Hamilton Tiger Cats:



The Ti-Cats are the reigning East division champions in a division that is pretty weak in comparison to the West. They are obviously looking to repeat their success from last year but they had some pretty significant roster changes so they might not find themselves as fortunate this year.

Key Player: Zach Collaros

The Ti-Cats look to young pivot Collaros to lead them to the promised land. He's a young guy and is really being thrown into the fire as last year he proved that he was worthy of earning a starting spot but wasn't going to get it in Toronto so now he gets his chance in Hamilton. We will see if he is able to repeat what he did in Toronto and help lead Hamilton to another East title.

Departures: Hage, Johnson, Jones, Burris, Congi, Walker

Arrivals: Collaros, Medlock, Butler, Koch, Laurent, Stewart

Toronto Argonauts:



Toronto should contend in the East again and they have a new guy in the mix by the name of Anthony Coombs who should help them out. The Argos have the reliable vets of Ricky Ray and Chad Owens to help lead them offensively.

Key Player: Chad Owens

He's still a huge factor on both offense and special teams. When you have a guy on your roster that has over 3000 combined yards, you know that he is going to be vital to the team's success. He is always a threat as both a receiver and a kick returner and in fact, is probably the best ever kick returner that the CFL has ever seen.

Departures: Kackert, Norwood, Ball, McCune, Watkins, Thorpe, Eppele, Collaros, Mitchell, Maybin, Prefontaine

Arrivals: Emry, Slaton, Coombs, Sewell, Ware

Montreal Alouettes:



Well this should be an interesting season in Montreal as there is no longer the legend Calvillo in Montreal but they brought in another legend in Ochocinco. This will be first year that I'll be excited to watch Montreal play just in order to see how Ochocinco does in the CFL.

Key Player: Chip Cox

Last year's defensive player of the year will look to lead this Alouette team. Cox is a beast and was last year's leader in tackles and was also in the top 5 for sacks which is a rare combination but this guy is good.

Departures: Calvillo, Messam, Flory, Ola, Emry, Richardson, Bruce III

Arrivals; Ochocinco, McElveen, Taylor

Ottawa Redblacks:



Well this is the new team in the league so I really have no idea what to expect from these guys.

Key Player: Henry Burris

Burris is a long time vet of the CFL and helped lead Hamilton to last year's Grey Cup so he will be vital to the success of the Redblacks

Departures: Glenn

Arrivals: Everyone

Let us CFL!

Bombers 2-0 !!!!

Winnipeg in West results in Riders coming to town twice this year, looking forward to a LOUD Investors Group field for those games.

Thoughts on Saskatchewan's Ryan Smith thus far? Looks like a Dressler clone.

so apparently Kevin Glenn sucks, good to know

when is Lulay supposed to be back?

A while i think

This is what happens when you make a career backup your starting QB. LOL BENAVIDES.

I believe Week 7 or 8.

Nice start SYF.

Glenn has a lot of compete. He wont fold. Not much left of the mighty BC receivers.

I think the CFL, TSN do a great job on the highlights on the cfl.ca website. A Jays in 30 style replay would be great for me.

http://www.cfl.ca/video/index/id/98397

Saskatchewan coming back

Crazy how bad the riders de looked yesterday compared to week 1

Noob here, i've seen many canadians say that the cfl game is more exciting than the Nfl, but doesnt having only three downs take away a huge amount of offense?

In the CFL it depends if the teams have good QB's with the receivers allowed full motion and 3 downs it tends to be a passing league.

The last 3-4 years the NFL has become run and gun and in all honesty last 2 years CFL has been a little lacking.

Go Esks 2-0

Average points per game in the CFL last year was 26.2, NFL was 22.6.

Three downs means you can only run the ball once. The wider field makes passing lanes less precise, there are lots of wobbly passes and jump balls, and a pass to the far side wide receiver is an easy interception.

There is more space to run. The holes are bigger and the population of the secondary is less dense. A big fullback or a speedy halfback can dominate a game, 150+ yards or a 15 yard average. Sweeps are very common in the amateur game, but not used in the CFL very often for some reason.

That's points per game per team.

I like the cfl because it promotes an offensive league with much more passing. The nfl has come a long way since the 90s smash mouth football and reduced play clock and more pass friendly rules.

That and I just love football.

From Dave Naylor's Twitter:

#85 draws a penalty.

Touchdown...

Montreal would be way ahead if they could stop the penalties.

Ok, well, no one in the West would let this happen.

Very solid OP SYF thanks CFL deserves it. Bet you didn't know I am a life long Rider fan though? ##23

Bombers 3-0!

Watch for Paris Cotton, small and speedy kick returner who pretty much won the running back job pre-season prior to getting hurt, then Grigsby played quite well in that role. Cotton looked great as kick returner today and might be a great Charlie Roberts type running back.

Eskies also 3-0 someone is losing a game next week

What?

How?

Taj Smith is going to have a big year

Yes, leading the Regina Correctional Facility League in both receiving yards and TD's.

Two undefeated teams in Edmonton and Winnipeg face off tonight.

The 2 worst teams last year are a combined 6-0.