The 2022 CFL season resembles the 2019 CFL season: an 18-game schedule starting in early June. The 2021 season only had 14 games with a single COVID-19 rescheduling. The CFL season ended a few days before Omicron hit with closures.
The anguish of getting a new collective bargaining agreement that led up to (finally) the preseason; your humble narrator can deal with tension on the field. Off the field tension? We've had enough.
There is a significant change: normally every CFL team hosts all the other teams and travels to the other cities. One example: Saskatchewan will host Ottawa but not travel to Ottawa. The 2-time Grey Cup champion Winnipeg Blue Bombers will be the only team to travel to every other CFL city.
This creates more division games. As we saw in the 2021 NHL season, this isn't always a good idea. If you are a Roughriders fan in the nation's capital, you have to travel to Montréal to see your favourite team. Where is the logic in this scenario?
There is a full slate of games for Labour Day weekend (BC Lions are off but that is normal). Hamilton hosts Toronto on Labour Day but the revenge game won't be the following Saturday. We have a single Thanksgiving game, 1 fewer than traditional yet 1 more than in some seasons.
Tradition vs. change is a constant battle. The drawback to the CFL playing around with the schedule is we haven't seen the advantage in the changes.
.@CFL is trying to get a football stadium in #Halifax. The league planned to have a game in Halifax in 2020. So where does the league put a game in 2022? #Wolfville, NS. Just over 90 km north. SMH https://t.co/7q5eMIs87L
— Chad Rubel (@canadian_xing) March 25, 2022
We have the return of Touchdown Atlantic. The 2020 plans were to finally have a regular season game in Nova Scotia, specifically Halifax, the destination city of a franchise. So where is the 2022 version of Touchdown Atlantic? Wolfville, Nova Scotia, about 90 km north of Halifax.
The Toronto Argonauts sacrifice another home game, welcoming the Saskatchewan Roughriders to Raymond Field in Wolfville on July 16. The regular 3,000 capacity will be expanded to 10,000 seats.
Those teams were scheduled to be at the 2020 Touchdown Atlantic at Huskies Stadium on the campus of Saint Mary's University.
Why the Canadian ratio is so important in the CFL
Let's start with quarterbacks because the league emphasizes quarterbacks.
Michael Reilly has hung up his spikes and retired. After bouncing around offseason and practice squads with 4 NFL teams from 2009-2010, Reilly started his CFL career in 2010 with the BC Lions. Reilly jumped to Edmonton in 2013, winning a Grey Cup in 2015 (also won a Grey Cup with BC in 2011). Reilly finished his career in Vancouver.
The BC Lions are going with Canadian quarterbacks Nathan Rourke and Michael O'Connor.
Jeremiah Masoli goes from Hamilton to Ottawa. Masoli had spent 2013-2021 as a Tiger-Cat. Dane Evans is the incumbent in Hamilton.
A few other quarterbacks shifted within the East Division. Montréal signed quarterback Dominique Davis, formerly of Ottawa. Quarterback Matthew Shiltz went from Montréal to Hamilton.
Toronto released QB Antonio Pipkin during training camp; Pipkin signed with the BC Lions.
Switching to running backs, Andrew Harris went from Winnipeg to Toronto. A very exciting player in the CFL's largest market could be intriguing provided Harris stays healthy
Wide receiver Kenny Lawler went from Winnipeg to join Edmonton. His now former Winnipeg receiver Darvin Adams will be in Ottawa.
William Powell, who was in Ottawa from 2015-2018 before moving on to Saskatchewan, is back in Ottawa.
Brandon Banks (aka Speedy B) flips from Hamilton to Toronto.
Adarius Bowman retired with Edmonton.
Duron Carter is back in the CFL as a defensive back with Edmonton. Chris Jones is back with Edmonton; Carter played DB in Saskatchewan under Jones.
Sean Whyte hasn't been in BC for a long time but he is back in Vancouver after 6 seasons in Edmonton. Some of us remember when Whyte was in Montréal. Kicker Sergio Castillo goes from BC to the Elks.
The BC Lions hired Tanya Walter as a defensive assistant, the first full-time female coaching hire in the CFL.
The Lions hired Henry Burris as an offensive consultant. That lasted for about 10 days before Burris took a NFL coaching position.
Jeff Reinebold had been the special teams guru in Hamilton for the last 7 seasons. Reinebold left to take a similar gig in Montréal but left the team for personal reasons.
A couple of legendary CFL players have new roles: Anthony Calvillo is the new Alouettes quarterback coach and Geroy Simon is an assistant GM in Edmonton.
Jacob Ruby may not be memorable but he was a big story in the 2021 CFL season. The league suspended Ruby for misrepresenting his vaccination status. The Edmonton offensive lineman was banned from the league for the rest of the 2021 season.
Ruby is now vaccinated and a member of the Ottawa RedBlacks.
2022 CFL preseason schedule
Hamilton is the only CFL team not to win a Grey Cup in the 2010s. The Tiger-Cats streak goes back to 1999.
Calgary has made 16 straight playoff appearances. Winnipeg (6) and Saskatchewan (5) have strong streaks. The East best streak is Hamilton with 3 followed by Montréal at 2 and Toronto at 1. BC, Edmonton, and Ottawa missed the playoffs in 2021.
Winnipeg, Saskatchewan, Toronto, and Hamilton had home playoff games in 2021. Calgary and Montréal last had a home playoff game in 2019. The 3 teams that missed the 2021 CFL playoffs and their last home playoff game: Ottawa (2018); BC (2016); and Edmonton (2015).
The CFL on TSN is pretty much what we saw from last season. Rod Smith, Dustin Nielson, Marshall Ferguson, and Farhan Lalji will call games with Glen Suitor, Duane Forde, and Matt Dunigan providing colour analysis.
Kate Beirness anchors the studio coverage with Davis Sanchez, Dunigan, and Milt Stegall. Jim Barker leaves CFL on TSN to go back to Toronto Argonauts for the third time, now as senior advisor.
Lalji and Dave Naylor supply news and deal with hot-button issues. The sideline reporters are Lalji, Matthew Scianitti, Sara Orlesky, Ryan Rishaug, John Lu, and Claire Hanna.
Derek Taylor will have the honour of replacing Bob Irving as the voice of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Irving retired after a half-century on the air.
Taylor, who has worked on TSN, had been the radio voice of the Saskatchewan Roughriders for the last 3 years. He previously spent 9 years doing play-by-play for the University of Manitoba Bisons.
Michael Ball is the new play by play person for Saskatchewan on radio.
ESPN will have 20 regular season games on ESPN2 and ESPNews as well as all playoff games. All other CFL games will be available on ESPN+. All feeds come from TSN.
CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage
We will have our 2022 debut CFL week in preview tomorrow.
photo credit: CFL
Twitter capture: @canadian_xing
logo credit: CFL on TSN
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