Damon Allen in the Pro Football HoF?

[SPTO]

You didn't read my last line did you?

i'll repeat it in bigger font

The game is not inferior, just different

The speed of the Canadian game would have some NFL'ers exhausted by halftime. I'm not saying CFL'ers are better because they aren't but their skillsets make them just as good or slightly better in some areas that are not emphasized in the American game.

[MassNole]

Quote: Originally Posted by SPTO

The game is not inferior, just different

I read it and acknowledge that the bastardization of football is different (things such as the DL lining up a yard away from the OL), but still inferior. The same argument can be made for the Arena League, but at the end of the day, it is still an inferior level of play.

Has an NFL team ever played a CFL team?

[SPTO]

Bastardization? If anything, the American game is the bastardization of football as it was introduced in Canada and played professionally in Canada a LOOONG time before the NFL was a gleam in George Halas' eye.

Yes, NFL-CFL exhibitions have taken place. Let me see if I can find the link. I couldn't find the link I was looking for but here is pertinent info from wiki

Quote:

In the days when sports teams were financed almost entirely by ticket sales the CFL and NFL were, financially speaking, on relatively equal footing and the CFL could sign top U.S. college football stars such as Johnny Rodgers and Joe Theismann. In fact, during the 1950s and 1960s exhibition games were played between CFL and NFL/AFL teams using a mixture of rules. The last such exhibition game saw the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats defeat the AFL's Buffalo Bills, the only time in which a Canadian team defeated an American team in those series.

[Donovan]

Hahaha, bastardization. The CFL rules have been pretty much the same for over 100 years. The Grey Cup is the second oldest pro sports trophy in North America behind the Stanley Cup. Not that one is better than the other, they are totally different, and although you may see the game itself as inferior there is no way that the NFL is the be all and end all of football.

Like anything in life, money dictates the size and importance of a league. Canada has such a small population that big TV deals to bump up the salaries just isnt going to happen. The CFL is a 100% gate driven league.

And although I still stand by my previous statements about Allen and his chances in Canton, the more I hear people disregarding his accomplishments the more I want to see him get in.

[SportsTop]

Quote: Originally Posted by SPTO

Oh yeah it's soooo inferior that Warren Moon had to go there and Doug Flutie had to play his prime years here as well. It's SOOO inferior that Ricky Williams is tearing up the league...oh wait no he's sitting on his butt with an injury. It's SOOOO inferior that in the 1950s and 60s CFL players were making MORE money then their NFL counterparts. The game is not inferior just different.

I'm not going to say the game is inferior, but it is definitely geared towards the offense. Which begs the question: What would 70,000 yards translate to in the NFL game or how much yardage would some the the NFLs more prolific passers rack up in the CFL.

The thing that is going to get Allen is that there is no measuring stick for this type of situation. Warren Moon passed for over 21,000 yards in the CFL in six short seasons. He was at nearly 18,000 yards in his first six years in the NFL in one of the league's most high octane offenses. You can see how a CFL QB can put some distance between himself and a NFL QB over a period of 10-15 years.

Maybe it's time Canton considered a CFL wing if they don't already have one.

[SPTO]

Yeah that's the problem. I think what i'll do because with the CFL the yearly stats are a bit harder to find, is take all the starters' yards, TDs and INTs and compare them to the the top 8/9 guys (If I find year by year stats when doing this ) QBs in the NFL. We'll see if we can find some kind of measuring stick.

This will be done at the end of the current CFL season.

[SPTO]

Well how about that it's pretty easy to find last year's stats.

Ok then here are the passing yardage of the top 9 QBs last year in the CFL compared to the top 9 in the NFL. Keep in mind the CFL has an 18 game schedule so the numbers will be a little inflated.

CFL

Anthony Calvillo 5556 yards 34/19 (TD/INT)
Ricky Ray 5510 yards 25/24
Damon Allen 5082 yards 33/15
Kerry Joseph 4466 yards 25/23
Henry Burris 4290 yards 23/12
Kevin Glenn 3571 yards 27/17
Dave Dickenson 3338 yards 21/5
Danny McManus 2544 yards 11/18
Marcus Crandell 2295 yards 12/11


NFL

Tom Brady 4110 yards 26/14
Trent Green 4014 yards 17/10
Brett Favre 3881 yards 20/29
Carson Palmer 3836 yards 32/12
Eli Manning 3762 yards 24/17
Kerry Collins 3759 yards 20/12
Peyton Manning 3747 yards 28/10
Drew Bledsoe 3639 yards 23/17
Drew Brees 3576 yards 24/15

OK well the yardage compares pretty well in terms of how they bunch together. I believe the last two guys in the CFL list didn't play full seasons.

Let's dig a little deeper and look at the attempts by each QB and divide them by the number of games (18 vs 16) and see if there's a tangible difference in terms of reliance on the pass.

ATT. by CFL'ers

661= 36.8 atts per game
715= 39.8 atts per game
549= 30.5 atts per game
537= 29.9 atts per game
435= 24.2 atts per game
403= 22.4 atts per game
342= 19 atts per game
364= 20.3 atts per game
351= 19.5 atts per game


ATT. by NFL'ers

530= 33.1 atts per game
507= 31.7 atts per game
607= 37.9 atts per game
509= 31.8 atts per game
557= 34.8 atts per game
565= 35.3 atts per game
453= 28.3 atts per game
499= 31.1 atts per game
500= 31.2 atts per game


Hmm don't know what to make of the numbers. It seems for all the difference in the style of the CFL and NFL the passing numbers aren't that wildly different despite the two leagues having radically different rules appications and such.

Anywho i'm going to put this on my blog as well since I doubt many will read this thread.