New CFL commissioner Stewart Johnston deserves credit for smart rule changes

After 24 hours of panic, curiosity and wild speculation amongst Canadian football fans, CFL commissioner Stewart Johnston actually managed to make a measured yet impactful announcement on Monday.

The first-year boss didn't do what Canadian football traditionalists feared, and turn the CFL into essentially a G-League or AHL for the behemoth that is the NFL.

Instead, after five months of listening and learning on the job, Johnston unveiled some intriguing rule changes that, it says here, should improve the product. The CFL outlined its two-year plan for phased rule changes on Monday after giving 24-hours notice for a downtown Toronto press conference — a sure sign something big was up.

The new game will maintain two of the most important features of the CFL — three downs and the wider field.

If you go four downs, it's simply not Canadian football. If you eliminate the wider field, gone are the chances of the next Jimmy (the Jet) Cunningham or Henry (Gizmo) Williams emerging as CFL return-game wizards.

At the same time, Johnston didn't just tinker with the game. He made changes that he called "the most significant in decades."

The moves in 2027 include:

• Making the field 100 yards, down from 110.

• Moving the goal posts to the back of the end zones, which will now all be 15 yards instead of the semi-regular 20 (some stadiums can't fit the proper end zone under its current configuration).

Next year's big changes include:

• No rouges for a missed field goal that sails through the end zone, or a punt or kickoff that goes through. That means no more walk-off missed field goals. Sure, they're quirky, but they're also very lame.

"If a punt, field goal or kickoff settles in the end zone, and the returner fails to take it out or takes a knee, a single point will still be awarded," the league says.

• A new 35-second automated play clock starting when the initial play is ruled over. Currently, it's 20 seconds, but doesn't start until the referee sets the field and rules the play in, which often takes way too long. It's completely ludicrous to suggest the current CFL is a faster game between plays than the NFL (despite its 40-second automatic play clock).

Essentially, Johnston seemingly accomplished his goal of dramatically changing the product while keeping some of the CFL's core pillars intact.

The goal posts at the back should open up the middle of the field for more creative plays for offences, which has the potential to boost scoring.

And while 110 yards to 100 might be hard to swallow for long-standing fans of the game, it makes far more sense to do that when you move the goal posts to the back and take five yards out of the end zone. The new dimensions also should encourage more third-and-short-or-medium gambles when a field goal is far less of a guarantee.

Of course, none of this is going to solve all of the CFL's problems, and suddenly make the league a must-see for the younger demographic it so desperately needs.

The changes also present challenges for youth and university football, with development leagues having to determine if it will follow the CFL's lead — which will require financial resources to do so.

The moves also might kill one of the most exciting plays in the game — the missed field-goal return.

But having said all that, status quo was not an option. Sure, the games have been better and some off-field situations have improved this season, but this league has been going in the wrong direction for years in terms of attendance, and general interest.

A bold step had to be taken to try to give the league a jolt — especially heading into a year where the World Cup is being co-hosted by Canada and displacing the Toronto Argonauts and B.C. Lions for weeks.

Much work is still ahead for Johnston, and new problems are sure to emerge — this is the CFL, after all.

But the commish showed Monday he's not afraid of shifting the goal posts, literally and figuratively.

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