The Canadian Football League has many rules that are a little different from NFL or NCAA football. Quite a few of those revolve around punts and kicks, and the majority of the different CFL rules there seem to be largely celebrated by both Canadian fans and by Americans and others who have discovered the game. But that’s not universal, especially when it comes to the one-yard punt or “dribble kick.”
This play comes from an unusual rule that exists in the CFL, but not at the Canadian amateur level. The CFL rules allow for any player to attempt an “open-field kick” at any point, and they or another teammate level with or behind them can recover the ball after it travels a yard forwards as long as a set of conditions are met (including that the offensive line can’t be more than a yard downfield and that the recovering player can’t interfere with opponents’ attempts to recover). The really controversial part of this is that the offensive team gains a new set of downs as long as the ball was kicked from behind the line of scrimmage and crossed that line of scrimmage.
While this dribble kick play has been allowed under CFL rules for a long time, it’s only been tried regularly in the past few years. And it’s mostly been done by one team. That would be the Montreal Alouettes, the reigning Grey Cup champions. They executed this successfully several times during the regular season last year. And they did it again Friday against the Toronto Argonauts:
The #CFL‘s Montreal Alouettes pulled the controversial one-yard punt for a new set of downs play off again Friday: pic.twitter.com/TpAduPrEO1
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) June 30, 2024
But, as was also seen around several of the Alouettes’ previous times pulling this off, this play sparked incredible debate. That ranged from CFL site 3 Down Nation telling people “If you don’t like it, move south,” to a lot of other CFL media and fans insisting that they do not, in fact, like it. Here’s some of that back-and-forth:
Could there be anything more perfect on Canada Day weekend?
Jeshrun Antwi (@Jantwi21) converts the pooch punt for a first down. If you don’t like it, move south ⬇️#CFL #Alouettes #AlsMTL
pic.twitter.com/vWrYqGOblh— 3DownNation (@3DownNation) June 29, 2024
+1
It was a fun exploitation of the rules at first, but this should have been dealt with in the off-season. What’s being done isn’t illegal, but it also doesn’t feel legitimate. Let’s focus on earning first downs – this isn’t that.
— Scott Rintoul (@ScottRintoul) June 29, 2024
The Canadian Amateur rulebook says that the kick has to go past the first down marker before it can be recovered. Does that make Football Canada unpatriotic? Appeal to patriotism is a weak argument.
— Dennis Prouse (@Dennis_Prouse) June 29, 2024
Love it! That’a what you get for playing way off the ball. Bad defence, especially when we all know Montreal does this.
— Bob Manojlovich (@BobManojlovich) June 29, 2024
It is the dumbest and most embarrassing legal play in professional sports. ⚰️ https://t.co/dkQSDQVV1c pic.twitter.com/MnIruWVw6t
— Ben Kramer (@benyamen) June 29, 2024
This is legit the worst rule in any league
— Raymond St. Mars (@raydawg189) June 29, 2024
Love it. Why are they the only ones using it! And why can no one stop it!
— Larry Jensen (@mrodents) June 29, 2024
At this point in time, the opinions on both sides seem to have calcified. Either this is a great use of a quirky CFL loophole (which we’ve also seen with less-controversial only-in-the-CFL plays, from downfield onside punts to onside kicks on field goals to punting to win to rouges versus touchdowns to missed field goal returns to back-and-forth punting on the same play), or it’s a disgrace to the sport. Either teams should be banned from using it, or teams should do a better job of stopping it.
For the moment, though, the play remains quite legal. While that’s the case, the debate on it is indeed just debate. But it’s possible there could eventually be a rule change to stop it. That would be interesting, as while this is a play that anyone could use, there’s mostly just this one team doing it (in even more of a notable way than the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles’ also-debated and also-still-allowed “brotherly shove,” which has been used by some other teams, but not as frequently or effectively). But they’ve found a lot of success with this, and they’ve certainly also kicked off a lot of arguments.
[The Comeback on X/Twitter]