Professional football in Canada

This article is about gridiron football. For Association football, see Soccer in Canada.

Professional football is one of the most popular sports in Canada. Unlike most countries, but paralleling its counterpart, the United States, the term "football" in Canada refers to the gridiron-based game developed in both countries over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and not to association football (which is known in Canada as "soccer").

Only one professional football league has a permanent presence in Canada: the Canadian Football League (CFL), an organization founded in 1958 to accommodate the ongoing trend of professionalism in the Canadian football ranks since the 1940s. The CFL, like most amateur Canadian football leagues, plays on a larger field using a rulebook with several significant rule differences compared to the game as it is played in the United States. The league is composed of two divisions and nine teams in most of the largest Canadian markets, with at least one team in each province between British Columbia (BC Lions) and Quebec (Montreal Alouettes) inclusive. The only presence in Atlantic Canada is a semi-regular series of games in Moncton (Touchdown Atlantic) and a smattering of earlier preseason contests. The CFL operates a two-week preseason beginning in June, an 18-game season from July to October, and a six-team playoff tournament, culminating in the Grey Cup on the fourth weekend of November.

Several attempts to place franchises playing American football rules in Canada have occurred over the course of history:

• The Los Angeles Wildcats of the American Football League (1926), as part of its traveling schedule, played one of its games in Toronto. The game introduced the first forward passes on Canadian soil (Canadian football would not allow the move until three years later).
• The Quebec Rifles joined the United Football League (1961–1964) in the league's final year, then relocated to Toronto and joined the Continental Football League for two seasons (1965–67) and were known as the Toronto Rifles. The Continental Football League placed another franchise in Montreal, known as the Montreal Beavers, who played for two seasons (1966–67); a third, the Victoria Steelers (originally of the semi-pro Pacific Football League), played one season (1967) in the Continental league.
• The Toronto Northmen were a World Football League franchise, but never played a game due to the Canadian Football Act, which was proposed for fears that the WFL might usurp the CFL. The mere threat of the Act's passage prompted the franchise to leave Canada before playing; it became the Memphis Southmen. Likewise, an attempt to put what would become the United States Football League's Tampa Bay Bandits in Hamilton was thwarted when a Senator threatened to reintroduce the Act.
• The Montreal Machine were a World League of American Football franchise who played two seasons in 1991 and 1992.

The Toronto Phantoms were a franchise of the Arena Football League who played two seasons in 2001 and 2002. As of 2015, they are the only professional indoor American football team to have attempted to take root in Canada.

The National Football League, the dominant professional football league in the United States, also has a large following in Canada due in part to significant media exposure. The NFL has occasionally played games in Toronto (as well as, more sporadically, other Canadian cities) over the course of its history but has never attempted to permanently place a team there. The Bills Toronto Series was the NFL's most direct presence in Canada; in that series, which ran from 2008 to 2013, the Buffalo Bills played one of their regular season home games in Toronto's Rogers Centre.