<P> Many CFL players are Americans who grew up playing American football and cannot find a place in the NFL, or who prefer to play in the CFL; strict import quotas restrict the number of non-Canadian players . Furthermore, the classifications of import (non-Canadian) and non-import (Canadian) were highly restrictive and required a player to have been in Canada since childhood to qualify as a non-import (i.e. a player cannot simply become a Canadian citizen and become a non-import, nor can he arrive in Canada during high school or college; both scenarios would still have the player in question classified as an import and counted against the team's maximum); these restrictions were loosened beginning in 2014 so that anyone who had become a Canadian citizen at any time before signing with the league for the first time could qualify as a non-import player . For individuals who played both American and Canadian football professionally, their career statistic totals are considered to be their combined totals from their careers in both the CFL and NFL . Warren Moon, for example, was the all - time professional football leader in passing yards after an illustrious career in both leagues . He was surpassed in 2006 by Damon Allen, who in turn was surpassed by Anthony Calvillo in 2011, both of whose careers were exclusively in the CFL . </P> <P> There are several important specific differences between the Canadian and American versions of the game of football: </P> <P> The official playing field in Canadian football is larger than the American, and similar to American fields prior to 1912 . The Canadian field of play is 110 by 65 yards (101 by 59.4 m), rather than 100 by 53 ⁄ yards (91.4 by 48.8 m) as in American football . The end zones in Canadian football are 10 yards deeper than American football end zones as the CFL uses 20 - yard (18.3 m) end zones . Prior to 1986, however, the end zones were 25 yards, with Vancouver's BC Place the first to use the 20 yard - long end zone in 1983 . However, beginning in 2016, the new home of the CFL's Toronto Argonauts, BMO Field, utilizes an 18 - yard - long end zone . Including the end zones, the Canadian field is almost 34% larger than the American field (87,750 square feet (8,152 m) for the Canadian field vs 57,600 square feet (5,350 m) for the American field). Occasionally, however, the Canadian field will have its end zone truncated at the corners so that the field fits in the infield of a running track . The only example in the CFL is the Percival Molson Memorial Stadium, home of the Montreal Alouettes . The goalposts for kicking are placed at the goal line in Canadian football and the end line in the American game . In Canadian rules, the distance between the sideline and hash marks is 24 yards (21.9 m); in American amateur rules, at the high school level, the distance is 17 yards 2 feet 4 inches (16.3 m), virtually sectioning the field into three equal columns . The hash marks are closer together at the American college level, where they are 20 yards (18.3 m) from the sideline, and in the NFL, where they are 23 yd 1 ft 9 in (21.6 m) from the sideline and the distance between them is the same as that between the goalposts . </P> <P> Because of the larger field, many American football venues are generally unfit for the Canadian game . While there are several American stadia which could accommodate the extra ​ 17 ⁄ feet (nearly 6 yards (5.5 m) per side in width (multi-purpose stadiums, baseball parks converted for football, and some soccer - specific stadiums are particularly good fits), most American stadia would lose between fifteen and eighteen rows of seating in each end zone because the field is 15 yards (13.7 m) longer on each end . In many smaller venues, this would be the entire end zone section, losing seating for at least 3,000 spectators . During the CFL's failed expansion to U.S. cities, Canadian football was either played on fields designed to accommodate both American football and baseball (such as the Baltimore Stallions playing at Memorial Stadium), or in some cases, on a field designed for American football (for instance, the Memphis Mad Dogs and the Birmingham Barracudas of the CFL, playing in the Liberty Bowl and at Legion Field, respectively, played the Canadian game on modified American - sized fields because of the inability of the stadia to adapt to the larger field). The Alamodome, originally built as a multi-purpose dome, proved to best accommodate both Canadian football (the CFL's San Antonio Texans) and American football (Alamo Bowl, Dallas Cowboys training camp, the New Orleans Saints after Hurricane Katrina, the NFLPA Game, the U.S. Army All - American Bowl and the UTSA Roadrunners), although Canadian football is no longer played there . Similarly, Hornet Stadium fairly easily adapted to both the Canadian and American game, as it was built with a running track in which the Canadian field fits with only some cuts to the corners . Hornet Stadium hosts California State University, Sacramento (more often known as Sacramento State), hosted the Sacramento Surge and Sacramento Mountain Lions in American football and hosted the Sacramento Gold Miners in Canadian football . </P>

How many yards in a cfl football field