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It’s never been easy to promote the idea of change in the Canadian Football League.

Tradition, for better or for worse, has always been its guiding principle, which is what you might expect from a league that has the same number of teams as it did 70 years ago.

Significant change or innovation is usually met with fierce opposition from loyalists, be it fans or members of the media. That’s exactly what’s happening with the debate raging over whether the league should consider adopting four downs instead of three.

To be clear, the CFL is not engaged in a debate about switching its game to four downs and American rules, although you might think so, given the tone of the debate.

It is, however, in the midst of a review process where nothing is off the table. That process is stoking fear some elements of the Canadian game could be endangered, including the number of downs.

Time for a little history and context on how we got here.

For most of the CFL’s existence, three downs versus four has never been a serious debate. Sure, you’d hear the odd coach or general manager from the U.S. bemoan some of the rules from time to time. But never did the league seriously consider adopting four downs. Not even when it expanded to the U.S. from 1993 to 1995.

Three downs were considered by most an asset, not a problem. As a result, it was rarely discussed.

That changed about a year ago when the CFL announced it was in talks with the new owners of the XFL about collaboration. While the league never officially confirmed the talks were about a merger, everyone understood they might ultimately go in that direction.

That instantly put four downs into the discussion. Privately, there were people at senior levels of the CFL who were willing to make that sacrifice if the business case with the XFL made sense.

Ultimately, it was the business case (or lack thereof) that killed the XFL merger. It was not a valiant stand for three downs.

Then, during the 2021 season, something happened.

The CFL had a subpar year entertainment-wise on the field. Scoring was down, big plays disappeared, and punting ruled. With quarterbacks getting mangled week after week, the game at times degenerated to what in some eyes was an unacceptable standard.

Some of that was undoubtedly due to the players missing the 2020 season and being hampered in their preparation for the 2021 season by COVID-19 restrictions. But the league wasn’t willing to chalk it all up to the pandemic, especially since many of the defensive trends predate the lost season.

So, the decision was made to look under the hood at the game and perhaps consider changes or innovations previously dismissed. A process called a “product review” was hatched.

That process has included the league reaching out to its teams for ideas on how to improve the game, with the primary objectives being to create better game flow and more offence.

It’s a process that continues this week as coaches, GMs and other officials meet in Toronto in advance of this weekend’s CFL Combine.

But most of it is shrouded in secrecy, as per usual in the CFL.

So, all it took to set the downs debate ablaze was a reporter suggesting last week that Genius Sports, the league’s new data and marketing partner, was pushing for a switch to four downs.

That suggestion ignited on Twitter, with retired and current players debating fans on the subject. Even those as revered three-time Grey Cup champion head coach Marc Trestman entered the conversation in defence of three downs, to great fanfare.

For the record, the league says Genius Sports has nothing to do with whether it looks at three downs versus four. But this horse has left the barn, so expect it to be the theme of a lot of CFL conversations until this matter is put to bed.

Standing up for three downs seems to be as much about preserving Canadiana as it is about the preservation of a unique brand of football, which maybe shouldn’t surprise us, and does raise the emotional stakes.

In general, radical changes in a sport rarely happen over the course of one off-season. They are usually debated and discussed and shelved for more research. Then they are either resurrected or die a slow death on a shelf under a blanket of dust.

The destiny of four downs in Canadian football is probably going to depend on what the game looks like in 2022, 2023 and beyond, after the anticipated application of several smaller, less dramatic tweaks expected to try and tune-up the game.

For in a league based upon and bound by tradition, it’s going to take a lot more to push such radical change across the finish line.