THIS WEEK IN THE CFL - WEEK 1

Friday Night Football returns with the Montreal Alouettes visiting the Edmonton Eskimos at 9 p.m. ET. Khari Jones brings the Alouettes and their new look with Antonio Pipkin under centre. Following an off-season of retooling, Jason Maas’ squad has fresh new faces beginning with Trevor Harris at quarterback with his former teammate, Greg Ellingson, along with DaVaris Daniels, to name a few of the added players from the off-season.

Saturday night features a double-header. It all starts at 7 p.m. ET with the Grey Cup rematch between the Calgary Stampeders and Ottawa REDBLACKS at McMahon Stadium. The reining MOP, Bo Levi Mitchell, will be looking to carry the Stamps to a fourth-consecutive West Division title. Dominique Davis gets the nod at quarterback for the REDBLACKS as Ottawa attempts to avenge last year’s Grey Cup loss.

To complete Week 1, the BC Lions host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Mike Reilly plays his first game with his new squad and it also marks the first game for DeVone Claybrooks as a head coach. On the other side, Winnipeg brings back a veteran team that is aiming for first place in the West Division this year. Kickoff is slated for 10 p.m. ET and the first 5,000 fans into the building will get a Mike Reilly bobblehead.

Saskatchewan at Hamilton will be on ESPN+ and BT Sport
Montreal at Edmonton will be on ESPN2 and BT Sport
Ottawa at Calgary will be on ESPNEWS, BT Sport and MVS
Winnipeg at BC will be on ESPN2 and BT Sport

GLOBAL PLAYERS

• Under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, rosters were expanded to include one active global player and the ability to carry up to two global players on the practice roster (PR).
• In addition to the existing practice roster of 10 players, teams may now carry a maximum of two global players for a total of 12.
•  To begin the season, there are 24 global players on active or PR rosters.
  • 18 from Mexico
  • 3 from France
  • 2 from Germany
  • 1 from Finland

Below is the list of global players on rosters:

QUICK SLANTS:

• CFL kickoff game between Hamilton and Saskatchewan on June 13, will be the earliest regular season game in league history by one day.
• Team records in season openers since 2008:
  • Calgary 7-3-1
  • Saskatchewan 7-4
  • Montreal, Edmonton and Toronto 6-5
  • Winnipeg 5-6
  • BC 4-7
  • Ottawa 3-1-1
  • Hamilton 1-10
• With Hamilton and Saskatchewan opening the season, it marks the third time the two teams have squared off in the opening game of the season.
  • 2012 Saskatchewan won 43-16 in Hamilton
  • 1972 Hamilton won 20-17 in Hamilton
• Week 1 will feature four head coaching debuts, tying a league record:
  • 2019: DeVone Claybrooks, Craig Dickenson, Khari Jones and Orlondo Steinauer
  • 2012: Mike Benevides, Corey Chamblin, Geroge Cortez and Scott Milanovich
  • 2008: John Hufnagel, Ken Miller, Rich Stubler and Marc Trestman
  • 1970: Sam Etcheverry, Jack Gotta, Ray Jauch and Jim Spavital
• Only three teams Calgary (Bo Levi Mitchell), Hamilton (Jeremiah Masoli) and Saskatchewan (Zach Collaros) will be starting the same QB in Game #1 in 2019 as they did in 2018.

Of the 495 players that appeared on the initial Week #1 CFL rosters after cutdown, a total of 92 players will be entering their first CFL year. That represents 19% of CFL rosters. In 2018 there were only 81 first year players at the same point