Things are about to get a little Canadian on the NFL Network

Football season starts today. If you're Canadian, that is.

More Americans may be taking an active interest these days, too. The NFL Network announced yesterday that they'll be broadcasting Canadian Football League games this year, starting tonight with the big Montreal Alouettes vs. Saskatchewan Roughriders game.

Not a Canadian football fan? Me neither, really. But it's not because there's anything wrong with their game, it's just because I never really see it. And hey, it's July, and I know a lot of you don't care for the soccer.

The CFL's version of football is pretty similar to our beloved game, but there are some differences. Here's a list of things that might seem a little bit odd to an NFL fan, and I'll be honest with you ... on most of these rule differences, the Canadian version sounds like the better option to me.

Note:

• The Canadian field of play is 110 yards long, and their endzones are 20 yards deep. They put their goal posts right at the goal line, too.

• They play with 12 players on a side. The extra guy is usually a slotback or some kind.

• They only get three downs to achieve a first down. Their first downs are the same ten yards as ours.

• The game isn't over when the clock is at 0:00. They play to the zeroes, and then the offense gets one more play.

• The ROUGE! On a kickoff, if the returner fails to advance the ball out of his own endzone, the kicking team gets a point. They get a ROUGE! Same applies on a punt, and a team can also get a ROUGE! by punting the ball out of the back of the endzone. A kickoff that goes out of the back of the endzone results in nothing special.

• They only get one time-out per half.

• They don't have a two-minute warning. They have a three-minute warning.

• They can go in motion like a group of heroin addicts in the park. Anyone in the backfield can be in motion as much as they want, wherever they want, alongside whoever else they want. Wide receivers, too.

• They don't have fair catches on punts, but the punting team has to allow the returner to catch the ball. If it hits the ground, it's a live ball.

• A guy can try a field goal, literally, any damn time he feels like it. Running down the field, and you don't think you can score, but your leg feels good? Pull up and try a drop-kick. Make it, and a field goal is yours.

• Defensive players have to play a full yard back of the line of scrimmage.

• Defensive backs can only jam receivers within one yard of the line of scrimmage.

• They call ham bacon!

Tonight's game starts at 7 p.m. All I can tell you about is that Avon Cobourne, the star running back for the Alouettes, is going to get buck wild on that Roughrider defense.

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NFLPA goes on the offensive about reported TV deals

While many football fans find labor discussions about as interesting as the ingredient list on the back of a breakfast cereal box, things are amping up on the side of the NFL Players Association. The NFLPA's latest move could affect now only how, but whether you will see your favorite sport in the near future.

We recently went over the Supreme Court's interpretation of the American Needle case, which walled the owners off from permanent antitrust immunity. Now that they, unlike the lords of baseball, are required to act in good faith, NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith has fired the next shot in what looks to be a protracted border war. On Wednesday, the players association filed a Special Master claim, contesting that the league took lower revenue (the kind that would be shared with the players under any agreement) in exchange for guaranteed money in the event of a lockout in 2011 (not a cent of which the players would see) in a renegotiation of television contracts. Smith and the players say that this is a direct violation of the fiduciary duty the owners are required to act under — they must seek revenue with an equal eye for the good of the players as for themselves.

Baltimore Ravens cornerback Domonique Foxworth(notes), a member of the NFLPA's Executive Committee, doesn't believe that the league has done so. "It appears that the owners bought a strategy to lock players and fans out and nonetheless financially protect themselves," he told NFLPA.com. "The players want to leave no stone unturned to make sure that CBA negotiations proceed in good faith and that next season is played in its entirety."

NFLPA counsel Jeffrey Kessler had a more pointed take in the same article: "In essence, the NFL knowingly left money on the table ... at the expense of the players. The NFL thus has acted in bad faith."

In an NFLPA conference call on Wednesday afternoon, Smith said that in this particular legal proceeding, the NFLPA would ask for discovery, especially to clarify the notion that the owners would be required to pay back the lockout guarantees, estimated to be approximately $4 billion, in the event that football would not be played over a period of time. And while that would come out in discovery, one wonders if larger fish might not be caught — would discovery in this case force the owners to open up their books? "If it is the case that networks have obtained digital right or other media rights for free, in exchange for the promise that the full funds will be available to the teams even if the games aren't played, that means that

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Michael Irvin talks with Dez Bryant about responsibility

Tax tips from Wesley Snipes, hair care advice from Donald Trump and career-planning management courtesy Lindsay Lohan are a few of the things I'd value more than a talk with Michael Irvin about how to be a responsible football player. This is the guy who once slashed a teammate's neck with scissors and was the subject of this excerpt from the Aug. 5, 1996 issue of Sports Illustrated:

On the night of March 3 Michael Irvin was caught in a Dallas hotel room with 60 grams of cocaine, about three ounces of marijuana, two topless dancers and an array of sex toys; he pleaded no contest to a felony charge of cocaine possession; he and several of his party-boy teammates were found to have frequented the infamous White House, rented by several Dallas Cowboys players and used as a haven for extramarital liaisons; he flouted the law in Texas by ignoring a grand jury summons until the Dallas County DA threatened to arrest him; and he shrugged off inquiries by NFL officials about the incident, defiantly proclaiming that he "definitely" didn't have a substance abuse problem.

Yet there was Irvin this weekend preaching to newest Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant about the responsibilities of wearing the hallowed No. 88 in Dallas. (A number worn by Irvin and Drew Pearson, among others.) The Hall of Famer met with Bryant in front of cameras for about five minutes to give him some words of encouragement after his first practice sessions with the team. Said Irvin:

"

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Plaxico fibs about phone call, loses recreation privileges

I tried to tell the Oneida Correctional Facility football team not to give this guy a huge contract, but they didn't listen to me. They went ahead and gave him the record deal -- 200 cigarettes, 50 commissary stamps, 15 sticks of beef jerky, and 3 (probably) hepatitis-free tattoos, for two seasons.

He'll do something dumb, and he won't be able to play for you, I told them. It's happened before. I told them it would happen again. And it did.

According to the New York Post, Plaxico Burress lost his recreational privileges for a month because he lied to a prison guard. He told the guard he had permission to use his cell phone to call his attorney, and the guard took his word for it. He had no such permission, and this particular guard doesn't like fibbers.

Now Plax has lost recreation privileges for a month and his cell phone for seven days. Ironic that Plax, while in prison, is allowed to have a cell phone, while out here, we're trying to send a guy to prison for buying a cell phone.

Anyway, despite my collection of sharpened toothbrushes, I'm no prison expert. I would imagine, though, that when you're in protective custody like Plax -- secluded from the other inmates and locked up alone for most of the day -- recreation time is kind of a big deal. Losing that for a month can't be fun.

Poor guy probably never envisioned a day when he'd long for the lenient, easy-going ways of Tom Coughlin.

Gracias, With Leather.

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