2004 CFL season

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2004 CFL season
Regular season
Duration June 15, 2004 – October 30, 2004
Playoffs
Start date November 5, 2004
East Champions Toronto Argonauts2004-11-14
West Champions BC Lions2004-11-14
92nd Grey Cup
Date November 21, 2004
Site Frank Clair Stadium, Ottawa
Champions Toronto Argonauts
2003  CFL seasons  2005

The 2004 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 51st season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 47th Canadian Football League season.

CFL News in 2004

Neil Payne retired from his position as Director of Officiating in February and was replaced by George Black. Former Eskimos Head Coach, Tom Higgins was named as the 2003 Coach of the Year. CFL Commissioner Tom E. Wright, announced that Vancouver would host the 93rd Grey Cup for 2005. Furthermore, CFL Commissioner Tom E. Wright also announced in late October, that Winnipeg would be the host of the 94th Grey Cup for 2006.

Wayne Smith of Appalachian State University was drafted first overall in the 2004 CFL College Draft by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Former player, broadcaster and football administrator, Mike Wadsworth died in April. In September, the Canadian Football Hall of Fame inducted Larry Highbaugh, Cal Murphy, Lui Passaglia, Dan Yochum and Ben Zambiasi during the Induction Weekend ceremonies in Hamilton.

CFL partner, Sun Microsystems added and launched real-time, in-game statistics entry with live play-by-play and scoring on cfl.ca. On June 2, the CFL announced a partnership with FSN and launched a player-based and team-based game for the 2004 season. In addition, the CFL also launched its first ever online kids section called — the Dare CFL KidsZone.

The CFL started a new international broadcasting agreement with Trajectory Sports & Media Group, to deliver Canadian Football to more than 50 million households in 176 countries for the 2004 season. U.S. television coverage of the 92nd Grey Cup resulted in the largest international broadcast distribution of a Grey Cup game — when it was made available to more than 55 million television households. In addition, Rogers Sportsnet announced the start of "CFL Crunch", which is a 30-minute news segment concerning the league on June 24.

On October 18, the Toronto Argonauts announced their agreement with York University, to construct a new 25,000-seat stadium on the university's Keele campus.

League attendance increased by 8% over the 2003 season, when more than 2.2 million fans were coming in to CFL stadiums. The B.C. Lions home attendance figures increased by 13% over the 2003 season, by averaging about 26,697 fans per game at BC Place Stadium. The Montreal Alouettes continued their strong attendance figures by recording its fifth straight year of having sell out crowds at both, Percival Molson Memorial Stadium and Olympic Stadium. The CFL set a new playoff attendance record with a total of 181,717 postseason crowds attending playoff games in Toronto, Edmonton, Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa. The Grey Cup game in Ottawa had a sell-out crowd of 51,242 at Frank Clair Stadium.

The attendance increases were likely caused at least in part by the lack of NHL hockey in the wake of the 2004–05 NHL lockout.

Records: Before he retired, Edmonton running back, Mike Pringle, established two new records in 2004. The first record was accomplished on July 12, when Pringle established a new CFL career record for yards from scrimmage with 20,254 yards in the Eskimos 25–9 win over the B.C. Lions. The second record was accomplished on September 19 against the same B.C. Lions, when Pringle became the all-time leading rusher in CFL history with 16,425 yards.

In addition, three CFL quarterbacks established new records as well. Edmonton's Jason Maas, entered the CFL record books by setting a new mark for most consecutive pass completions in a regular season game with 22 on July 30. On August 13, B.C.'s Casey Printers, sets a new CFL record for the highest pass completion percentage in a regular season game by completing 90.9% of his passes. Furthermore, Hamilton's Danny McManus, joined the company of Damon Allen and Ron Lancaster by surpassing the milestone of passing for 50,000 or more career yards on October 21.[1]

The Montreal Alouettes became the first team in CFL history to have four receivers on one team reach the 1000-yard receiving mark in one season: Ben Cahoon (1183 yards), Jeremaine Copeland (1154 yards), Thyron Anderson (1147 yards), and Kwame Cavil (1090 yards)

The Toronto Argonauts won their 15th Grey Cup by defeating the B.C. Lions 27–19 on November 21.

Regular season standings

Final regular season standings

Note: GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, Pts = Points

West Division
Team GP W L T PF PA Pts
Y-BC Lions 18 13 5 0 584 436 26 Details
X-Edmonton Eskimos 18 9 9 0 532 472 18 Details
X-Saskatchewan Roughriders 18 9 9 0 476 444 18 Details
Winnipeg Blue Bombers 18 7 11 0 448 507 14 Details
Calgary Stampeders 18 4 14 0 396 522 8 Details
East Division
Team GP W L T PF PA Pts
Y-Montreal Alouettes 18 14 4 0 584 371 28 Details
X-Toronto Argonauts 18 10 7 1 422 414 21 Details
X-Hamilton Tiger-Cats 18 9 8 1 455 542 19 Details
Ottawa Renegades 18 5 13 0 401 560 10 Details
  • Bold text means that they have clinched the playoffs.
  • BC and Montreal both have first round byes.

Grey Cup playoffs

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The Toronto Argonauts are the 2004 Grey Cup Champions, defeating the BC Lions 27–19, at Ottawa's Frank Clair Stadium. It was the first Grey Cup for Toronto since the 85th Grey Cup in 1997. The Argonauts' Damon Allen (QB) was named the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Player and the Lions' Jason Clermont (SB) was the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Canadian.

Playoff bracket

  November 5 & November 7: Division Semifinals     November 14: Division Finals     November 21: 92nd Grey Cup
Frank Clair StadiumOttawa, ON
                           
  East     E2  Toronto Argonauts 26  
  E3  Hamilton Tiger-Cats 6     E1  Montreal Alouettes 18    
  E2  Toronto Argonauts 24         E2  Toronto Argonauts 27
      W1  BC Lions 19
  West     W3  Saskatchewan Roughriders 25    
  W3  Saskatchewan Roughriders 14     W1  BC Lions 27*  
  W2  Edmonton Eskimos 6  

*-Team won in Overtime.

CFL Leaders

2004 CFL All-Stars

Offence

Defence

Special teams

2004 Western All-Stars

Offence

Defence

Special teams

2004 Eastern All-Stars

Offense

Defence

Special teams

2004 CFLPA All-Stars

Offense

Defence

Special teams

Head Coach

[3]

2004 Rogers CFL Awards

References

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  3. 2004 CFLPA All-Stars
Preceded by CFL seasons Succeeded by
2005 CFL season