1987 CFL season


The 1987 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 34th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 30th Canadian Football League season.

CFL News in 1987

The Canadian Football League celebrated the 75th Annual Grey Cup game at BC Place Stadium on Sunday, November 29.
The Canadian Football Network, which was syndicated on Canadian television stations, was created by the league, taking the place of CTV, which ended its partnership with the CFL the previous season. The CFL experimented with their blackout policy by blacking out four televised games in both, Hamilton and Toronto. The cable outlet TSN also began broadcasting the CFL in 1987, gaining the rights to games that had been passed on by CBC and CFN; TSN has aired CFL games ever since, eventually becoming the exclusive broadcaster in 2008.
Game rosters were revised from 35 to 34 that included 19 Non-Imports, 13 Imports and 2 Quarterbacks. The reserve list was increased from three to four.
After losing money for three years, Charles Bronfman sold the Concordes to Norm Kimball, who renamed them the Alouettes the previous year to renew interest in the team, but after losing money during the 1986 season, and playing before sparse Olympic Stadium crowds of less than 10,000, he, along with the CFL decided enough was enough, so they decided that the Montreal Alouettes would fold for the second time, this time for good on June 24, after the team played two preseason games on the road. With the team's demise the CFL revised the season schedule and moved the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to the East Division to balance out the divisions. The Alouettes, however, would return in 1996 when the CFL's American operations ended with the Baltimore Stallions moving to Montreal to become the third and current incarnation of the team.
The single-elimination Semi-Final/Final playoff format that was scrapped last season in favour of the "total point series" format was restored; the crossover playoff format was not revisited until 1997.

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
TeamGPWLTPFPAPts
BC Lions18126050237024
Edmonton Eskimos18117061746222
Calgary Stampeders18108045351720
Saskatchewan Roughriders18512136452911

The Edmonton Eskimos are the 1987 Grey Cup champions, defeating the Toronto Argonauts 38–36, at Vancouver's BC Place Stadium. This game eventually became the battle of the backups when starters, Matt Dunigan and Gilbert Renfroe became injured leaving backups Damon Allen and Danny Barrett to take over. The Eskimos' Damon Allen was named the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Player on Offence and Stewart Hill was named Grey Cup's Most Valuable Player on Defence, while Milson Jones was named the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Canadian.

Playoff bracket

CFL Leaders

Offence

Offence

Offence