The 2004 CFL season is considered to be the 51st season in modern-day

Canadian football Canadian football, or simply football, is a Sports in Canada, sport in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete on a field long and wide, attempting to advance a Ball (gridiron football), pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposi ...

, although it is officially the 47th

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...

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 Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

would host the 93rd Grey Cup for 2005. Furthermore, Wright also announced in late October, that

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

would be the host of the 94th Grey Cup for 2006. Wayne Smith of

Appalachian State University Appalachian State University (), or App State, is a Public university, public research university in Boone, North Carolina, United States. It was founded as a normal school, teachers' college in 1899 by brothers B. B. and D. D. Dougherty and th ...

was drafted first overall in the 2004 CFL Draft by the

Hamilton Tiger-Cats The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently members of the East Division (CFL), East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home game ...

. Former player, broadcaster and football administrator, Mike Wadsworth died in April. In September, the

Canadian Football Hall of Fame The Canadian Football Hall of Fame (CFHOF) is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates achievements in Canadian football. It is maintained by the Canadian Football League (CFL). It includes displays about the CFL, ...

inducted Larry Highbaugh, Cal Murphy,

Lui Passaglia Lui Passaglia (born June 7, 1954) is a Canadian former professional Canadian football, football player. He was the placekicker/Punter (football position), punter for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League (CFL) for a record-breaking 25 year ...

, Dan Yochum and Ben Zambiasi during the Induction Weekend ceremonies in

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

. CFL partner,

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

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. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

television coverage of the 92nd Grey Cup resulted in the largest international broadcast distribution of a

Grey Cup The Grey Cup () is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested between the winners ...

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 The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team based in Toronto, Ontario. The Argonauts compete in the East Division (CFL), East Division of t ...

announced their agreement with

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

, 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 into CFL stadiums. The

BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division (CFL), West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions playe ...

home attendance figures increased by 13% over the 2003 season, by averaging about 26,697 fans per game at

BC Place Stadium BC Place is a multi-purpose stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Located at the north side of False Creek, it is owned and operated by the BC Pavilion Corporation (PavCo), a Crown corporation of the province. The venue is currently t ...

. The

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: ''Les Alouettes de Montréal'') are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has disbanded twice and been re-established thrice. The Alouettes compe ...

continued their strong attendance figures by recording its fifth straight year of having sell out crowds at both,

Percival Molson Memorial Stadium Percival Molson Memorial Stadium (also known in French as ''Stade Percival-Molson''; commonly referred to as Molson Stadium in English or Stade Molson in French) is an outdoor football and multi-purpose stadium in Downtown Montreal, on the slopes ...

and

Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports ...

. The CFL set a new playoff attendance record with a total of 181,717 postseason crowds attending playoff games in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Vancouver and

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

. 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 The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

hockey in the wake of the

2004–05 NHL lockout The 2004–05 NHL lockout was a labor lockout that resulted in the cancellation of the National Hockey League (NHL) season, which would have been its 88th season of play. The main dispute was the league's desire to implement a salary cap to ...

. 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 Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek mythology, mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece is featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was m ...

, 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. 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'' *Bold text means that they have clinched the playoffs. *''BC and Montreal both have first round byes.''

Grey Cup playoffs

The

are the 2004

Champions, defeating the

27–19, at

's Frank Clair Stadium. It was the first Grey Cup for Toronto since the 85th Grey Cup in

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

. 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

*-Team won in Overtime.

CFL Leaders

* CFL Passing Leaders * CFL Rushing Leaders * CFL Receiving Leaders

2004 CFL All-Stars

Offence

*QB – Casey Printers, BC Lions *RB – Troy Davis, Hamilton Tiger-Cats *RB – Charles Roberts, Winnipeg Blue Bombers *SB – Ben Cahoon, Montreal Alouettes *SB – Geroy Simon, BC Lions *WR – D. J. Flick, Hamilton Tiger-Cats *WR – Jason Tucker, Edmonton Eskimos *C – Bryan Chiu, Montreal Alouettes *OG – Paul Lambert, Montreal Alouettes *OG – Andrew Greene, Saskatchewan Roughriders *OT – Uzooma Okeke, Montreal Alouettes *OT – Gene Makowsky, Saskatchewan Roughriders

Defence

*DT –

Noah Cantor Noah Cantor (born January 11, 1971) is a former football player in the Canadian Football League. Biography Cantor is Jewish. Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Cantor played with the University of Saint Mary's Huskies from 1990 to 1994. He was signed a ...

, Toronto Argonauts *DT – Nate Davis, Saskatchewan Roughriders *DE – Tim Cheatwood, Hamilton Tiger-Cats *DE – Anwar Stewart, Montreal Alouettes *LB – John Grace, Calgary Stampeders *LB – Kevin Eiben, Toronto Argonauts *LB – Barrin Simpson, BC Lions *CB – Almondo Curry, Montreal Alouettes *CB – Malcolm Frank, Edmonton Eskimos *DB – Eddie Davis, Saskatchewan Roughriders *DB – Clifford Ivory, Toronto Argonauts *DS – Orlondo Steinauer, Toronto Argonauts

Special teams

*P – Noel Prefontaine, Toronto Argonauts *K – Sean Fleming, Edmonton Eskimos *ST – Keith Stokes, Winnipeg Blue Bombers

2004 Western All-Stars

Offence

*QB – Casey Printers, BC Lions *RB – Kenton Keith, Saskatchewan Roughriders *RB – Charles Roberts, Winnipeg Blue Bombers *SB – Jason Clermont, BC Lions *SB – Geroy Simon, BC Lions *WR – Ryan Thelwell, BC Lions *WR – Jason Tucker, Edmonton Eskimos *C – Angus Reid, BC Lions *OG – Jay McNeil, Calgary Stampeders *OG – Andrew Greene, Saskatchewan Roughriders *OT – Seth Dittman, Calgary Stampeders *OT – Gene Makowsky, Saskatchewan Roughriders

Defence

*DT – Joe Fleming, Calgary Stampeders *DT – Nate Davis, Saskatchewan Roughriders *DE – Brent Johnson, BC Lions *DE – Tom Canada, Winnipeg Blue Bombers *LB – John Grace, Calgary Stampeders *LB – Reggie Hunt, Saskatchewan Roughriders *LB – Barrin Simpson, BC Lions *DB – Wes Lysack, Winnipeg Blue Bombers *DB – Malcolm Frank, Edmonton Eskimos *DB – Eddie Davis, Saskatchewan Roughriders *DB – Joey Boese, Calgary Stampeders *DS – Sam Young, BC Lions

Special teams

*P – Sean Fleming, Edmonton Eskimos *K – Sean Fleming, Edmonton Eskimos *ST – Keith Stokes, Winnipeg Blue Bombers

2004 Eastern All-Stars

Offence

*QB –

Anthony Calvillo Anthony Calvillo (born August 23, 1972) is an American professional Canadian football, football coach and former quarterback who is currently the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football Lea ...

, Montreal Alouettes *RB – Troy Davis, Hamilton Tiger-Cats *RB – Josh Ranek, Ottawa Renegades *SB – Ben Cahoon, Montreal Alouettes *SB – Jeremaine Copeland, Montreal Alouettes *WR – D. J. Flick, Hamilton Tiger-Cats *WR – Kwame Cavil, Montreal Alouettes *C – Bryan Chiu, Montreal Alouettes *OG – Paul Lambert, Montreal Alouettes *OG – Scott Flory, Montreal Alouettes *OT – Uzooma Okeke, Montreal Alouettes *OT – Dave Hack, Hamilton Tiger-Cats

Defence

*DT –

, Toronto Argonauts *DT – Ed Philion, Montreal Alouettes *DE – Tim Cheatwood, Hamilton Tiger-Cats *DE – Anwar Stewart, Montreal Alouettes *LB – Kevin Johnson, Montreal Alouettes *LB – Kevin Eiben, Toronto Argonauts *LB – Tim Strickland, Montreal Alouettes *CB – Almondo Curry, Montreal Alouettes *CB – Davis Sanchez, Montreal Alouettes *DB – Kelly Malveaux, Montreal Alouettes *DB – Clifford Ivory, Toronto Argonauts *DS – Orlondo Steinauer, Toronto Argonauts

Special teams

*P – Noel Prefontaine, Toronto Argonauts *K – Noel Prefontaine, Toronto Argonauts *ST – Bashir Levingston, Toronto Argonauts

2004 CFLPA All-Stars

Offence

*QB – Casey Printers, BC Lions *OT – Uzooma Okeke, Montreal Alouettes *OT – Cory Mantyka, BC Lions *OG – Andrew Greene, Saskatchewan Roughriders *OG – Dan Comiskey, Edmonton Eskimos *C – Jamie Crysdale, Calgary Stampeders *RB – Troy Davis, Hamilton Tiger Cats *FB – Julian Radlein, Hamilton Tiger Cats *SB – Geroy Simon, BC Lions *SB – Derrell Mitchell, Edmonton Eskimos *WR – Jason Tucker, Edmonton Eskimos *WR – David Flick, Hamilton Tiger Cats

Defence

*DE – Joe Montford, Hamilton Tiger Cats *DE – Timothy Cheatwood, Hamilton Tiger Cats *DT – Joe Fleming, Winnipeg Blue Bombers *DT – Nate Davis, Saskatchewan Roughriders *LB – Barrin Simpson, BC Lions *LB – John Grace, Calgary Stampeders *LB – Kevin Johnson, Montreal Alouettes *CB – Malcolm Frank, Edmonton Eskimos *CB – Omarr Morgan, Saskatchewan Roughriders *HB – Clifford Ivory, Toronto Argonauts *HB – Eddie Davis, Saskatchewan Roughriders *S – Orlondo Steinauer, Toronto Argonauts

Special teams

*K – Paul McCallum, Saskatchewan Roughriders *P – Noel Prefontaine, Toronto Argonauts *ST – Keith Stokes, Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Head coach

* Greg Marshall, Hamilton Tiger-Cats

2004 Rogers CFL Awards

* CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award – Casey Printers (QB), BC Lions * CFL's Most Outstanding Canadian Award – Jason Clermont (SB), BC Lions * CFL's Most Outstanding Defensive Player Award – Anwar Stewart (DE), Montreal Alouettes * CFL's Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman Award – Gene Makowsky (OT), Saskatchewan Roughriders * CFL's Most Outstanding Rookie Award – Nikolas Lewis (WR), Calgary Stampeders * CFL's Most Outstanding Special Teams Award – Keith Stokes (WR), Winnipeg Blue Bombers * CFLPA's Outstanding Community Service Award – Barron Miles (DB), Montreal Alouettes * Rogers Fans' Choice Award – Danny McManus (QB), Hamilton Tiger-Cats /

(QB), Montreal Alouettes * CFL's Coach of the Year – Greg Marshall, Hamilton Tiger-Cats * Commissioner's Award - Russ Jackson, Ottawa Rough Riders

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2004 Cfl Season CFL Canadian Football League seasons