Did Canada invent football? Dave Grohl Super Bowl commercial explained
William Clark
Updated on April 03, 2026
In his Super Bowl commercial for Crown Royal, a Canadian whisky brand, Dave Grohl (of Foo Fighters, formally of Nirvana) thanks Canada for, among other things, inventing football.
“What?” says another guy in the studio, nonplussed. “No way.”
“Yeah!” Grohl replies. But is it true? Did Canada really invent “American” football?
Despite what CBC calls the “tub thumping” from Canada’s southern neighbors – i.e., the US – yes, the NFL appears to have Canadian roots… along with the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball.
But let’s focus on football – that is, “American” football, rather than British football, which is called soccer, and is a predecessor to both Canadian and American football. It came over from England in the preceding years. That type of football has even earlier roots elsewhere, but that’s a story for another time.
In the mid 19th century, Canadians and Americans were playing a game each called “football,” but the games were very different. The Americans had 25 players on a side, and played with a round ball; the Canadians’ ball was oblong, and they played with 11 players per side.
On May 13 and 14, 1874, the American Harvard University team played two games of football against the McGill University team, from Montreal.
The first used Harvard’s rules, which Radio Canada International writes were “more like soccer,” and used a round ball. For the second, they played using Canadian rules, and with an oblong ball.
Canada’s rugby-like version of the game also included the try, while America’s didn’t.
And guess what? The Harvard team “preferred the Canadian rules.” At least, that’s how RCI remembers it. And how CBC narrates it. The following year, Harvard played Tufts University in the first game between two US colleges, and they played with the rules Canada’s McGill University had laid out: with 11 men on either side; with tackles of the ball carrier; and with kicking or carrying the ball being the ways of advancing.
In his Super Bowl commercial for Crowl Royal, Dave Grohl thanks Canada for inventing several things besides football, including peanut butter, the ironing board, and the egg carton.
The list goes on: the paint roller and the battery; the replay; “legends of music” and “heroes of comedy” (not inventing them, that is, but producing them); electric wheelchairs and whoopee cushions; and finally hockey, basketball… and football.
“Yeah, look it up,” Grohl says. Well, there you go. Grohl has had Crown Royal on the Foo Fighters tour rider for years, according to WBSM Radio, so it may have come as little surprise to see him promoting it at the Super Bowl.
