I generally cut the officials more slack than most, but Flutie shoulda gave his MVP prizes to Jake Ireland that year (a la his gesture to Masotti in '97). Jake was truly the MVP that game - he won the argos the Grey Cup with one call. Remember, it wasn't just a fumble, but a fumble about to be returned for an Edmonton touchdown.
It wasn’t a fumble call, it was down by contact, which isn’t (at least wasn’t in 1996) reviewable bye NFL rules, which is what CFL replay rules are based on.
Actually the ruling was forward progress stopped (Flutie was never actually down) which is even less reviewable than “down by contact” (if it’s possible for something to be “even less reviewable”).
If only the refs agreed with you the last time we played in Toronto. Then the Holmes play that was blown dead in the 4th quarter would have stood, and they would never have retroactively declared that he’d actually fumbled and that surely the Argos would have recovered it had the whistle not been blown. And we might have won.
I still have nightmares about that one. I think that one play actually has kept Leo Cahill out of the HOF. He’d have at least 1 Grey Cup under his belt and might be considered. Nevertheless, I have forgiven the late Leon McQuay wherever he is.
That’s because the NFL “tweaked” their rule to allow that to be challengeable, if the refs let the play go on without blowing the whistle (they’ve been instructed to try to do so).
I think ref in the argo game mis-interpreted that rule since the whistle did blow just as the Argo player was about to pick up the ball.
When George Black tried to back up his ref, he stated the change in the NFL rule, but conveniently left out the part about not blowing the play dead.