One person I’d like to see hooked up to CFL in game broadcasts is instant access to a retired official to comment on some calls or to add some info to them.
If anyone is watching the Sunday night NFL broadcast they use that person liberally. Really informative. In this case the official seems to be right in the booth with them.
Anybody watching that? Or comments?
Love the idea.
Unfortunately the NFL ex officials and broadcasters have no problem telling everyone when the calls are wrong/bad.
Can’t see anyone having the stones to do that.
Well its not just about pointing out errors it’s also about providing info and explanation.
And I definitely see Suitor and Dunigan being more vocal this year questioning calls.
I think Suitor has been doing it for years. I am not sure I like it. It doesn’t market the league well for the guys in the booth to keep being critical of calls. Its not their job. They are there to broadcast the game as well as they can and should keep it positive as well.
In this particular broadcast the in booth official actually helped the booth be less critical. On questionable /confusing calls he was asked " what do you think?" and he would provide an opinion and/or explanation. Seemed to lessen the broadcasters need to go on about it. I found it to make the broadcast far more enjoyable and enjoyable.
yeah, I agree with the way they are doing it. Just don’t like the way Suitor does it. Its a good compromise to have an in booth official.
I would go one step above that and hook up the command centre to what they are looking at and commenting on to achieve that decision .
The advancement in HD ultra TV allows for extreme slow mo would make that scoring play or challenge something for the viewer to watch and consider other than some blather from the announcer and pacing up and down .
You already slowed the game down so you should justify it with the actual judge’s consideration in the decision visually .
…ultimately Hank that would be ideal, and while they’re at it mike up the head ref so we can hear what the officials are saying during a complicated call…but until then I agree with everyman and would enjoy having a retired ref join the broadcast crew…it’s more than likely a financial obstacle rather than a presentation one…
But if TSN went that route, wouldn’t that have the potential to disprove the conspiracy theory of certain fans that the officials are biased against [insert team name here]?
Can’t have that now can we?
I actually like the fact Suitor and company can disagree with the referees; otherwise it would appear to be a conspiracy.
The game is called so inconsistently that a retired ref in the booth may be outdated and be contradicting the refs more often than not.
Alternatively, if the broadcast booth had some sort of hookup with the Command Centre, then they could get clarifications and explain things to us fans. Someone in the booth could ask the CC, “Why was that ruling upheld/overturned?” and they could tell them, for example, “Because there is insufficient video evidence to overturn it” or “The player lost control on contact with the ground.” Then that person could communicate that to the broadcast crew, who could then explain it to us.
That’s one thing that the dearly departed AAF got right in their short existence . Whenever there was a challenge flag thrown or a call to their CC they had a live mic and camera hook up directly to the booth showing the CC official looking at the call in real time and explaining what they saw in the replay for the fans watching at home on TV .
I’m not entirely sure if they showed or did the same thing though for the fans in the stands at the game watching on the Video board or not . I think they might’ve but to be honest I can’t really recall with the few games I did watch before the plug was pulled on that league .
Hmmm…AAF did that hey? Interesting. Did you enjoy that?
They did it with Rugby a few years back I think it might have been the women’s worlds and it was very good .
The visual of the slo mo in really clear and magnified with the referee watching and describing it as the right call or not was kind of stimulating for some reason .
It made you the viewer part of it and it worked at least for me .
Yeah it is interesting.
In Pats /Buff NFL game on Sunday the broadcast official showed a clip of a play that he had never seen before and he had to look up the rule himself.
Pats defender intercepts a pass near the sideline. He has to jump so his feet are in air.
As he’s coming down the ball touches a player who’s OB. Then defender’s feet touch down in bounds.
Play stands as an interception.
Broadcast official says it should be overturned because the ball touched a O/B player before feet touched down.
But as he said he had to look it up so wasn’t criticizing the call. it was really interesting.
I like the thought of being connected to the replay booth.
The retired official being in the broadcast booth would be nice, but may not be all that helpful, as I remember what the officiating was like back when all these retired guys were still on the field.