HAMILTON — The Montreal Alouettes remain the team to beat in the East Division. The reigning Grey Cup champs quieted the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Tim Hortons Field on Friday night in an impressive 33-16 road victory.
Tonight we witnessed the worst referee call in Canadian Football League history!!!
Even Hamilton Tiger-Cat Fans knew that they had fumbled the ball and the Alouettes recovered it! The commentators knew it and were virtually speechless. I heard one say that the referees were 0 for 2 on this call because the referee (whom I had always felt did a good job in the past (to be fair) had the audacity to say that the Tiger Cat was down on contact before the ball came out and then they said that Montreal didn’t immediately recover the fumble. My grandchildren knew it was a fumble and the Als immediately recovered the ball! We all were in complete disbelief. It wasn’t even a questionable call. There was no judgement needed. No replay was needed. No second camera angle was needed.
The funniest part was to see how the referee rushed the call and then the Command Center reviewed it…that’s right…the Command Centre reviewed it…unfortunately, they were all up too late the night before and were sound asleep so they showed, from a distance, an old tape of Command Centre employees reviewing a previous games’ call (OK…so this part is an exaggeration!!). If they had showed the Command Centre live, we would have all seen a video of a couple of people with their heads down on the table, sound asleep (OK, this is my 2nd exaggeration!).
Unsurprisingly, the missed call and subsequent sleepover at Command Center were not included in the games’ highlight video.
For the first time in my life, I thought, the game officials should be fined for this. Tonight, the Alouettes had to beat both Tiger Cats and Zebras.
Unequivocally, this was the worst CFL Referee call I’ve seen in my lifetime.
The league should issue an apology…it was that bad!!!
I would be quite happy to hear a logical explanation because I think the call defies logic altogether!
We can fine players, coaches and referees for major issues
When do we start fines for the command Center?
That was unbelievable
Amateur Hour
Sir your post says it all, This was the worst call I have seen in the CFL. Sure I am a huge ALs fan, But we need a command center statement explaining how they came to that conclusion…otherwise the game is simply not fair …for any team
AT least the Montreal fans have something to complain about. The CFL has done an excellent job in refereeing the modern CFL. It was not long ago that calls like this were common in every game, All this anger, a tempest in a teapot, shows clearly how effective CFL games are officiated.
The Als won, so the ref call was not a big issue. Just another wrong call. Happens every game, and usually does not affect the outcome.
[quote=“LifelongAlsFan, post:2, topic:93328”]
…mes’ highlight video.For the first time in my life, I thought, the game officials should be fined for this. Tonight, the Alouettes had to beat both Tiger Cats and Zebras.Unequivocally, this was the worst CFL Referee call I’ve seen in my lifetime.The league should issue an apology…it was that bad!!!I would be quite happy to hear a logical explanation because I think the call defies logic altogether!
[/quote] I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was the worst call in CFL history. I can think of many that were worse. This call did not affect the outcome of the game. Some of the other calls had a huge impact on not only the game but even beyond. For example, my Dad, the ultimate Stampeder fan, went to his grave in 2016 complaining about a call in the 1970 west playoffs that not only changed the outcome of the game but also forced Calgary to play a third game (the west played a best 2 of 3 final in those years) in a blizzard in Regina. That game took such a toll that the Stampeders were no match for Montreal in the Grey Cup. Yes, officiating mistakes are still made but overall, things have improved a lot over the years.
It highly apparent there was nobody at CFL Command Center as the call on the field stood. The on field referees had no choice but to stick with their original call as they went through the motions of pretending someone was actually reviewing that egregious play. The CFL Is fortunate that play didn’t effect the final outcome of a Alouettes victory.
Although I completely agree that the officials call on that Ticat fumble appeared to be completely wrong. I think that because the fumbled ball hit the leg of an Alouette player before it was recovered by another Alouette, the Call was made that it was not recovered immediately. However, I have seen games where the ball was kicked by a player in the scramble to get it and then recovered where the fumble was ruled as a recovered fumble. Officials are supposed to be at least consistent, and that call was not ruled according to previous events.
I know that the games are always reviewed later by the head officials as a training aid, and hope the official who made that call is chastised . But the fact that Command center supposed to have reviewed it during the game makes me wonder why they have a command center if they at least can not get it right.
I have always disliked the infamous fumble, a player has great skill in catching the ball and a great run to weave in and out to gain yards only to lose it all with a fumble by dumb blunt force! I proclaim to eliminate the damn fumble and make it a dead ball with no need to recover it.
Fumbles have ruined too many great catches or great runs by running backs in football and even changed the outcome of games. It is the fumble, the talentless error, that must be eradicated from modern football.
Uh, what? The vast majority of fumbles are forced, which requires a specific set of skills from the defending player. It’s an art. I’d never take that away from defensive players.
At this rate this is becoming norm but I owe mtl an apology again. I wasn’t familiar with their game.
I agree with you that the call was blown and obviously clearly it was a fumble and a recovery. It was discussed at length on the game thread and by the announcers. The reasoning was that the play was blown dead as forward progress was ruled as stopped. That was of course the error. Once that happens though there was nothing the command center could do as there was no fumble and the ball was recovered after the whistle. I can’t remember all the detail but you can check the game thread for a more precise explanation.
There is nothing in the rules available for the command center to overturn the blown call. This play reminded me of the fumble the Bombers recovered a few weeks back but couldn’t recover because the player’s helmet was knocked off a split second prior. In both cases the Ministry of Silly Rules got in the way of the correct result.
Second worst call IMO. The first would be the Flutie fumble in 96 Grey Cup. The only person who missed the fumble was Jake Ireland.