Glen Johnson new VP of Officiating

CFL Talk
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From the CFL website:

Glen Johnson assumes role of VP of Officiating

TORONTO – The Canadian Football League (CFL) is pleased to announce the appointment of former Head Referee Glen Johnson as its’ new Vice President, Officiating.

“While Glen’s talents as an on-field official will be sorely missed, we are absolutely thrilled he has agreed to take on this tremendously important role within the league office,? said Mark Cohon, Commissioner of the Canadian Football League.

“His officiating experience, expertise, pedigree, professionalism and passion for our game are truly second to none. His leadership abilities have been proven throughout his career, in the boardroom as well as on the football field. And he is perfectly qualified to direct and develop our strong team of CFL officials.?

Glen retires from the field following a decorated 24 year career, officiating in 416 games and having earned 11 Grey Cup appointments. He has refereed some of our game’s most storied finals, notably: 1995 when a US based team won the Cup; 2005 when the game went into overtime for only the second time in history; and the 100th Grey Cup in 2012.

“It has been an honour to officiate alongside trusted colleagues who are dedicated and passionate about our great game, its integrity and their important role within it,? Johnson said.

“I welcome this opportunity to work with them in a new way at a time that the CFL is entering an exciting modern era marked by new stadiums, expansion and business growth.?

Glen has served on the CFL’s Officiating Subcommittee and the Rules Committee for more than 10 years. He was instrumental in negotiating the first contract between the CFL and its officials in 2004. In 2013, Glen was hired in a part-time role as the league’s Technical Director for officiating. Glen’s father, Gord, also officiated in the CFL for a period of 15 years earning 4 Grey Cup assignments. They remain the only father and son to have officiated a Grey Cup game.

As an athlete, Glen played major junior and university hockey in Canada.

Glen brings significant breadth to the officiating department having also been a professional baseball umpire, and Baseball Canada’s Umpire in Chief where he implemented national training, development and evaluation programs. He adds International experience to this having umpired several World Championships and the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996.

He has had a very successful 27 year career as a technology executive leading major growth, innovation, and change initiatives with firms such as GE Capital, Deloitte, Manulife Financial and Intelliware Development. He has a deep understanding of the use of social media and mobile technologies that he will bring to his new position.

Glen holds a B.Sc degree from the University of Winnipeg and an MBA from the Asper School of Business at Manitoba. He is married to Karen Ann, and along with their two sons, they currently reside in Toronto.


http://cfl.ca/article/glen-johnson-assumes-role-of-vp-of-officiating

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This is good...he'll be much better in that role than the last guy.

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Congratulations to Glen. He has a big job ahead of him.

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I hope the first thing on his “To do list” is overhaul the Command centre.

Some of the “over turns” were confusing and incorrect.

5

I can’t see why they could not expand the ability to forward information to the on field official. With the ability to see things and multiple camera angle. Just feed the information to the head official and call what they see. Just consider it an extra official.

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This is fantastic news - - now Johnson is limited to just screw up replays instead of screwing up the on field calls.

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…I agree sport…Along with some of the tsns crew interpretation of penalties on a few plays, AND confusion amongst the on field officials , they had me scratching my head…I don’t think you can expect perfection and zero errors but some penalties were tainted beyond belief…I’m sure Johnson will improve the command centre and the need to apologize to fans for ‘blown’ calls…Here’s hoping… :thup:

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I am definitely happy with this choice. He is one of the better refs for sure.

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While I disagree with your high praise of his on field “work” (I use the term extremely loosely) I do think this is a great move for the CFL for a number of reasons;

  1. Tom Higgins is gone - What mental midget decided in the first place it was a good idea to have a coach as head official? Dumbest decision the CFL has made since the US experiment.

  2. Get Johnson off the field - The guy can be a train wreck out there, this reduces the potential disasters to Proulx and Clarke.

  3. He’s a huge improvement over the last guy - A beginner with 1 games experience would be an improvement over someone with none, but this may be a good fit for Johnson. The head officials job is a lot different from the on field guys and he may do well at this.

  4. This could lead to improved on field officials - I can’t see how these guys were able to take anything seriously from the league side when ultimately it was coming, not from a former peer who had done their job, but a former adversary. Having a head official who has officiated and can relate to the officials and the situations they find themselves in week to week has got to lead to a better relationship between them and hopefully through that a better official on the field.

I think this is a positive move by the league, hiring Johnson I know Higgins stepped down and wasn’t released, and I hope this leads to some improvement in the quality of officiating, because under Higgins it was nothing short of a disaster.

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I think he was in the top half of the referees in the league. They certainly could do worse, say if they had promoted Proulx. The command centre and overruling challenged on field calls is one thing. However just retiring from the field work and moving right into this role, will he have the guts to admit on field mistakes and discipline the other refs and linesmen he recently worked with when they make bad calls on non reviewable plays or will he be in cover up mode. For those happy to be rid of Higgins, I would agree that he wasn't the right man for the job, but I wonder if it's any better having a referee supervise his "buddies" as opposed to someone who's worked within the CFL in other capacities. Hopefully he works hard to improve officiating. It doesn't do any good if he's of the opinion referees are unfairly criticized and spends the next 4-5 years making excuses for them and having their back, so to speak.

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This is good news IMO. Johnson is one of the most consistent refs in the league. Now if it was Bradbury I'd get a refund on my season tickets. Ok, that would be a little extreme but Bradbury sucks. I think the perfect guy for the job would be Bud Steen. He seems like a guy who would get $#*! done. Congrats to Johnson on the promotion.

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Steen would be great but he couldn’t afford the pay cut…he’s a big time lawyer in Edmonton. He lost a couple of thousand bucks everytime he worked a CFL game…hasn’t he sacrificed enough?

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Probably people who realize that being an on-field official and being a manager are two different skill sets. Also people who realize that if you’re unhappy with the on-field officiating, taking one of those officials and putting them in charge of all the others is not a recipe for change.

2. Get Johnson off the field - The guy can be a train wreck out there, this reduces the potential disasters to Proulx and Clarke.
If his qualification for the job of VP of officials is being an official, and he's a bad official, how exactly is this appointment a good idea?
4. This could lead to improved on field officials - I can't see how these guys were able to take anything seriously from the league side when ultimately it was coming, not from a former peer who had done their job, but a former adversary. Having a head official who has officiated and can relate to the officials and the situations they find themselves in week to week has got to lead to a better relationship between them and hopefully through that a better official on the field.
The same way any technical professional in the business world deals with CEOs & managers with MBAs?

I don’t have any problem with the appointment, but some of the posts here are awfully contradictory about it.

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My call is that it is better to have a former official in charge of the officials, simply because he knows where they are coming from. Does it have to be the BEST official, not necessarily.

Example

One of my former bosses was an OK programmer. Not great, not awful. But when his supervisor went on mat leave, he stepped into the temporary role. Turned out his gifts were not in programming, but in organizing, supervising, delegating, coaching, and hiring good programmers. He got rid of the bad apples, helped those who showed promise but needed a bit of coaching, and understood the strengths and weaknesses of his team members, making sure that everyone took advantage of those strengths, and minimized the weaknesses.

He kept the job until his unexpected death.

(Lady coming back from mat leave was transferred to the department she actually wanted to be in)

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Name me a professional sports league that has someone as head official who has never officiated. Not many, and with good reason. I suppose you would see no problem hiring Jake Ireland to coach your team. Hey, he’s just a manager.

If his qualification for the job of VP of officials is being an official, and he's a bad official, how exactly is this appointment a good idea?
Those who can do, those who can't teach, coach, manage, supervise.
The same way any technical professional in the business world deals with CEOs & managers with MBAs?
See above reasoning.