... and Kent Austin declines the penalty, then I announce it all and spot the ball and then Austin calls me over to change his mind I'm NOT letting him change it AND I'm giving him 10 yards for delay of game.
Agree.
Yep. I'd agree with that as well.
In fairness, that whistle should have been blown in as soon as the ball was placed...Austin had a fair beef on it IMO. That said, it was a dumb call by Austin...130 on the clock...you think the Argos are concerned with it running out?
He did it again and got away with it.
Well, I did not know that you could challenge whether a ball was tipped to negate a penalty, but the call WAS right on the field and it wasn’t even close.
This is 2 incidents of Austin bitching and whining that have just made the game 10 minutes longer than it needed to be.
And I’m sure Benevides ought to be pissed that Austin is allowed to undecline a penalty and he isn’t even though in the case of the Lions it was the official’s erroe that declined the penalty and not some BS whining by the coach.
Pretty much what the rulebook says too. Once a decision has been made it cannot be reversed…
Could you tell us which rule that is please? I looked today and couldn’t find anything to prevent it.
When Murphy went over to talk to Austin, Austin put up 2 fingers, saying that he declined the penalty because he thought that would make it 2nd down.
I'm guessing (only a guess here) that Murphy may have admitted that he didn't explain the options clearly and allowed Austin to change his decision on those grounds.
if you are the ref, I am not playing 
Not sure about the CFL rulebook (may be a mechanics procedure and not a set rule), but in the amateur book it’s Rule 1, Section 3, Article 4 dealing with Team Captains. “…After the choice of penalty or option has been made, the choice may not be revoked…”
[url=http://www.hfoa.org/pdfs/rb2010.pdf]www.hfoa.org/pdfs/rb2010.pdf[/url]Makes sense that it should be the case. I was just surprised to not find it in the CFL Rule Book, and was hoping you had the reference. I’m thinking that it’s just one of those unwritten rules, or possibly at the discretion of the referee. (And maybe it’s specified in amateur to take away the referee’s discretion, given the lack of experience of some?)
In this case, I’m guessing that the referee realized that Austin had misunderstood his options, and was more clear than usual in his announcement - did it sound more detailed than usual to anyone else? - in order to give Austin a second chance.
On TSN during the game / play the commentators stated that once the ref had placed the ball the decision on accept / decline was final. Not sure I have ever actually seen that in the rule book.
Regardless of whether or not it’s in the CFL rule book (not that the on line version is the same the guys on the field use), functionally it should be…allowing back and forth only makes the game longer and we can all agree that is NOT needed. Besides, these guys are pros…they should know better and given how much grief these coaches give the officials they have to be experts in the rule book, right?
Catsfan did suggest a scenario where the officials may have felt Austin misunderstood the options and they were given a second chance to make a decision and if that happened I’d be inclined to say “too bad Coach” and roll with the initial call. However, I could understand a scenario where the officials felt they had not properly explained the options to the captain and in an effort to keep the game fair, gave the team a second chance.
And we all know that the commentators have never gotten a rule wrong before. 
As I said, I was surprised not to find it in the rule book. I was always under that understanding as well. But with it not being written there, it ends up being at the discretion of the referee. (And he’ll be raked over the coals by the supervisor of officials in the post-game review if he was wrong.)
yeah lol…I was just saying… :cowboy:
It may be in the CFL Officials Handbook. It has been a while since I have read it as it is basically written into the last few releases of the rule book…but perhaps there is more detail within it.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a copy of that document. I can’t find a copy on the CFL site, on the Canadian Football Officials site, not even on the cfldb website - which has an HTML version of the 2013 CFL Rule Book online, by the way. Maybe as you say, they’ve eliminated it by adding all those Approved Rulings to the rule book?
I believe the last copy I have is 6 or 7 years old, but I would be happy to dig it up some time if you want.
I found a copy from 2006 online.
An interesting read, actually, although I haven’t made it all the way through yet. A lot there about who’s responsible for what - mostly common sense, but good to see it written down.
For an example of the type of information in the document, this is in one of the sections pertaining to the umpire, who lines up in the defensive backfield.
Don’t over react to apparent pass interference situations. In most cases, you are turning late and it is possible that you haven’t seen all of the play. Use a great deal of caution in these situations and only call if you have had a full look at the infraction.That's the type of advice that should be in this document that would definitely not be in the rule book.
Football officials have two "bibles". One is the actual rule book, the other is this book on what are called "mechanics"....a kind of "playbook" for referees.
It deals mostly with positioning in different game situations (3rd and short, goal line, kicks and so on) as being in the right place to make the correct call is critical to the accuracy of the call. The passage quoted above deals with the pass coverage by the umpire (to watch blocking until the ball is released and then turn with the ball) and the caution is a mantra to all officials, which is don't officiate the whole field...officiate only what is in your area (unless it's a cheap shot UR that can be clearly seen from start to finish).
Amateur officials will have this book on mechanics for five, six and seven man crews to reflect the different levels they work and the number of referees the leagues can afford to pay for...coverages can change drastically when there's two less officials on the field.