League pondering rule change on replays

Well, I still have not seen anything jump out at me online on this one, so I am not sure where their source was from, or perhaps I really misunderstood what 2 separate stations were saying...I was on my first bit of coffee I suppose.

After the weekend football games there most always appears columns of posts complaining of mistakes made by the officials focusing on how an error by one or more officials represented how inferior our officials are compared to those in the NFL or, how our officials misrepresent game action. Until someone comes up with some software to just give the officiating to a computer there are bound to be, from time to time, incorrect calls by the men in black and white. Personally, I believe that the present system of officiating is effective. The utilization of officials to respond to calls of coaches to review some calls by video has resulted in increased effectiveness of the game officiating. Our refs are not perfect human beings and, perfection should not be required of them as an error is bound to happen from time to time. We are presently are getting both efficient and productive officiating in the CFL from our officiating system. Kudos should go to those persons who manage this system for their positiveness and skill ensuring that there are indeed rules in the game of football and, these rules are handled, with skill, by those involved.

No it is not the leagues job to officiate the game. Maybe that’s part of the problem with the officials, it’s their job to officiate the game. Not the command centre, not the league and not the coaches. The command centre regularly blows video review calls and you want them to take over the whole game? That has disaster written all over it.

I’m no fan of video review as it’s currently employed by the CFL, but if they must keep it let’s put the job back in the hands of the guys the league pays to officiate the game, not some senile old man in a video room who can’t handle the officials job with all of technology to make it easy. The NFL has no command centre, the official on the field reviews it on a monitor. Rugby has no challenges, it’s up to the referee if he wants a review on a play or not and he tells the video judge exactly what he wants confirmed.

CFL officials are nowhere near professional caliber and will never get there if the league continues to undermine their authority on the field and question their judgement.

I meant the league as in the league hiring officials to enforce the rules, as opposed to putting onus upon coaches to throw hankies. I did not mean the league, as in separate from the officials. I meant the officials as run/employed by the league office. Sorry for the confusion.

No offense, I did know what you meant and got a little carried away in trying to make a point about how the NFL and Rugby use video review.

If their going to do this then they better increase the amount and quality of the cameras being used.

My stance is this, if it's blatantly obvious non-call that the refs should have picked it up, then the command centre should intervene and apply the penalty. If the coaches want to use a challenge to highlight a blatant non-call then feel free. However, if there is ANY question, what so ever that the play may or may not have been a penalty (which lets face it, a lot of Pass Interference and holding calls are) then it's up to the refs. The example of the Zdeno Chara hit of Max Pacioretty looks completely intentional and blatant in super slow motion, but at actual speed, it's a completely different story.

As far as chincy calls, you can't challenge them. There are rarely calls made that are completely beyond the realm of believability, and almost never does such a thing happen more then once a game. The league will take care of those after the game under normal discipline.

Dana White, the president of the UFC has said many a time "Never leave it in the hands of the judges" because a fighter is rolling the dice with them (and the state of MMA judgeing is far worse then the state of CFL reffing). I fully feel that a Football team should always endevour to be ahead by at least 10 points and should adopt the philsophy that you are always 10 points behind your actual score. Otherwise you are one bad call and an onsite kick away from losing. Reffing is an element of limited randomness to the game that teams must overcome.

I don't care what the league does with replays, it must be applied consistantly. Expand the roll of the Contact Centre, reduce the roll of the contact centre or illiminate the contact centre. I don't really care, as long as the rules are exactly the same for all 8 teams, all of the time. If a call is made or changed due to a review, that call must be made or changed every time. If a review is called in any circumstance, it must always be applied in that circumstance every time.

If the Contact Centre rules that they will not call a head shot last week, don't turn around and call a similar head shot this week. Players need to know what and when they are going to be called. Fans deserve nothing less than fairness.

Bottom line for me is, I am not of the opinion that the replays have been applied consistantly and fairly this season. If they can't apply replays with fairness and consistancy, scrap them, or fix them.

My stance is this, if it's blatantly obvious non-call that the refs should have picked it up, then the command centre should intervene and apply the penalty.
How would that even work? Someone on the sideline would have to get the refs attention and tell him to report to the Command Centre for correction/comments/direction? Or the ref would have to wear an in-ear-monitor or head-phone so they can contact him directly? All I see from that is delay, delay, delay, as well as undermining the refs confidence and professionalism.

(*insert comment here about your wife wanting you to wear an in-ear-monitor so she can correct/comment/direct your behaviour *) :smiley:

There’s a lot going on on the field. The officials miss a lot, the cameras miss a lot, and another set of eyes will miss a lot to.

Personally I’d rather we leave the game up to the on-field officials, and work to make them better.

:thup:

It is time to take the officiating jobs - at least the refs and linesmen jobs to full time gigs. These guys come from everywhere across the country, meet in their dressing room, then go call the game.

Full time guys would have more time to prepare and review game footage from previous games and even each others games. Then we won't have guys making a critical call in the beginning of a game and handing someone a touchdown when there really wasn't an infraction.