My response to Mr. George Black's column

This is my first post here and my reason for posting is George Black's take on the officiating error during last Thursday night's game against Toronto.

Mr Black states the folowing :
"In Thursday night’s Montreal @ Toronto game, there was an officiating error when on a Toronto pass play, the Side Judge called Pass Interference against Montreal, threw his flag and assumed the pass had gone incomplete. The assumption was incorrect. Montreal actually intercepted the pass. The whistle should not have been blown until the play was completely over. As it happens, the penalty would supersede the balance of the play anyway."

Your statement is incorrect Mr. Black, the official did not throw his flag but can clearly be seen waving his arms to indicate an incomplete pass. If he had called pass interference he would have immediately thrown his flag as we always see officials do. Instead, what we saw was a blatant attempt to cover-up his mistake by calling pass interference after the fact.(The replay is also quite clear in showing that no interference took place).

A mistake can be accepted, we all make them but by covering up in this manner this official has shown a lack of integrity and should be terminated. As for the Director of Officiating to subscribe to this cover-up is absolutely unpardonnable.

I would have liked to respond directly to Mr. Black but there seems to be no way to respond to "Ask the Ref"

MadJack also sent an email to MR Black. He provided this link

[url=http://www.cfl.ca/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=18349]http://www.cfl.ca/index.php?name=PNphpB ... ic&t=18349[/url]

In this thread I posted a clip and a photo which shows the ref waving off the play while the flag is in his pocket!

Hi ro1313
Thanks for the link. The picture you posted speaks volumes. My beef is not that the official made a mistake by calling it incomplete but his compounding of the mistake by calling pass interference. The play should have been called dead at the point of the interception and the Als awarded the ball. This reminds me of the BC fumble and quick whistle in last year's Grey Cup. The ball was awarded to the Als and the game went on. A mistake was made and everyone moved on.

Here, however,the Director of Officiating participates in the coverup. Heads should role over this one including Mr Black's if he does not come up with a better answer.

I understand and agree.
All they had to do was say "oops" and be done with it. They didn't they tried to cover it up.
Twice......Once with the flag and then again with the explaination

If George Black doesn't come up with a satisfactory answer, i suggest sending an email to Jim Daley.

Something needs to be done here, and people need to be held accountable.

Well put Len. Here's the email address you want:

GBlack@cfl.ca