official #73 gets game ball

Hamilton Tiger-Cats
1

referee #73, Brian Chrupalo, not surprisingly of Winnipeg Manitoba, field judge, should be awared the game ball for at least 3 calls that influenced the game in the favour of the Bombers. First, in the 2nd quarter, Thigpen caught a punt in the air with at least 3 Bombers inside the zone, yet no flage. Thigpen was incredulous. This was right in front of #73 and his call to make.

Secondly, he is the one who threw the flag on Bo Smith on what was shown on replay as being his stripping the ball from the receiver's hand when it hit the hands, giving the Bombers a long gain and points. Other refs closer to the play did not throw the flag.

In the 4th quarter, he then makes a no yards call against Hamilton, at a crucial point, when it was clear no one was in the restraining zone.

The gist is that the many of the officials are incompetent. They think they are the game, and even the announcers mentioned the number of flags and the role of the refs.

#73 in my opinion (oh, I had officiated for years and have some knowledge ) is out of his league and there are others like that. Though most officials will object, the only way to get accountability from officials is to have their stats published. Clearly set out which ref makes the most calls, and which type of calls. Offsides and motion are usually easy and obvious. No yards and interferenence are the calls that influence games. Let's see how many of these calls are made and by whom. Let's make the refs accountable and to hell with how they feel about it, as most fans are paying good bucks to see pro football players and not part-time garbage pickers dictate the flow and outcome of the game.

Sorry Brian, but your screw ups were the last call for me, and you have to be called out as being incompetent.

As the officials association will fight such accountability, fans should call out the refs that stink, they have numbers, they have a website (google CFL referees) so they should be called out and replaced by competent refs.

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if you think you lost due to reffing, your sadly mistaken, imo Bombers got screwed as much or more so it evened out.

3

You obviously didn’t listen to Duane Forde’s explanation. If Smith had turned his head to look back at the ball, it wouldn’t have been a penalty.

Watch the replay again. The ball bounced before the Bomber returner caught it on the 23 and there were 2 Ticat players standing on the 26 well within the restraining zone.

4

Bang on. It’s called, or used to be called, ‘faceguarding’. . . and it was blatant. I was yelling at the TV as the play unfolded, 'cause it was pretty clear to me that Smith wasn’t looking back for the ball, so it was no surprise to me (nor should it be to anyone else) that the flag was thrown.

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I came looking for this thread and and am pleased.

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:rockin: This is my first post after reading for many years , This labour day will be my 40th year watching The Ticats and I will be going to my 26 greycup this year. One point I would like to make is that they should not have a official from the hometown officiating a game *73 Brian Chrupalo, The CFL does not have the resources to always bring in officials from other cities so the are going to use local officials when possible. The non call on the no yards on Marcus Thigpen cost us 15 yards which was obvious , there was guys within 2 yards of him , is that guy blind. This would have given us the ball on about Winnipegs 43 yard line and we got a few yards on the 1st down and were definitley in field goal range , But no call and then we had to try a 53 yarder which was missed and would have been negated by a offside , But there is a difference from kicking from the 42 yard line as opposed to the 53 yard line, we were not given that chance . This would have given us the lead at halftime and how ironic we lost by 3 points. There were other obvious reasons we lost but that was definitly a hometown non call , my friend in Winnipeg was at the game and even he said it was an obvious non call. As for the pass interference on Bo Smith this guy has to learn how to turn around then there is no call , but he never does . I would like to offer my services to the defensive cordinator to teach the cornerbacks how to turn around and they have not been doing that for the last 10 years.
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x2

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Here is what I wrote in the game thread re: Hamilton's second last possession:

[b]Beakermania wrote:If that was a Winnipeg Receiver, Proulx would have called PI.

It was the umpire's call to make. I just rewound it on my pvr and played in slow motion. Logan definitely hit Kelly prior to the ball getting there. Oh well, maybe next year... :roll:[/b]

If this deserved penalty had been called the Cats would have been within easy Justin Money range for a tying field goal and may have been able to complete the drive for six. Either way worse case scenario for Hamilton would have been a relatively easy kick for the tie and possible overtime or a victory.

I will understand if bummer backers disagree about the veracity of the call that was missed, but that won't change my, or any neutral observer's opinion.

Winnipeg didn't so much as win last night as the Ticats lost. The two plays which exemplified this are KG's INT throw for the first score (I wish he wouldn't forget which team he plays for) and Chris Williams emulation of Leon Lett (coincidentally a guest coach during training camp :roll: ). This was a 14 point swing which, if you do the math, would have resulted in a Hamilton victory.

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Guys, bad reffing is part of Football.

You have to field a team that's going to run up the score/prevent the other team from scoring to the point that it's no longer a factor. Neither Winnipeg nor Hamilton fielded that team last night and so it became a factor that costed Hamilton the game and nearly costed Winnipeg the game. The only controversial call I saw was the lack of no-yards call of Thigpen, and even still that's 15 yards from the point of return, not a game winning penalty. Blaming the Zebra's is easy.

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if you accept bad reffing as a part of the game, then why pay signficant money to see pro athletes play while incompetents ref the game and sometimes well and most times not. Why not have fans volunteer to be refs at games, same quality in many cases as a lot of fans have played or even reffed.

I would not dump on refs if they were competent and just made an occassional mistake, but we do not have that in the CFL. As such, any of these boobs can turn a game around and it is easy to shrug it off as just being part of the game but such mediocrity need not be accepted.

Make them accountable, make poor reffing transparent as in fines, suspensions or at least publication of rebukes. Make their stats known, cause you know the head officials know exactly what who did, when, and how many times. However, the refs are a closed group and not all of the best get the jobs, it is an old boys network, so integrity is key.

Home town refs should not be doing the game except perhaps for the lines crew, as they can only screw it up or be perceived of screwing it up for little damage. However, an umpire like #73 should not be put in the position of making so many tough calls being a home town boy. When he screws up like he did last night, the integrity of the game looks shaky. On the other hand, we can all recall what happened to Al McColman of Hamilton when he made a bad call at IWS that went against the Cats, he was terrorized at home and work, and that is not fair to an official either.

If the CFL is not going to pay the big bucks for quality, then at least pay the little bucks to bring guys in from out of town to at least make the game look legit, as at least two full crews of refs were available.

Now in getting to details, it is acknowledged that there ought to have been no yards on Thigpen's return. I disagree however with some posts that Smith had to turn his head around. It has been clear for decades that if Smith had put up his hands to block the ball or distract the receiver before the ball got there and he did not turn his head while doing so, it is a call. However, there is nothing that prevents a defender to not turn his head, but to focus on the receivier and when he sees the ball reach the receivers hands, to then dislodge and strip it. That I believe was what happened there, but more importantly, has happened many times to many other players on different teams, and some refs are just so focused on whether the head turns that they miss the intricacy of what is being done, and if I am correct, this is a technique that is being taught and coached.

If our refs are incapable to handle this technique, then we have problems. When you look at the big picture, PI calls are the most dramatic, game changing and fan frustrating calls around. As a multi decade seaon ticket holder, only in the last few years have I had a feeling of angst every time a ball is thrown by anyone. I have become used to looking for a flag on virtually most pass plays, and for fans of football, that is not good.

A possible solution would be to allow one additional challenge per half to a coach that can only be used to review a PI call. Not only would it do away with some bad calls, some officials may keep the flag in their pocket until they are sure there was a call that would withstand the scrutiny as opposed to a close, maybe, possibly, could be PI call.

I come to watch the football games and do not like leaving game after game, win or lose, with displeasure at the role of the zebras tossing their orange flags.

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The officiating wasn't that bad at all. Winnipeg has their share of penalties as well.

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I'm pretty sure the McColeman PI call was in Toronto at Exhibition Stadium

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That’s my memory as well. It doesn’t change the result however. :thdn:

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Yes there is something that prevents this. It’s called the rule.

The penalties were pretty darn close.

Hamilton: 13 for 130 yards
Winnipeg: 14 for 117 yards

Both teams had their share of sloppy play and it’s not surprising coming off the bye week.

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While “statistics are for losers” I agree that the totals were very close. My only concern is the 15th penalty (Logan) that wasn’t called for PI on Kelly. Truly a game changer imo.

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happened right infront of me, that "great jam" was just the hamilton defender getting beat, turning carr around in the end zone and pretty much raping him while the ball was in the air.

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Winnipeg didn't so much as win last night as the Ticats lost. The two plays which exemplified this are KG's INT throw for the first score (I wish he wouldn't forget which team he plays for) and Chris Williams emulation of Leon Lett (coincidentally a guest coach during training camp :roll: ). This was a 14 point swing which, if you do the math, would have resulted in a Hamilton victory.
Beat a dead horse much? Hey whatever gets you through the night. Talking about the what if's, you're only making yourself (and others) crazy. A loss is a loss no matter how you spin it. Regardless, 7-1 and 4-4 is a big difference in the standings. I would take winning ugly over a almost but it was a moral victory anyday

It was a great game. Worthy of being one of the best of the year.

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I love it. After every TiCat game there is a blame the Ref thread. Surprisingly, not when they beat us. This is going on almost 5 years of trending too.

Keep on supporting that AHL team (average 4,000... per game) Your NHL team will be there soon!

OSKEE WAAAAAHHHHHH WAAAAAHHHH is more like it.

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Ya know....they can whine and complain about this play and that play, this call and that call...best part is they miss the fact that with less than 3 min to go....Hamilton could not get a 2 and out from their d, allowing us to run the clock, nor could they go get the 3 points they needed to tie the game. In crunch time, the Bombers stepped up.

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This thread confirms what I've long suspected. "Friendly" Manitoba has some of the most boorish fans in the country. (They even beat the blew team's fans down the QE - which I agree doesn't say much). I wonder if they "troll" on our web site because there are so few of them on their own site, or are they compensating for some other inadequacy? Are there any psychiatrist Ticat fans who might be able to offer their opinions? :slight_smile: