Wife and me were watching the Argos and Riders game and even she mentioned as a very casual fan that there seems to be a lot of flags. At least the officials are quicker now with the call and get the game going again unlike years before where there seemed to be a 2 minute conference for every other flag thrown.
But that's a good point DoubleBlue, the game is a lot faster now and it is different.
I was at the game yesterday (great seats, too), and after the first quarter, I kid you not, everyone around me (myself included) was checking the ground for flags after literally every play.
I've also discovered that since the first regular season game aired this year, I've been not believing a play actually happened as-is until it's verified that there are no flags down. Although the game is faster, I do find I am less engaged with the game itself this year, and I find I'm tuning out before the game is over. That's not a good thing.
It seems to me that there are always lots of flags early in the season perhaps because there are only two preseason games. So I've come to expect sloppy play early on for at least the first two games. That said, I'm mildly surprised by the decent quality of the games so far this season, despite the penalties.
It is unfortunate that the owners and community owned teams don't sit down and change their entire philosophy on penalties .
There has to be a complete change as the officials now control the game and not the players . As I have mentioned several times in the past over the last 25 years the nfl has averaged about 12 penalties per game - not by chance but by the direction of the nfl what is a penalty and what is not - the ify penalties and inconsequential penalties are not called period .
Here is the serious part of,our flag laden game - the loss of fans and interest - we all know fans and friends that got turned off last year by the flags and stopped buying tickets and stopped watching on television - season ticket are down in most cities except where there is a new stadium and regina -
I think this is very concerning lat year was a downer let's hope this year is not a repeat but a complete turnaround
There were 31 penalties in the Hamilton-Winipeg game, which seems like a lot to me. Here is the list of penalties from the game log:
Play# Qtr Team Player Penalty (YDS Status)
147 4 Tiger-Cats J. SEARS UR - Roughing the kicker (15 Accepted)
132 4 Tiger-Cats E. DAVIS Holding (1 Accepted)
130 4 Blue Bombers J. FEOLI GUDINO Offside - Offence (5 Accepted)
122 3 Tiger-Cats T. LAURENT UR - General (15 Accepted)
117 3 Blue Bombers Z. ANDERSON Illegal block (Hands to face) (10 Accepted)
113 3 Blue Bombers D. ADAMS OC - General (10 Accepted)
112 3 Tiger-Cats J. HICKMAN UR - Roughing the passer (15 Accepted)
103 3 Tiger-Cats A. TRACY Holding (Return) (10 Accepted)
94 3 Tiger-Cats M. FORD Illegal block (Return) 10 Accepted
92 3 Blue Bombers S. BRYANT Procedure - General (5 Accepted)
87 2 Tiger-Cats A. GASCON-NADON Holding (Return) (10 Accepted)
84 2 Tiger-Cats E. DAVIS Def. Pass Interference (34 Accepted)
81 2 Tiger-Cats A. TRACY Offside - Defence (5 Accepted)
72 2 Blue Bombers J. DANIELS Procedure - General (5 Accepted)
68 2 Blue Bombers J. ADAMS UR - General (15 Accepted)
65 2 Blue Bombers G. PEACH Offside - Defence (5 Accepted)
64 2 Blue Bombers T. GIBSON Offside - Defence (5 Accepted)
62 2 Tiger-Cats T. TOLIVER Illegal Block (10 Accepted)
62 2 Blue Bombers J. WESTERMAN UR - General (15 Accepted)
60 2 Tiger-Cats Z. COLLAROS Time Count (5 Accepted)
48 2 Blue Bombers C. RANDLE Def. Pass Interference (15 Accepted)
39 2 Blue Bombers S. CHUNGH UR - General (15 Accepted)
39 2 Tiger-Cats T. LAURENT Offside - Defence (5 Accepted)
36 1 Blue Bombers D. JONES Illegally downfield on a kick (10 Declined)
34 1 Blue Bombers S. BRYANT Holding (10 Declined)
27 1 Blue Bombers D. PICARD Illegal interference - General (10 Accepted)
25 1 Blue Bombers J. FEOLI GUDINO Illegal Block (10 Accepted)
22 1 Blue Bombers J. ADAMS Illegal Contact on a Receiver (10 Accepted)
22 1 Tiger-Cats B. BANKS OC - General (10 Accepted)
16 1 Tiger-Cats T. REED Offside - Defence (5 Declined)
11 1 Tiger-Cats T. LAURENT Offside - Defence (5 Accepted)
Could someone please indicate which penalties should not have been called to allow the game to flow better? Note that if we're trying to get down under 15 penalties, at least 16 of these should have gone uncalled. So, which ones should the officials have let go? And why?
I see it as the opposite.
simply put, an infraction is an infraction and will be penalized as per the rule book and when players buckle down and play within the rules the flags will stop.
Once players have additional time to adjust to the new rules I’m certain the number of flags will drop in due course.
The refs are simply doing their job. The players break the rules, not the refs. Go at the players. If the refs don't call a penalty that affects the game immensely, then you have one half of the fan base screaming bloody murder. I'm sick of the constant flags too. I just wish they would call OFFSIDE and HOLDING a little more consistent.
“…issue a warning and let it go…”.
Officials wouldn’t issue a warning for say, a hold on the opposite side of the play but they already let it go. If they didn’t already do this we’d have 70+ penalties a game. There’s 5 O line guys and each of them holds in some manner on each and every play…that’s 5 x 160 = 800 player interactions to judge per game! On the earlier penalty list…4 holding calls. That’s not “…letting them play…”?
These kinds of threads frustrate me. It’s obvious that there’s a core of posters who will never accept the very obvious fact that players cause penalties, not referees. It shows a basic lack of understanding about the sport to second guess an official who has dedicated 15 or 20 years of his life (or more) to a relatively thankless job where non performing players and coaches get to verbally (and sometimes physically abuse) them from close range as they perform their task is an accepted reality. Sad really.
I’d love to see some of these posters attend a weekend intro amateur football officials clinic (they’re offered once or twice a year in all CFL cities) and then see how they view things. My thought is that after spending some quality time with an actual rule book (as opposed to an on line version that they love to quote but don’t actually ready in any depth) and actual officials you’d see a lot less of these BS “…LET EM PLAY…” posts.
We all want less penalties…but that’s up to the players, not the officials.
Agreed with that for sure.
What I also find annoying, when you are at a game, if the home team gets a penalty the fans boo, and if the visiting team gets a penalty they cheer. Do fans really think that all penalties meted out to the opposing team are always justified, and that all penalties meted out to their home team are never justified??
How much do you want to bet that not one of them takes up my challenge to identify the penalties in the Ticats-Bombers game that they think should have been let go by the officials? It’s easy to say the officials need to call fewer penalties, but nowhere near as easy to say specifically which penalties they shouldn’t have called.
The sad fact is,that viewership on TSN - is down close to. 30% from last year and. 40% from. 2 years ago - to say that the flags have nothing to do with this concerning trend I don't think is true - for all the purist out there who want everything called
It may be turning off all the casual fans and a lot of,the hard core fans. - summer is too short to watch a flag filled game - the parks and festivals and beaches and ice cream,parlors are just a better option with no delay of game or no yards .
And in the fall the NFL - with just. 12. Penalties per game on average just has a better ebb and flow -
I think we do have a mini crisis here - the numbers show it. -
Time to come up,with some answers
Ratings down 40% compared to two years ago? Really? Care to provide a link to that data? The only thing I could find was an article that suggested average ratings game to game over the season (the only true comparative) were down 6% in 2014 vs. 2013 and that was more due to some uncompetitive games more than anything else. To suggest that ratings are down significantly due to penalty flags is a pretty big leap as I see it. You’re entitled to your opinion of course but I’d love to see some data to back it up.
[url=https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/eh-game/the-great-canadian-ratings-report--whatever-202327416.html]https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/eh-ga ... 27416.html[/url]There is simply too many flags for there to be any flow this season, and it was the same problem last year. I didn't think they'd find a way to make it worse but here we are.
Check out my first podcast on my blog about the problem with penalties in the CFL.
[url=https://cflunderground.wordpress.com/2015/07/08/cfl-underground-podcast-episode-1-penalties/]https://cflunderground.wordpress.com/20 ... penalties/[/url]I listened to the first ten minutes or so…full marks to putting it together but too long. Take if from an old radio guy, tighten it up…five, six minutes tops if you’re on your own…longer if you’ve got some guests.
But nice work overall…congrats.
excuse me / yougottabekidding
So far the data for 2015 compared to 2013 - average attendance is down 16 % - and before one says we had a game in ft mac - remember Hamilton was playing out of Guelph - so kinda of a wash - and the tv rating so,far in 2015 are 32%'leas then the 2013
Per game average - please forgive me for not using a calculator in my 1st post and saying 40% - my bad . If you will do some research you will find all this info on web -
My bad for figuring 40% using my quick calculation - But one must agree that tv attendance down 32% And average game day attendance down 16% in a gate driven league is serious - in only 2 years .
Yes !!!! I will say the excessive flags has a great deal to play in this the flow is not there to the games and this year so far we are averaging 30 penalties a game and that is not counting the 5 to 8 penalties per game that are declined - that is ridiculous
No wonder we are losing fans at an alarming rate . If it is not the penalties what is it ? The womens World Cup ? I don't think so
- it did not diminish the Blue Jays they are way up in average viewership per game - check out Nascar - golf- tennis - they did not diminish either in their ratings during World Cup - but the cfl did -
The sky is falling - we are all not chicken little's that are crying out for,changes in the way and philosophy how penalties are called in the cfl. - let's hope that the CFL does not become like the Emperor with no clothes - or no fans - the 18-35 demographic are not getting turned on by the CFL the way it is now - they are the new generation for the CFL- and right now they are voting - thumbs down on our product - time to change - and yes - the excessive flags are a problem - a ball and chain around the ankle of the CFL.
pressbalks won’t provide a link to his false claims because he has no source…just more negative drivel from the Rogers camp who are pissed the CFL kills the BJ’s in the ratings. Bye, bye birdie!
When you get simple stats like this wrong, stats that are easily verifiable, it really does throw doubt on the rest of your stats, especially when you don’t provide a source for them. As someone once said, 63.5% of all statistics are made up on the spot. In this case, I’m thinking it’s closer to 100%.
Penalties
Game Called Accepted
--------- ------ --------
Ott @ Mtl 22 20
Ham @ Cgy 27 22
Edm @ Tor 37 29
Wpg @ Ssk 25 22
Ham @ Wpg 31 28
Cgy @ Mtl 23 19
BC @ Ott 24 19
Tor @ Ssk 21 20
--------- ------ --------
Average 26.3 22.4
Ya, CatsFaninOttawa asked the right question before. If there are too many penalties called, which ones should the refs let slide ? In other words, which infraction should the refs not penalize ? The refs job is hard enough without those kind of decisions being made on the spot. How pissed off are the players and fans when we see a hesitation in a refs call in games today ? How pissed of are we when the refs say that a flag was thrown in error ? Call it all and maybe the players should start paying for their mistakes with their salary. I think we'd see a drastic drop in penalties immediately.
Another issue is the pre season is too short. Two games is not even close to enough . Considering one of those two games are played by guys who probably won't make the team. Four is the number .