WTH?? When did the CFL change the official's caps??

I noticed in the pre-season games that I watched on TV that the league has switched the colours around on the caps worn by linesmen and head ref. Used to be that the head ref wore a black cap with white piping and the linesmen wore white caps with black visor and piping. That has been reversed, with the head ref wearing white (similar to refs in US football) and the linesmen wearing the black ones (again similar to US football). WTF?? Why was this change made? US players haven’t had any problems identifying the ref before, so maybe this is a result of CFL 2.0 and global players. I really hate random Americanisation of our game, this was something that didn’t need to be changed. What are they going to do next…change the colour of the penalty and challenge flags to match the US as well??
Rant over.

I did a double take watching the Cats vs RB game.

I think this is simply a matter of bring the CFL in line with essentially every other league as they start to do broader collaboration. U-sport is like this…as are most other international leagues. As they start to send officials out and bring officials in as a part of that relationship, it likely just makes sense.

Other than U Sports, “every other league” plays US football, so no, it doesn’t make sense. We don’t have to do things a certain way just because it’s the way the Americans do it. It’s not a big deal, but it pisses me off a bit. The CFL is the only pro league playing Canadian football, so they can do things their own way. Anyway, it’s been changed and won’t change back, just hope this isn’t signaling a trend towards more Americanisation of our game.

The season needs to start. We have officially run out of things to complain about.

Amen.

Well you have some people who come to this site to crap on the CFL for everything they do. And I mean everything.

Exactly, who complains about a refs cap colour.

Nice, passive trolling. Don’t attack me directly, just lump me in with the CFL haters. I love the CFL and have being watching it for decades. I love that our game is unique and exciting to watch and dislike any changes that are made just for the sake of making it more like the American game.
Anyway, the mods might as well lock this thread.

Who cares.

One could position the change as a very Canadianization of the game as it brings the CFL in line with not only University ball but also ALL other amateur ranks in Canadafrom pee wee to CJFL. Given ALL CFL officials serve between 8 and 10 years in amateur ball before they “go to the show”, it’s probably long overdue. It’s actually very common for amateur officials to refer to the (Head) Referee as the “White Hat”.

Meh. Change is inevitable. Bring back the baggy ref pants and beer guts from 1965? And those vertical stripes are very slimming, IMHO.

Haven’t seen a pre-season game on tv yet… officials were fine the way they were…

Great post. ::slight_smile: Why bother posting in a thread that you don’t care about? ???

The fact is that the hats were changed and will probably stay that way for the foreseeable future. It’s not the end of the world, but people can still have an opinion about it and talk about it.

I’ve been an amateur official for too many years so I remember the “baggy pants”…called knickers. When they brought in the long black pants a number of years ago I fought the changes as I really enjoyed the knickers (and the stirrup socks) but now that I’ve worn the blacks for almost a decade, I can’t imagine giving them up. Much warmer in the cold weather and much easier to clean when the field gets a bit muddy, which still happens at amateur.

As far as beer guts are concerned, you’d be hard pressed to find more than a few CFL guys who are not in top shape and even at CIS they’re a lean bunch out west…down east not so much.

Finally, the vertical stripes are indeed slimming, but even they got wider a few years ago so some of that effect was lost. Sadly.

Yeah, the refs today, at least the ones I see on TV since I don’t make it to many amateur games, are in far better shape than they were fifty years ago. I actually like the look the have now, but I have no doubt their uniform will continue to evolve as tastes and expectations change.

The refs last evening in Hamilton wearing everything. Sometimes it was all black and who knew who the head official was as at times no explanations were made for penalties and all wore black hats but that was not the way it started or finished. Who knows what was going on.

Underscores the most unsung hero in the CFL…the laundry girl (or guy)! :wink: