Being a professional CFL official has got to be one of the hardest and most thankless jobs in our country. That said, our CFL officials are often labelled the worst in professional sport by fans who watch other North American pro sports leagues.
Their salary has historically reflected, and currently mirrors, that opinion. They are assuredly the lowest paid group of officials in our sporting marketplace. I would be shocked if fewer than 95% had other, more rewarding, full-time jobs.
I have always had a love/hate relationship with officials: I love hating them. One referee that stands out in particular is actually fictional. The character is played by the actor John Goodman: Referee Pittman of Saturday Night Live fame.
He was an NFL official who would answer questions in a post-game news conference. The questions were about everything from his eyesight to what material fills the cavity where his brain would be, if he had one. It was priceless, and in 2014 nearly every CFL fan can relate to those sentiments about the value we get from the officials.
If you’ve had to make a decision under pressure within a split second you can relate to that part of officiating. It is hard to make those decisions. But it’s not rocket science either.
One must possess an excellent moral compass, they must travel well, have perfect vision, freedom on weekends, some athletic ability, presentation skills, and a strong desire to get the calls right all the time.
So why don’t they make the right calls all of the time? Sometimes they go to the review official and they still get it wrong! That is the most frustrating part for fans no matter your team allegiance.
More fan complaints include greater numbers of penalties overall, more offensive holding calls, and missing offensive offsides on waggle receivers or slotbacks.
I have noticed some facts about the refs this year that stick out to me when compared to other years. The officials have huddled together as many as three or four times a quarter to make calls by committee. The most I remember this occurring in the past is once or twice a game.
So why the increases?
The collective bargaining agreement was big news this off-season for the players, the owners, and the CFL itself. The officials got no piece of the pie resulting from new TV money from networks like the originating broadcaster, TSN or ESPN and NBC. Together these three media giants own all of the TV rights. Our already undervalued officials remain at their 2013 salaries. Yet with new rule changes and crew changes they had to do additional work in their off-season just getting up to speed.
Could they be angry at those factors and be rebelling? Could they be ticked off at Glen Johnson and protesting? After all, the new head of officiating did split up the crews that had been established. Could this be their not-so-subtle revolution?
With a new guy occupying the top job in Glen Johnson, and league commissioner Mark Cohon on his way out, I don’t expect any answers to come forth this year.
The issue of officiating, and some answers to what has taken place in the 2014 season, will need to be on the incoming commissioner’s shortlist of things to tackle.
It’s far too insulting to a fan’s intelligence for the CFL to allow them to watch the replays only to hear that there is not sufficient evidence to overturn a call when those fans have just witnessed otherwise. It makes the league we love look like a joke.
Let’s just hope they haven’t offended the wallets of some fans because the CFL has always been a fan driven league. We are trying to gain in numbers, not anger people to the point where they are leaving for greener pastures.
The CFL officials have been more horrid than usual and that’s saying something. But it needs to stop. Whatever our CFL officials are lacking should be made available to them so that we can finally put this discussion in the end zone.
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