It’s really tough to stomach watching the officials as opposed to the players and the game I love. But we seem to see more of them all the time. Can the CFL cut down on flags somehow?
I thought this was one of the questions the CFL’s competition committee intended to address this past off-season. Yet this season we have seen more flags than ever. Granted, this is the league that brought us the “kick-out team” and our part-time CFL officials do their best to get things right.
You know how sometimes you see an official throw a flag, go have a conference with another or all the other officials, and pick up the flag? Then the head referee announces over the loudspeaker, “there is no infraction on the play.”
This could happen way more often than it does and we could get down to watching our favorite players and teams make great plays. That’s what we want – more fluidity and fewer delays.
I’m sure the networks, who are always trying to find ways to make broadcasts shorter, will back us up. They’d have time for an extra two or more minutes of commercials.
Here’s the plan. In the moments after a flag is thrown for a penalty, our officials should be instructed to ask themselves three questions.
- Was it a penalty?
- Did it impact player safety in any way?
- Did it impact the result of that particular play?
Today, I have to imagine, they call a strict game according to the book and don’t take into consideration the last two questions on every call.
Unless two of these questions can be answered in the affirmative, then it should no longer be a penalty.
Here’s an example. Everyone’s favourite rule, brand-new for 2015, where defensive backs and linebackers cannot obstruct or alter the path of the receiver outside of five yards past the line of scrimmage. I’d love to see the data on how many of these have been called so far. Too many for sure.
If the officials ask themselves the three questions it all of these cases, they could overturn at least half of them. The majority of these calls don’t affect the play, because the ball ends up thrown to the other side of the field. The majority of them also don’t impact player safety in any way.
I think I know what you’re going to say. Why wouldn’t defenders be instructed to interfere with receivers on every play then? Aha!
If a quarterback is progressing through his reads and he sees that a player’s pattern has been changed by the defender, he could throw the ball in a safe area to that receiver. Then two of the questions are answered with a yes and it is a penalty.
Another example is the “No end” call. This of course refers to every offensive formation, including punts and field goals, where seven players must be within a yard of line of scrimmage.
What does the offence gain by setting a player a little further into their own backfield? There is no advantage. Why on earth is this rule from the early 1900’s, when rugby became aerial football, still a penalty?
Despite all the complaining and suggestions for improvement, our officials do deserve some kudos. These men, and hopefully someday soon women, all have full time jobs that they take time away from to work for the CFL. They grew up fans just like the rest of us. Their wages are not competitive with other pro sports and I’ve never heard any one of these guys complain about being away from their family for the better part of the weekend and working for peanuts out in the spotlight as targets of fan rage. This documentary explains it better than I could:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-TCrPVArrIY
You all know now how I feel and what I’d do to combat this issue. There is more that I have not mentioned here, but for now, let’s eliminate some of these ridiculous time-consuming penalties and get back to doing what we love: watching our players and teams make great plays.
