Penalties drag CFL down

Three officials get together to discuss a penalty call.

    The CFL officials deserve a thumbs up.

    The men in the black and white striped shirts have been totally consistent calling the league’s new standard in flagging pass interference and illegal contact on a receiver penalties. Do to that consistency, everyone that watches the CFL has a pretty accurate painting of what the game looks with the strict enforcement of these fouls with four weeks of the season in the books.

    Now, everyone has to decide whether they like how the game looks now or not.

It seems routine now for both teams to record over 100 yards in penalties in each contest and for quarterbacks to complete 80 per cent of their passes.

    You also have to wonder if games now are weighted too much against the defence.

    A signature play to show how much the defence is hampered came from the B.C. Lions 27-24 victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Friday at Mosaic Stadium. Near the end of the third quarter with the Lions on the Roughriders 29 holding a 20-11 lead, B.C. quarterback Travis Lulay threw a deep pass into the end zone to receiver Shawn Gore, who ran a wheel route on Riders defensive back Michael Carter. Carter was flagged for pass interference, which brought the ball to the Saskatchewan two.

    Saskatchewan head coach Corey Chamblin threw the challenge flag in hopes of reversing the penalty call. The call stood up after a review.

    Two plays later, the Lions opened the fourth quarter scoring a touchdown as Lulay connected with receiver A.C. Leonard to make the score 27-11. The Lions ultimately had strategic control of the game that stood up despite a late Roughriders rally.

    In dissecting the pass interference all that helped set up B.C.’s final major, it was clear that minor contact occurred between Gore and Carter halfway through the route. The two ended up hand fighting for a second before Lulay’s pass sailed way over the pair. Gore made a fruitless dive for the ball, but he had no chance of coming up with the pass.

    In Carter’s defence, you can argue there shouldn’t have been a penalty because both he and Gore participated in the hand fighting and the ball was not catchable.

    However, the officials have set the standard this season that any downfield contact on a receiver will be flagged, and the penalty call on Carter was consistent with what has already been called in the 2015 campaign. The referees and linesman grade out high for not swaying from that standard.

    The officials should continue to do what they are doing right through the end of the post-season. When the off-season rolls around, all those involved with league meetings have to decide if they want this standard of enforcement to be maintained. To make a change mid-season would be the biggest thing any league could do to damage its credibility.

An official stands beside Riders receiver Rob Bagg.

    Besides discussing the pass interference calls, the league has to examine how it is calling all infractions. At the start of the 2014 season, it was deemed the league need to call penalties more tightly. That resulted in numerous defensive battles, because the excessive penalty calls helped bring offences to a standstill.

    The highlight or lowlight of the season came in the 102^nd Grey Cup in Vancouver on Nov. 30 between the Calgary Stampeders and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. With the Stampeders holding a 20-16 edge inside of the final minute of the fourth quarter, they had to punt the ball away to dangerous Tiger-Cats returner Brandon Banks. On an electrifying return, Banks ran the ball back 90 yards for the apparent winning score with 35 seconds to play.

    Hamilton linebacker Taylor Reed was flagged for an illegal block on Calgary linebacker Karl McCartney that erased the TD, and the Stamps held on for a 20-16 victory.

    Looking at the video, the call was close. There was an angle that made it look like the block was from the side and another angle where it looked like the block was a bit in the back area. The block also came in the fringe area, where it can be argued that McCartney might not have been able to make a tackle.

    If Bank’s major stood, the 102^nd Grey Cup would be vaulted into classic status. In the end, it was still a good game, but it could have enjoyed a loftier position in CFL history.

    In order to get offences rolling, the league’s brain trust in the off-season decided to get tougher on the interpretation of defensive pass interference and illegal contact on a receiver. In another weird twist, offensive yardage is up all over the place, but the 38-34 style offensive shootout common in the late 1980s and early 1990s hasn’t returned.

    It is safe to say it was hoped the rule changes would greatly increase scoring, but it hasn’t. There has only been two games where both teams have score more than 30 points.

    During that last clash between the Riders and Lions, Saskatchewan was flagged 14 times for 159 yards, while B.C. had 11 infractions for 93 yards. Those types of penalty numbers have been the norm.

    When you viewed Saturday’s battle between the Stampeders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Calgary, it can be argued teams can adjust to how penalties are being called. The Stamps slipped past the Bombers 26-25 in an outstanding game. Calgary was flagged 12 times for 92 yards, while Winnipeg had nine infractions for 61 yards.

Officials sort out a play in a game featuring the Roughriders and Argonauts.

    The Stamps penalty yardage spiked a bit due to procedure calls, because they had to work in a number of backups to replace injured starters.

    With all that said, it would be great to see officials to have the ability to make a no call, if it is deserved. If a pass is not catchable and both the receiver and defensive back are hand fighting for example, don’t throw a flag.

    If the casual fan decides to stay away due to how the game looks, that will likely force the CFL’s brain trust to make more chances in the off-season, which hopefully means calling penalties the way they did in 2013.

    If you have any comments about this blog post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

Officiating always a work in progress

An official explains a blown call at a CIS football game.

            Being a referee is never easy, but it seems like fans of Canadian football want to throw the men in the stripes under the bus this year more than ever.

            During the CFL season, it has been common place to see spectators get upset at the officials, besides frowning at the fact defensive play rules the game this year. During contests, more penalties have been called than ever before, and it seems like the consistency isn’t there.

            The complaints seem to go down the ladder. At university, junior and high school games, it seems no one is happy with the officials.

            A couple of understanding coaches have said to me that a new group of younger officials is coming up through the ranks, because a number of older ones have retired. As a result, there will be some growing pains.

            Unfortunately, officiating in football has a couple of common characteristics that go along with officiating in any sport in Canada, which hamper officials from being as good as they can be.

First, more resources need to be utilized in every sport to help officials. In too many instances, officials are usually undertrained. Because of this, they hit the competitive stage at a total disadvantage.

Second, there is a feeling in Canada that officials should not have to be accountable. Part of this comes from the fact they usually go into games undertrained.

Being unaccountable also becomes a big problem. It allows one to accept a notion it is alright if officials do not get better at their craft.

As for the first point, to become a good official you need ongoing coaching and support. Athletes in their sports receive continuous coaching to become better. Officiating is the same.

            It is still common place for someone to go to a weekend course and become a referee. From there, officials get placed in a game environment, where the abuse at times does not fit the game day pay an official receives.

            Officiating also is more than just about making the right calls. The biggest skill in officiating is dealing with people. Once you have mastered the skill of dealing with people you will run into fewer situations where you have to deal with disrespect.

            In hockey, one of Canada’s top referees was Chris Savage, who had a lengthy career officiating in the major junior ranks and worked a whole host of world competitions. When you talk with him, you quickly realize how much there is to the art of being an official and how much there is to learn about being a good one.

            He approaches officiating with a real upbeat passion for the craft and the game of hockey itself. A Medicine Hat resident, Savage, who is pretty skilled as a coach, has worked with numerous officials in that geographical area.

An official breaks up a scrum at a CIS hockey game.

Those officials will all tell you they are way more confident and even more excited to do their jobs thanks to the small tips they receive from Savage. A lot of the tips are usually with regards to dealing with people in various sorts of situations, which Savage encountered as a referee. The value of the experience Savage passes on is priceless.

            You wish someone like Savage was offered a position with great compensation by a body like Hockey Canada to help with developing officials across the country. As the old saying goes, in order to be the best it helps to learn from the best.

            With that said, the WHL should be given big credit last season to having officials supervisors out what appeared more than ever, when the league was going through a youth movement in that department. They were really visible. Video is also often used to help officials.

            In the United States, more money in thrown into helping officials, because the sports culture there is just way bigger than it is Canada. In Canada, hockey can only really legitimately be viewed as a “big sport.”

            When officials in Canadian football are compared to those in U.S. football, the officials in the Canadian game always come up short. In the NFL, officials have weekly meetings where they simulate what to do in almost unheard of complex and tough calls.

            The scrutiny is also a lot bigger. All one has to do is remember the heat placed on the replacement officials, when the NFL locked out their regular officials in the 2012 campaign.       

            The tipping point came during the “Fail Mary” game, when the Seattle Seahawks defeated the Green Bay Packers 14-12 on a Monday night contest that concluded Week 3 of the season. The contest ended when Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson threw a Hail Mary pass to the Green Bay end zone, and both Seahawks receiver Golden Tate and Packers defender M.D. Jennings got their hands on the ball in the air.

            Singles of touchdown and touchback were made by the two officials nearest to the play, before a ruling of simultaneous possession occurred resulting in a Seahawks touchdown. Before the catch, Tate shoved Packers cornerback Sam Shields with both hands, which the NFL later acknowledged should have resulted in an offensive pass interference penalty that would have negated the touchdown and given victory to Green Bay.

            That was the last game worked by replacement officials, as the NFL quickly came to a new collective bargaining agreement with their regular officials to bring them back.

            To various degrees, all sports bodies in Canada can make cases about the efforts they make to help officials. Even with those efforts, strides should always be taken to put more resources into officiating.

            Also, officials should be a little more open to receiving criticism. One of the ways you get better is to learn from your mistakes.

If you have any feedback on this blog, feel free to email comments to stankssports@gmail.com.