Instant Replay in the CFL
From Slam this AM
The Canadian Football League will test video reviews of disputed calls at a pre-season game next month with an eye towards adopting a full-time replay system for 2006, officials said Tuesday.
Replays from television cameras will be used at a June 11 pre-season game in Halifax between the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats. "We will evaluate it in detail with the hope of implementing it in 2006," Shawn Coates, the league's director of football operations, said on a conference call.
He said the system would be similar to one in use for several years by the NFL, in which a coach can request a review, but his team would lose a timeout if the official's call on the field is shown to be correct.
Rather than bring in replays this season, the league elected to increase its staff of on-field officials from 35 to 46 and take steps to have them better trained and prepared for games.
Director of officiating George Black said seven officials last season were 55 years or older and "we need adequate and prepared replacements."
"We needed to focus on recruitment of officials. We felt that was more important than instant replays."
Three of the new officials, all from Canadian university football, will work until Labour Day and then return to CIS games. Eight others called "prospects" are to work in June and July and then return to junior or college ball.
For the first 36 games this year, officials will work in fixed crews, a system that was abandoned in the early 1980s as a cost-saving measure. Black says set crews foster "teamwork and consistency."
Officials will also be flown into games the night before a game to give them more time to look at game film and discuss rules and positioning. Previously, they got to a city on the day of a game and met for one hour.
Officials also had more off-season training this year and will participate in clinics to help develop young refs across the country.
They will also get a small pay increase. Officials will earn between $500 and $800 per game, depending on seniority.
Perhaps most significantly, officials and coaches from the league's nine clubs met this winter to come up with standards for making some of the most controversial calls - holding, illegal blocks on kick returns, roughing the passer, illegal contact with receivers and pass interference.
Black said "written, defined descriptions" of how those calls will be made have been distributed to teams, which should make calls more consistent and give players a better understanding of what will draw a flag.
Another area of frequent dismay among fans was not calling interference when a pass was deemed uncatchable. This season, players who take down a receiver despite an overthrown ball will be slapped with a 10-yard illegal contact penalty.
A minor change will have referees say on the field how many yards a team is penalized when announcing a penalty, which could clear up confusion for some fans in the grandstands.
Black said there were 15,000 plays in 95 CFL games last season and nearly all were called correctly, but admitted he'd like to have "12 plays over again."
They were the obvious blown calls he referred to as "humdingers," including one in a late-season game between Calgary and B.C. in which officials failed to notice an on-side man on a kick. In another, the refs missed a clothesline tackle during a Hamilton-Winnipeg game.
"We're not perfect, but I think we're really good," he said.
Most of the talk was of replays.
The CFL does not have the money for the elaborate replay system used in the NFL, which has its own dedicated cameras, but Coates said it could have a "made-in-Canada solution" using TV broadcast cameras that can work.
Like the NFL, coaches will be able to ask for reviews of line calls, such as whether a player broke the plane of the end zone or whether a pass was caught in bounds, as well such things as whether a pass was complete or not or whether a runner was down or not.
To initiate a review, a coach will throw a gold flag in the air. The referee would then put his head in a darkened box holding a TV screen and watch the replays. If the officials' call stands, the team requesting the review loses one of its two timeouts.
To help test the system in the Halifax game, the director of officiating will also be allowed to demand replays.
A limited number of cameras are used for CFL broadcasts. TSN uses a minimum of five while CBC has at least eight, although that jumps to between 10 and 12 for big games like the Labour Day classics, and 24 to 26 for the Grey Cup game.
Black said five camera angles should be enough to provide a view of a play an official may have missed. He said refs won't mind being overruled by replays.
"They're prepared to make the calls, but they're also prepared to stand and be corrected if a better camera angle shows they made an incorrect call," he said.
The Canadian Football League will test video reviews of disputed calls at a pre-season game next month with an eye towards adopting a full-time replay system for 2006, officials said Tuesday.
Replays from television cameras will be used at a June 11 pre-season game in Halifax between the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats. "We will evaluate it in detail with the hope of implementing it in 2006," Shawn Coates, the league's director of football operations, said on a conference call.
He said the system would be similar to one in use for several years by the NFL, in which a coach can request a review, but his team would lose a timeout if the official's call on the field is shown to be correct.
Rather than bring in replays this season, the league elected to increase its staff of on-field officials from 35 to 46 and take steps to have them better trained and prepared for games.
Director of officiating George Black said seven officials last season were 55 years or older and "we need adequate and prepared replacements."
"We needed to focus on recruitment of officials. We felt that was more important than instant replays."
Three of the new officials, all from Canadian university football, will work until Labour Day and then return to CIS games. Eight others called "prospects" are to work in June and July and then return to junior or college ball.
For the first 36 games this year, officials will work in fixed crews, a system that was abandoned in the early 1980s as a cost-saving measure. Black says set crews foster "teamwork and consistency."
Officials will also be flown into games the night before a game to give them more time to look at game film and discuss rules and positioning. Previously, they got to a city on the day of a game and met for one hour.
Officials also had more off-season training this year and will participate in clinics to help develop young refs across the country.
They will also get a small pay increase. Officials will earn between $500 and $800 per game, depending on seniority.
Perhaps most significantly, officials and coaches from the league's nine clubs met this winter to come up with standards for making some of the most controversial calls - holding, illegal blocks on kick returns, roughing the passer, illegal contact with receivers and pass interference.
Black said "written, defined descriptions" of how those calls will be made have been distributed to teams, which should make calls more consistent and give players a better understanding of what will draw a flag.
Another area of frequent dismay among fans was not calling interference when a pass was deemed uncatchable. This season, players who take down a receiver despite an overthrown ball will be slapped with a 10-yard illegal contact penalty.
A minor change will have referees say on the field how many yards a team is penalized when announcing a penalty, which could clear up confusion for some fans in the grandstands.
Black said there were 15,000 plays in 95 CFL games last season and nearly all were called correctly, but admitted he'd like to have "12 plays over again."
They were the obvious blown calls he referred to as "humdingers," including one in a late-season game between Calgary and B.C. in which officials failed to notice an on-side man on a kick. In another, the refs missed a clothesline tackle during a Hamilton-Winnipeg game.
"We're not perfect, but I think we're really good," he said.
Most of the talk was of replays.
The CFL does not have the money for the elaborate replay system used in the NFL, which has its own dedicated cameras, but Coates said it could have a "made-in-Canada solution" using TV broadcast cameras that can work.
Like the NFL, coaches will be able to ask for reviews of line calls, such as whether a player broke the plane of the end zone or whether a pass was caught in bounds, as well such things as whether a pass was complete or not or whether a runner was down or not.
To initiate a review, a coach will throw a gold flag in the air. The referee would then put his head in a darkened box holding a TV screen and watch the replays. If the officials' call stands, the team requesting the review loses one of its two timeouts.
To help test the system in the Halifax game, the director of officiating will also be allowed to demand replays.
A limited number of cameras are used for CFL broadcasts. TSN uses a minimum of five while CBC has at least eight, although that jumps to between 10 and 12 for big games like the Labour Day classics, and 24 to 26 for the Grey Cup game.
Black said five camera angles should be enough to provide a view of a play an official may have missed. He said refs won't mind being overruled by replays.
"They're prepared to make the calls, but they're also prepared to stand and be corrected if a better camera angle shows they made an incorrect call," he said.
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