A marquee matchup on the CFL calendar highlighted this past week as Touchdown Atlantic provided plenty to talk about regarding the league’s official broadcaster. Add in the debut of a new colour analyst and it was an interesting week for the three-letter network.
Here are my thoughts on Week 8 of the CFL on TSN.
First down
After the Grey Cup, there’s one broadcast on the schedule for which TSN seems to go all-in, and that’s Touchdown Atlantic. This year’s game in Halifax was no different.
TSN pulled out all the stops to present this game as the major event that it is. The drone was in use, the panel was on site, and we saw a number of different camera angles that we generally don’t see during regular season broadcasts.
There was one angle that definitely got everyone’s attention and is something TSN definitely needs to consider using more often, if not all of the time.
The Riders’ boat has already sprung a Leake in Halifax harbour ⛵️#CFL #TDAtlantic #Argos #PullTogether pic.twitter.com/kQMyPh8qAI
— 3DownNation (@3DownNation) July 29, 2023
This outstanding angle came courtesy of the 20-story residency building that sits right beside Huskies Stadium on campus at Saint Mary’s University.
Credit to TSN for thinking of putting a camera operator up there, credit to the school for allowing it, and most importantly, credit to the camera operator who bravely agreed to be on the edge of the roof for hours. People who work behind the scenes on sports broadcasts are there for not only the game itself but essentially the entire day, as well as a number of hours the day before.
The good news for camera operators everywhere is that TSN could set up this kind of angle across the league with robotic cameras. Hopefully, the positive reviews from Touchdown Atlantic lead to us seeing essentially the all-24 more often.
Second down
As good as the Touchdown Atlantic broadcast was, it left audiences wanting more for the rest of the week.
We see it every year at the Grey Cup and now during Touchdown Atlantic. When more resources are sunk into a broadcast, it pays off with a much cleaner and more interesting broadcast for fans to enjoy.
Even though the game between the Riders and Argos wasn’t the most interesting on the field, some of the bells and whistles we saw helped make it more enjoyable to watch. As such, it goes without saying that we’d like to see more of this throughout the season.
It’d be unrealistic to expect this kind of broadcast every game as even NFL broadcasts can differ depending on the number of games taking place simultaneously. Particularly on Sunday afternoons, the broadcasts sometimes lack a few things, especially if region it covers is relatively small.
With that said, it would be nice to see more investment. As mentioned, the all-24 view is possible. The panel should travel more.
I’ve long believed we should see a “game of the week” where the broadcast is upped a little bit. Obviously, it’d be too much to expect a full Grey Cup setup, but it should be possible to do a few more things to get people excited for that game. Not everyone will watch every game, but putting more resources and promotion into a special broadcast could create appointment viewing for the casual fan.
This game could even be on CTV sometimes, but that’s a whole different can of worms.
Third down
Outside of Touchdown Atlantic, the other big thing that happened this past week was the official debut of Paul LaPolice in the broadcast booth.
The former Blue Bombers and Redblacks head coach joined Marshall Ferguson and Duane Forde in the booth for a portion of the game between the two teams a couple of weeks ago. This time around, LaPolice got to call the game between the Montreal Alouettes and Calgary Stampeders, and overall it was a good debut.
Unlike the play-by-play announcer, I’m not as concerned with the colour analyst bringing excitement to the broadcast — I just want them to be themselves. Forde, Glen Suitor, and Matt Dunigan all bring different energies to the booth and that’s OK.
Colour is a position where the content is of utmost importance, and I think LaPolice is going to do a solid job if they decide to keep him in the rotation going forward. There were times when LaPolice came across as a little too “coach-like” with some of his terminology. His reliance on the “wedge” of short-yardage may have been a little too inside baseball for the average fan, as an example.
However, LaPolice was able to predict a few things before they happened, which fans enjoy, and broke down plays with ease. If you watched Sunday’s broadcast, there’s a good chance that you learned something about football that you didn’t know before.
For his first go at the job, I’d give LaPolice a passing grade.
Joel Gasson is a Regina-based sports writer, broadcaster and football fanatic. He is also a beer aficionado.
