After two years of significant changes, CFL rules committee is proposing minor tweaks to the league’s replay system – most of them designed to speed up the game and limit the number of challenges.
The most significant element is the decision to retain the last year’s mid-season change that forced coaches to put a time out at risk for every challenge. The move reduced challenges significantly after it was implemented.
“What we’ve done is take three of four things that as a package will make the whole coach’s challenge process better,” said Glen Johnson, the CFL’s senior vice-president of football and chairman of the rules committee. “There will be less of them, they’ll be shorter, they won’t impact the flow of the game.”
Other proposed changes include:
the replay official only a change a call where there is clear and indisputable evidence that it is wrong, rather than attempt to officiate plays to ensure they are correct.
a coach would no longer be allowed to challenge a play following a TV commercial timeout. If the change is approved, a coach would have to throw their challenge flag within the first 30 seconds of the TV break.
limiting the types of actions challengeable under roughing the passer to the pure definition of the rule, eliminating other unnecessary roughness penalties that may occur against the passer behind the line of scrimmage, such as grabbing the facemask or horse collar tackles, would no longer be challengeable.
increasing the duties of the video official in the Command Centre so they can correct errors when a flag has been thrown for a line of scrimmage penalty (offside or procedure), a flag has been thrown for an unnecessary roughness penalty following a play and the video official sees other unnecessary roughness infractions, a call for illegal contact on a receiver should be changed to defensive pass interference because the ball had been thrown.
Additionally, TSN will go to commercial during every challenge they can and the league is estimating that 80 per cent of challenges will now be done during a commercial, up from 20 per cent last season.
One of the most controversial challenges – the ability to challenge illegal contact on a receiver away from where the ball is thrown – has been retained for 2017.
Johnson said limiting the replay official to changing just calls that are obviously wrong is in keeping with the original spirit of the replay format.
“We brought this in to fix big mistakes,” he said. “We didn’t bring it in to try and officiate the game to perfection.”
Another recommendation was increasing a replay officials’ duties to correct errors when flags are thrown for:
• a line of scrimmage penalty (offside or procedure)
• an unnecessary roughness penalty following a play and the video official sees other unnecessary roughness infractions
• an illegal contact call on a receiver that should be changed to defensive pass interference because the ball had been thrown
The committee also requested changing all 10-yard illegal low block penalties to 15-yard unnecessary roughness calls. Another recommendation was preventing a kick-return team from putting a player on the field just prior to the snap to hide him so he can receive a lateral pass from the kick returner.
That play would be subject to a 10-yard penalty.
All rules committee recommendations must be reviewed by the league’s competition committee and ultimately approved by its Board of Governors before they go into effect.
