Fans’ fun ruined by coaches’ challenges, reviews

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/04/2016 (3776 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Professional football continues to change dramatically, and therefore, so must its fan base.

With more and more challengeable fouls and video reviews, admirers of the game must now guard against a wide-spreading phenomenon called “premature cheering.”

Yes indeed, proper etiquette for celebratory theatrics now has a new timeline. You no longer share your jubilation after a play, high-five those around you and voice your appreciation for the efforts you just witnessed on the field. No, if it’s a scoring play, you hold your applause until the play is reviewed and remotely approved by someone at master-control central in Toronto, and then you wait a little longer until you are sure the opposing head coach isn’t going to throw one of his several challenge flags. Then, by all means, yell and scream until you are blue in the face.

This may be an over-dramatized reaction to another onslaught of challengeable calls and another video official in the CFL for 2016, but it often seems factors such as the fan experience are not taken into account when these measures are implemented.  

While they made a point of stating there will not be an increase in the number of challenges a coach has during a game — two each, with a third awarded if they get the first two right — they can now pretty much challenge whether the wind is blowing too hard or whether the coin toss doesn’t flip enough times.

If you missed the announcement, the CFL’s board of governors approved 10 of the 11 suggestions by the rules committee, which at this point, appears to be getting paid by every rule change they make.

The first amendment to jump off the page is no longer is the presence or absence of defensive pass interference the only call that can be challenged and reviewed. Now illegal contact, illegal interference and offensive pass interference can also be challenged, along with no yards, illegal blocks on kicking plays, contacting/roughing the kicker or passer, and interference at the point of reception on kickoff attempts.

So if the Bombers are down by five points with time about to expire, and Drew Willy throws a strike down the sideline to Weston Dressler, who is forced out of bounds on the two-yard line, please hold your applause. With the game on the line, the opposition is surely going to challenge if there was some type of offensive pass interference, or a pick play (illegal interference or contact) and have someone in a booth slow down the play, frame by frame, just for the chance they can take the catch away.

Conversely, if your team is up by five and they force the opposing quarterback into an incomplete throw with pressure on third down, do not rejoice with hysterics. If the quarterback was hit as he released the football, the opponent would be stupid not to challenge a non-call of roughing the passer, and hope in the frame-by-frame analysis, their pivot was even slightly contacted anywhere above the shoulders.  

Expect most coaches to go into the fourth quarter with most, if not all, of their challenges and to toss out a flag every time a game-changing play goes down.

As for the remainder of the calls that aren’t challengeable, they are going to be automatically looked at by an “eye in the sky.”  

As described on the league website, “The CFL is adding a video official in the command centre with a mandate to rapidly fix obvious errors that are not challengeable by replay.”  The example they give is one of procedure or encroachment, where none of the referees at field level know who moved first. The eye in the sky will quickly help them determine the outcome of the penalty.

Not only will few fans attending games realize what plays or penalties can or cannot be challenged, and wiped off the stats line, but it seems as if the league is moving towards taking the responsibility for calling a good game out of the hands of the officials and sharing it with the clubs. If an official blows a call or misses a call that affects the outcome of the game, and your team doesn’t challenge it, then it’s your fault for not having any challenges left or for not having it reviewed.  

It seems like instead of investing in improved officiating, the league decided to disperse the responsibility of calling a tight game to the teams.  

Either way, the little nuances of football are increasing at an exponential rate for the casual observer. If you’re at a game this year, just make sure you don’t get too excited about a game-changing play too soon, because the odds are it is being reviewed and could have to survive a challenge before it counts.

 

Doug Brown, once a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears weekly in the Free Press.

Twitter: @DougBrown97