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[Flames in 07]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

The thing is that there isn't enough money to be paid to these guys for them to become professionals. IMO the head referee makes 950 a game and I think the other guys are like 650. So again you get what you pay for. I mean in Canada now you can't live on 17 grand a year even if it's a part time job. Chances are the guys career as a salesman or accountant is far more important and most of these guys don't really need to referee. Even the NFL which is richer than half the countries on this planet only recently went to full time officials and still pays it's guys like 100 grand a year IIRC. Being a football referee is crappy work that pays even worse.

I think football is a miserable game to try and officiate as there are rule violations on pretty much every single play. It's trying to determine which ones were flagerant enough to call. CFL player in particular are bad because well....if they could be effective playing by the rules...they might be NFL calibre.

The CFL game in particular is tougher because the field is bigger. One suggestion I have is to redeploy the linesman and leave the line calls (offside, procedure etc) to two off-field officials and move at least the linesman back to twin with the back judge and essentially split the back judge duties.

As well the CFL needs to relax the roughing the passer criteria to somewhere between where it was in the 90's and where it is now. You can tell that many of the goofs who vote in the rules never played defence. In many cases the defender is placed into a situation where if he lets up on the QB, the QB would have the option of pulling back a pass, or from diving feet first, and instead making another move. Under the current QB protection rules defenders are screwed.

[Bench Warmer]

Originally Posted by Harbourmouth

Yes, it is a solid decision. I am paying to see a PROFESSIONAL product decided by professional athletese on a level playing field. I am not getting that. You might blindly piss your money away, but I don't.

All I want for the league is to acknowledge there is a problem or for Ted Hellard to blasts the refs in the medium to atleast show the fans someone cares and is listening to them. This won't happen though. The CFL has their head up their ass and if Hellard says anything he's going to get punished by the CFL and the refs will just make even worse calls against his team.

Am I hurting the Stamps by not going to the games anymore? Yes. Do I care? ABSOLUTELY NOT! By going to Stamps game I am directly supporting the CFL. The CFL makes a mockery of professional sports each week now and i'm not going to support it. Given the increasingly empty number of seats each game at McMahon, I don't think i'm the only one either.

Like I said, it's your call. One I don't agree with - but we disagree on the product. I personally think the CFL product is awesome with improved (yes, much improved in some cases) officiating over the last few years - although, admittedly, last night was a big step back in the wrong direction. I care if I hurt my team - if you don't care if you hurt yours, that's your call.

Edit: The other thing I forgot to add was Lazaruk was reffing the game last night. He is far and away the CFL's worst ref. If they replaced him with someone competent, we'd have a lot less of these discussions.

[Bench Warmer]

Originally Posted by Flames in 07

Well the fans have been sending the very message that Harbourmouth wants to send for decades now. Think about it, all sports have seemingly grown by leaps and bounds ... except CFL football. The stadiums are old and decaying, attendance is mediocre at best. Maybe not enough people have sent that message. It's small to think that one person doesn't make a difference. If enough people think like Harbourmouth then that will make a difference.

And to me the reffing has been getting worse every year for many years, and we are setting new depths this year especially.

That is simply not true. The league has come from near extinction after the 1998 season (literally extinction - most people don't know how close the league was to folding at that time) to just signing it's largest TV contract ever. Attendance is up, advertising revenue for the CFL hasn't been higher. It's growth hasn't been the same as some of the other leagues but all those leagues have the US population to draw from. The CFL is growing - and continues to do so...

[Flames in 07]

Originally Posted by Bench Warmer

That is simply not true. The league has come from near extinction after the 1998 season (literally extinction - most people don't know how close the league was to folding at that time) to just signing it's largest TV contract ever. Attendance is up, advertising revenue for the CFL hasn't been higher. It's growth hasn't been the same as some of the other leagues but all those leagues have the US population to draw from. The CFL is growing - and continues to do so...

vs ten years ago:
NFL grown dramatically
NBA leveled off from an all time high
MLB grown dramatically
NHL grown dramatically, attendance is up and so is revenue league wide
MLS grown dramatically
LAX grown dramatically.

You are comparing a current CFL vs a time when they were near extincion. Further supporting my point. Of course they should be better than a point when they were about to fold the entire league. If you are not significanly better than a point where the league was going to implode then something is wrong.

Anyway you like the CFL, good for you, challenging someone's logic because they didn't want to support the CFL because the product is unacceptable to him/her is their perogitive and not one others need to be condencending about.

[Bench Warmer]

Originally Posted by Flames in 07

vs ten years ago:
NFL grown dramatically
NBA leveled off from an all time high
MLB grown dramatically
NHL grown dramatically, attendance is up and so is revenue league wide
MLS grown dramatically
LAX grown dramatically.

You are comparing a current CFL vs a time when they were near extincion. Further supporting my point. Of course they should be better than a point when they were about to fold the entire league. If you are not significanly better than a point where the league was going to implode then something is wrong.

Anyway you like the CFL, good for you, challenging someone's logic because they didn't want to support the CFL because the product is unacceptable to him/her is their perogitive and not one others need to be condencending about.

What's the difference if it was near extinction? Your point was that the CFL isn't growing when it clearly has. If anything, it's to the CFL's credit they're stiall around. Per capita, it's arguable that it's grown the most out of any of the leagues you pointed out and most you mentioned have not grown dramatically at all since 10 years ago.

Anyway, this is going nowhere - we disagree so be it.

[JiriHrdina]

I consider myself a casual CFL fan but I was a die-hard for a long time. One of the things that caused me to turn from Diehard to casual was the constant poor officiating. I defend officials in almost every sports. I've done some officiating, I know its hard. But the reffing in the CFL is consisntely bad, and consistently plays a factor in the outcome of games. After seeing this season after season I found it actually caused me to stop caring about the games as much.

I know back then CFL refs weren't even full time and I thought that was bush league. Perhaps that changed but judging by the quality (or lack thereof) I suspect it hasn't.

[Super-Rye]

The Calgary Edmonton game should have been very exciting. 2 seasons ago I might have even gotten excited. But watching the game, the reffing ruined it. I've really tried to get back into the CFL since jumping ship (becoming a big time NFL fan) but I just can't. From the constant blow outs to the poor officiating it's just not exciting. Last night the game was seperated by 2 points with a game winning feild goal kicked with 2 seconds left and all I could think to myself was "Wow, good for them...but if it wasn't for the refs that games over 5 minutes ago." then changing the channel from boredom.

[Cowboy89]

As bad as some of the officiating calls have been this year I think it's still a lot better than a few years ago. Back then refs would consistantly haul out old un-used rules and apply them liberally to situations that didn't call for them. How many times in the 90s did I see an offensive unit remain on the field after 3rd down for a 10 yard 'taunting' penalty against the defense. First of all that rule is rediculous and second of all I'm sure that the spirit of the rule was to only be used to control the players when tempers were getting out of control to the point of fighting. However those refs somehow found reason to haul that one out two or three times a game back then. The threat of replay challange showing them up has made them better at calling catches, fumbles, and other challangeable offenses however they are still terrible for anything that a coach can't call them on.

[calf]

Director of Officiating talked with Mike Petrie today...some explanations on the calls:

http://communities.canada.com/calgar...r/default.aspx

The explanations, imo, deserve one big

[rubecube]

If you’re going to block a pass, you put the decision in the hands of the officials. If you’re a player or coach, is that where you want it to be? We’re always going to err on side of protecting the quarterback. That’s our default mechanism.”

BUSH. LEAGUE.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by calf

Director of Officiating talked with Mike Petrie today...some explanations on the calls:

http://communities.canada.com/calgar...r/default.aspx

The explanations, imo, deserve one big

Your link points to a new page today. I think this is what you had yesterday.
http://communities.canada.com/calgar...edm-calls.aspx