Flag-happy refs taking joy out of CFL
MONTREAL — It’s Saturday evening, not much happening, easing the old bones after a day putting up deck rails. So I click on the tube and in maybe two minutes spent peeking at the CFL, I saw Saskatchewan’s Chris Getzlaf have two touchdowns, one of the spectacular variety, called back because of penalty flags.
The Riders and Argos were 30 seconds into the second quarter, for the love of Johnny Rodgers, and the zebras had already cost Getzlaf two TDs. This happened the night after Montreal’s Stefan Logan lost a 102-yard kick return TD to the flag disease.
It’s sick. It’s an insult to football fans everywhere. It’s out of control. It’s got to the point where the league might as well banish the kick return because most of the spectacular ones come back.
When we wrote a few weeks back that penalty flags were killing the CFL, we received a deluge of notes through email and Twitter. One guy actually thought there should be more penalty flags, but we’re going to assume he was off his meds. For the rest, it was 100-to-1 against and most were saying they find the CFL unwatchable because of the flags.
Take a look at the penalty that cancelled Logan’s run: a shoulder-to-shoulder bump 20 yards from the play. Yes, the Alouettes blocker might have been a couple of centimetres behind the onrushing defender.
But if I’m running this increasingly sorry league, I tell the refs: If you’re going to negate a 102-yard return, it damned well better be a helmet in the back, not a bump that doesn’t even knock the defender off stride. Unfortunately, the zebras behaved instead as though they’re being paid by the flag.
Here’s a tip, CFL: Watch the sports news some night. You’ll find that 102-yard kick returns consistently make the highlight reels. That’s because they’re fun to watch. Spectacular plays sell your league. Calling them back, when it happens all the time? Not so much.
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This is plain SAD: This one is a leftover from the Women’s World Cup, when reporters with accreditation also needed a media ticket to get into the press tribune (or press box as we know it over here) and additional tickets to interview players in the mixed zone or to attend press conferences.
All part of FIFA’s astounding arrogance. But the clincher was this: Tickets aren’t called tickets in FIFA’s world. Instead, they’re a “Supplementary Access Device.”
Wouldn’t you love to know how many consultants were paid how much to come up with that astounding bit of bafflegab?
The sad part is the arrogance appeared to rub off on Canada’s women’s national team. Their behaviour toward a national media ready, willing and eager to give them some muchdeserved coverage was unconscionable. If women from other nations could make themselves available for interviews within a reasonable time after a match, why not Canada? Our women had a chance to win a lot of friends in the media and they blew it.
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