Who's the Flag Happiest Crew in the CFL?

[Lions4ever]

Perhaps surprisingly, it doesn't end in "x".

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2014/09/30/c ... most-flags

[TheLionKing]

Interesting stat. Perhaps Proulx's reputation stems from the timing of the flags

[Rammer]

Interesting stat. Perhaps Proulx's reputation stems from the timing of the flags

I agree, his RP flags are atrocious, and he always seems to be the center stage of a big play...

[sj-roc]

I see two bigger takeaways in this article.

First:

The official who has been involved in the games with the fewest flags is umpire Ritchie Miller, the brother of Bombers president and CEO Wade Miller. Games involving Ritchie Miller as an umpire have featured only 18.6 penalties, which is right around the league average from the past few seasons.

This doesn't provide the best optics (to say the very least) for the league to have an official who is so closely related to an executive of one of its teams. I hope he never works any Bombers game but even then there will be other games that impact the Bombers' playoff hopes, most significantly our games as it seems BC & Wpg are competing for a crossover berth — which may or may not be there when the dust settles.

Also, I went on a big extended rant here several weeks ago after The Discovery of the Phantom Rouge (TDOTPR). Having sat through that latest instalment of Harry Potter, I could only chuckle in resignation to read this:

OOPS

Speaking of officials, the CFL was left a little red faced on Saturday night in Winnipeg when the Bombers were unable to challenge a completed pass by the Tiger-Cats late in the second quarter since the TSN feed was down.

It turns out the play still could have – and should have – been reviewed.

The first way to review a play is for the command centre in Toronto to review it. That's how it's normally done since they use the TSN feed and its replays.

If that goes down, like it did on Saturday night, it's up to the game observer to do it himself using the feed from the broadcast truck. The only problem on Saturday for game observer Ken Lazaruk is the truck feed was down as well. It was a double whammy.

That's when referee Kim Murphy told the Investors Group Field crowd that the play couldn't be reviewed due to technical difficulties. The boos rained down.

Well, it turns out there was a third option that was forgotten about because it had never been used. Lazaruk was supposed to review the play himself using the in-house cameras at IGF. All he had to do was go next door to the stadium's production room to look at the replays and make a ruling.

“In all my days in the league, we've never had to do that,” CFL vice-president of officiating Glen Johnson told The Blitz on Tuesday. “We've had to use the other on occasion where we get the truck feed, where the broadcast feed has had a little blip or there's some challenge. So we've actually had to use that in the past, and it's been successful.

“But the third protocol, we had never actually used. It had never had to be enacted. So we had some process issues there.”

Johnson said the CFL has inspected or will inspect every stadium this week to make sure all broadcast feeds are in working order, and he is reminding game observers about the third protocol to review plays.

If there's any delay in CC getting access to TSN's feed — which is what happened here during TDOTPR because of an unfortunately timed TV timeout — why not just go to one of these other options straight away and have it all sorted out during the ad break? I guess there would be some concerns that this would introduce some potential inconsistency with having different people review different challenges. But it's not as if the one crew who handles the great bulk of this workload has displayed the greatest possible internal self-consistency anyway.

[KnowItAll]

perhaps those that throw the most flags are doing a better job as seeing, recognizing, and calling legitimate penalties

[notahomer]

I see two bigger takeaways in this article..............

Yup, I noticed those right away and I hadn't read your response yet.... I just like the fact they admit they messed up. The NFL Officiating department admits these kinds of mistakes all the time. Better to just to be upfront and then build upon it. If will not admit you made a mistake, I'm betting it'll happen again....

IMO, Bradburys is my favourite crew, Murphys probably second.....

[SammyGreene]

Brabury's crew living up to their reputation again tonight. Painful to watch.

[KnowItAll]

Brabury's crew living up to their reputation again tonight. Painful to watch.

yeah, I hate when the players cant play the game right

[TheLionKing]

The illegal substitution call against the Riders was an excellent call because the injured player didn't go out for 3 plays. Alert call by the officials.

[sj-roc]

The illegal substitution call against the Riders was an excellent call because the injured player didn't go out for 3 plays. Alert call by the officials.

Yup, I've never seen that called before but them's the rules and ya gotta play by 'em. I'd be happy to see that rule extended to a 6-play sit-out. Not sure if they were really trying to pull a fast one or if it was simply an honest mistake on Ssk's part, miscounting the number of plays he'd sat out (have to give them the benefit of the doubt there). Either way the call is the same.

I'll file this one under stuff I've only ever seen called once ever, along with that time a year or two ago (vs Edm?) when we had an onside kick attempt where possession was ruled simultaneous by both teams and a re-kick was prescribed — normally with a tie, offence (as the incumbent) maintains possession but on a kickoff with no prior possession this is irrelevant, so the spirit of the re-kick rule makes sense.

[TheLionKing]

The illegal substitution call against the Riders was an excellent call because the injured player didn't go out for 3 plays. Alert call by the officials.

Yup, I've never seen that called before but them's the rules and ya gotta play by 'em. I'd be happy to see that rule extended to a 6-play sit-out. Not sure if they were really trying to pull a fast one or if it was simply an honest mistake on Ssk's part, miscounting the number of plays he'd sat out (have to give them the benefit of the doubt there). Either way the call is the same.

I'll file this one under stuff I've only ever seen called once ever, along with that time a year or two ago (vs Edm?) when we had an onside kick attempt where possession was ruled simultaneous by both teams and a re-kick was prescribed — normally with a tie, offence (as the incumbent) maintains possession but on a kickoff with no prior possession this is irrelevant, so the spirit of the re-kick rule makes sense.

Riders can't count. It's been well documented.