Tom Higgins
CFL.ca
If you’re a regular reader of ATR, you’ll know that I have tremendous confidence in our officials. They do a tough job very well, and deserve our admiration and respect. You’ll also know that I believe in honesty – and that includes admitting when a bad call was made.
During last Friday night’s game between the Bombers and Alouettes, there were seven pass interference calls, a few were bad, and one in particular – on the third-to-last play of the game – was absolutely terrible.
The Winnipeg receiver grabbed the Montreal defender and fell to the ground in an obvious attempt to draw a PI call, and succeeded. This is not acceptable and I am dealing with the situation.
On another note, some Bomber fans questioned whether there should have been one more play at the end of the game, after Winnipeg failed to score on two short-yardage attempts.
I have reviewed the final seconds of the game and there is no evidence to support that view. Bear in mind that our scoreboard clocks do not show fractions of a second so what reads as eight seconds can very well be 7.1 seconds.
Remember, as well, that the clock runs from the snap of the ball to the sound of the whistle, and the whistle does not sound on first contact. We instruct our guys to have a “patient whistle” on short-yardage, to allow for a ball carrier’s second or third effort – until he is down by contact, or his progress has been stopped and he is being pushed backwards.
Now to a few of your questions:
Q from Jake: To me, one of the most interesting things about the CFL rule book is simply the amount of ground it covers, including some situations that come up very rarely, if ever. In particular, I’m thinking of the possibility of a drop-kicked field goal (which I’m pretty sure hasn’t happened in my lifetime), as well as the penalty “Tandem Blocking”, which I’ve spotted in the rule book but don’t think I’ve ever seen called in close to three decades of watching the CFL.
But however rare these (and other) things are, they could, theoretically, suddenly become important at any moment. So my question is: how prepared are CFL officials to deal with these obscure rules if they become applicable? Are you confident that they would spot and flag a tandem block if one occurred or that they’d be able to make the right call if a receiver caught the ball downfield then suddenly tried to drop-kick a field goal? Do you spend any time trying to prepare for things like this that an official may never see in his career?
Tom Higgins: Wow, have you hit a nerve! Our officials spend hours trying to anticipate every scenario, no matter how rare or unlikely. They are ardent believers in the old Boy Scout motto: Be Prepared. By the way, former CFL great Doug Flutie did make a drop kick in your lifetime in a pro football game, in 2006 for an extra point after a touchdown.
Surprisingly, though, it happened south of the border. His former CFL teammates will tell you he used to work on his drop kicks, after practice, all the time. And for those who don’t know, a tandem block occurs when a blocker pushes or pulls a ball carrier forward. The game of “what if” is a significant part of the training camp all of our officials attend each pre-season. (Yes, the guys in stripes go to camp, too.)
In fact, to test their knowledge, we subject them to a quiz that features various scenarios, and they not only have to make the right call, they have to get everything else right too, including where to place the ball after a play that might involve a multiple change of possession or other factors.
Let’s have some fun with this ourselves. Here one of the easier questions from this year’s quiz. (I’ll put the correct answer at the bottom of this version of Ask The Ref.) Give it a try:
Team A player number 21 attempts a field goal from Team B’s 23-yard line. Before the ball crosses the line of scrimmage, it bounces off the helmet of Team A player #52, who has lined up ahead of the kicker and not behind him, and then proceeds through the uprights and over the cross bar. Field goal is ruled good.
Is the call correct, or wrong?
Q from Marlow: I have a question about pass interference vs. illegal contact on an eligible receiver. Here is the situation: Team A has the ball and a pass is made to a receiver on the left side of the field. It is incomplete but there is an illegal contact on an eligible receiver on the other side of the field. The result is a 10-yard penalty against Team B and Team A continues.
On the next play, Team A passes again to the left side of the field and there is interference, but the ball is ruled uncatchable and so there is no penalty. Why would that not be contact on an eligible receiver the same as the prior play?
There is no disputing contact of an eligible receiver. The ball was not catchable for the receiver on Team A who was illegally contacted on the first play either and yet there is a penalty. I know the referees are properly enforcing the rule. My question is: Why is the rule not written such that the penalty would be PI unless the ball was uncatchable in which case it would be illegal contact?
TH: They are two different fouls. Illegal contact happens before the ball is thrown, while pass interference happens when the ball is in the air. So you couldn’t call illegal contact instead of pass interference simply because the ball was not catchable. I think you’re suggesting that there should be some sort of lesser penalty we could apply to a defensive back if he interferes with a receiver, even if the ball is not catchable. That’s something our rules committee would have to consider and change.
Coaches, general managers, our Board of Governors, players and officials all agree: if a ball is not catchable, then a defender cannot illegally interfere with a receiver. If the thrown ball lands five yards out of bounds, or in the stands, or hits the goal post or is five feet over the receiver’s head, there is no reasonable way for him to catch it. So he couldn’t have been “interfered with” under our rule.
Here’s another scenario to think about, one that’s along the line of your question: Let us say that there is an illegal contact foul recognized by an official (before the ball is thrown, of course), and then the receiver continues his route.
The QB then throws the ball to this same receiver who now is fouled a second time by the same defender. Now, we have forward pass interference foul in addition to the earlier illegal contact foul. The offensive team would have the option of accepting either penalty, but not both. Now, let’s add another wrinkle: let’s say the ball was deemed uncatchable. In that scenario, the forward pass interference flag would be picked up, but the illegal contact foul should still be applied.
Quiz Answer
The answer is to the quiz question above is: the correct call was made. The field goal is good.
According to page 28 of the Rule Book, when Team A attempts a field goal, and the kicked ball touches or is touched by a player of either team before it crosses the line of scrimmage, and it then proceeds through the uprights and above the cross bar in flight, it is indeed a field goal worth three points.
If you got it right, then congratulations. Maybe you should consider officiating. Visit www.bearef.ca, if you’d like to learn more.
