The CFL makes a change to its video review system

After a review, the CFL has adopted a different view on video reviews.

The league announced Wednesday that it is changing its video review system effective immediately, limiting head coaches to one challenge each per game. 

Under the previous system, each team could request a maximum of two video reviews per game. If a team was successful on its first two challenges in a contest, it earned a third challenge. 

Now, each head coach will be allowed to throw just one challenge flag per game. If his challenge isn’t successful, his team will lose a timeout, just as it did under the previous system.

Turnovers and scoring plays will still be reviewed by the CFL’s Command Centre, but coaches’ challenges will be reduced. 

“The intention here is very clear: We want to profile these amazing athletes that we have playing in the CFL and we want, as best as possible, the games to be decided on the field by our players and coaches,” CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie said during a conference call. 

“We felt that this move was important to really make sure that the games are decided where they should be: On the field by these great athletes.” 

Ambrosie pushed for the change after requesting an evaluation of the system following his recent visits to CFL stadiums. 

Since becoming the league’s commissioner on July 5, Ambrosie has visited eight of the nine centres in the CFL — he expects to be in Regina on Aug. 13 — and has met with fans during games.

Their frustration with the system apparently swayed the CFL’s head honcho. 

“This seemed to be the item that they most often wanted to talk about,” Ambrosie said. “A Saskatchewan Roughrider fan this past weekend threatened to have me replaced by Gainer the Gopher as commissioner if I didn’t fix this problem. Clearly no one wants to be replaced by Gainer the Gopher, so I suppose you’ve got to give the fans a fair bit of credit here.” 

The suggested change was approved unanimously Tuesday night after discussions with members of the league’s competition committee, team presidents and governors.

On Wednesday, Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones said he approved of the change because it would positively affect the flow of games. 

“It’s going to make a much better game for the fans to watch,” Jones said. “Personally, I think it’s going to help our flow. The length of the games will be a little bit shorter, so I think it’s a good decision for the league.” 

The league says its games this season are shorter in length than in previous seasons, but video reviews have been dragging things out.

Jones pointed to the Roughriders’ game July 22 against the Calgary Stampeders, when both he and Stampeders head coach Dave Dickenson threw their challenge flags on the same play. 

Jones challenged that a pass to Calgary’s Marquay McDaniel which had been ruled complete actually was incomplete. When that challenge was upheld after a video review, Dickenson challenged that McDaniel had been interfered with — and that challenge also was upheld. 

“It was a long break in between and that’s not exciting for the fans,” said Jones, who is 4-for-7 on challenges so far in 2017. “This is a fan-driven league and anything we can do to keep the excitement level at a premium is the right thing to do.”

According to league statistics, there have been 60 challenges in 25 games this season for an average of 2.40 per game. Last season, the average was 2.22 per game. 

So far, 31 of the 60 challenges have been successful — a success rate of 52 per cent. Last season, that rate was 41 per cent (73 out of 180). 

But coaches have been throwing challenge flags in hopes of getting penalties called instead of looking to get mistakes corrected. The league made its change in part to address those fishing expeditions. 

“We’ve come off the first principles of why we were using replay, which is really to have the opportunity to fix egregious, indisputably wrong calls that could have an impact on the outcome of the game,” CFL senior vice-president of football Glen Johnson said during the conference call. 

“It really wasn’t about what the officials thought, it was just much more about what it was doing to the flow of the game and to the fan experience.”

In a media release, Ambrosie called the struggle with challenges “an artificial impediment to our fans’ enjoyment.” He noted that coaches have tried to use the system to gain an advantage, so the league took action.

Now the men on the sidelines will have to adjust. Instead of throwing challenge flags indiscriminately, head coaches will have to be more judicious. 

“When you’ve got two or three challenges, you have a little bit more control in the game,” Jones said. “With the iPads (on the sideline), you’re able to see if there’s contact (on a receiver) right away and if there is, you can extend drives with the challenge flag. 

“Now that there’s only going to be one challenge flag, you’ve got to wait and hold that for some type of scoring play because you don’t get a second one.”

While Ambrosie said the newly enforced change was the best way to go at this time, he admitted the league will review the whole system after the season. That could result in further alterations — or something more drastic. 

“(Johnson), the governors, the team presidents and the general managers and coaches are all committed to finding the right way to do this and how to use it,” Ambrosie said. “At the end of the day, if we can’t find the right way to use it, then all options should be on the table, including not using it at all. 

“That’s what you do if you want to have a healthy and full review of a tool like this.”