Tom Higgins
CFL.ca
With Labour Day weekend and the rematches over and done with, we just passed a very exciting and unique part of the CFL schedule.
Back-to-back games are a unique challenge for our officials. Plus, they give me an opportunity to introduce you to some officiating terms you would generally hear in our meetings, but may not find in the rule book.
The first is “dead-ball officiating”. When teams square off in a tough game, animosities can develop. When they square off two weeks in a row, that animosity can carry over from game to game and intensify along the way.
It tends to manifest itself in cheap shots, late hits and inappropriate trash talk usually after the whistle. With that in mind, we emphasize to our officials the importance of “deal ball officiating”; looking for and policing such extra-curricular activity after a play has ended.
The best crews also “officiate with their presence.” That is to say that they stay on the scene of a possible skirmish to dissuade players from making a bad and impulsive decision, until players start to return to their huddles or benches.
Our officials also practice “proactive officiating”: they take steps to prevent a fight before it happens often by stepping in and calmly advising players to get back to the huddle.
You don’t want a dangerous incident, one that jeopardizes players’ safety or costs them a fine, as well as tarnishing the league’s brand to occur.
That being said, we would rather an official tend to that, rather than being in a hurry to direct the stick crew. During a play, each official carries out specific responsibilities, and is watching certain areas of the field for certain things.
But once that whistle goes, and the proper place to spot the ball has been identified, they all share a broader responsibility to do all they can to ensure calmer heads prevail. While we saw frustration boil over a few times these past two weeks, our officials did a good job overall on this score.
Now for some questions.
This week, ATR takes a slightly different approach. I received several questions from Jim, all of them good and several of them fairly typical of what I can hear from fans on occasion. So with thanks to Jim, and apologies to the rest of you, I’m going to take those on today, and get to the rest of my inbox in subsequent weeks.
Jim: Do you review each game after they are played to determine whether the officials made too many incorrect calls, or were too one sided in their penalty calling?
Tom Higgins: Every official is evaluated and graded on every play in every game. Even if the official watching the line of scrimmage was 40 yards away from a pivotal pass interference call in the endzone, he is graded on whether he was in the right position to see what he was supposed to see.
Imagine being taped all day at work, from several angles, and then being graded on everything you did from the time you show up to the time you go home. That’s what we do with our officials. Every official on every play, every week.
They are graded by Evaluators – often retired officials who were among our very best – in a long, detailed process that allows them to explain what they believe they saw and compare it to what we see on tape, from several angles, with the benefit of hindsight, and far from the heat of the moment.
These evaluations are used to determine where our officials need to improve and to inform me as I make some very important decisions about officials.
After Week Eight of our season, we cut down from 42 officials to 35. Those who have graded out the best stay, while those who have graded out the worst – often younger officials who need more experience – are sent back to amateur football to continue their development.
On occasion, I will decide that an official who has particularly struggled isn’t cut out to work at this level, and he won’t return to our league. Period.
By the way, the crews that have graded out the best early in the season get to work the two bye weekends, when we have two games instead of four. And the crews that grade out the best over the course of the entire season are assigned the playoff games and the ultimate prize, the Grey Cup.
Yes, just as the Grey Cup is what all of our teams are pursuing, it’s what all of our officials are after, too. Now that’s just the formal process. Our own “second guessing”, if you want to call it that, can start as soon as the gun sounds to end the game.
The supervising official, who watches from the press box area, will meet the officials as they’re changing out of their uniforms to go over controversial plays that our teams may have questions or complaints about and to ask what they saw when they made a call, or non-call, on the field.
I look at the tape first thing the next morning, so I’m prepared for my discussions with coaches and general managers. We encourage an open dialogue with our teams on officiating. (We just ask them to not do that in the media, because it doesn’t help our brand.)
Jim: The officials in at least two of the games and possibly three were brutal and one sided this weekend. Are they forced to review their own calls after each game? And what is the result if they have a bad game?
TH: Fans are everything to our league, and every fan is more than entitled to his or her opinion. But having looked at every call and every play several times, I don’t agree with your assessment.
What is the result if an official has a bad game? Well, as a former head coach, I can tell you it’s not unlike what happens to players in our league.
This is an elite league. You have to be very, very good. We strive for perfection, of course, but humans are never perfect. And just as every hall of fame quarterback has thrown his share of interceptions, every great official has had his share of missed or bad calls.
But if you consistently have bad games in our league, you won’t be here. You’ll be gone. If you’re young, show tremendous promise, and make mistakes out of inexperience, you’ll get the opportunity to improve.
If you’re old, and can no longer do the job physically, you will be told to step aside, no matter what you’ve achieved. One mistake won’t get an official fired, just as one fumble was unlikely to make me cut a player.
But, any and every mistake will be brought to your attention, and you will be coached to avoid making that mistake again. And every mistake reduces your chances of making it to the second half of the season, or getting playing time (I mean, officiating assignments) come the post-season.
It may go without saying but I’ll say it anyway: I’m talking here about honest mistakes. If you lack integrity on the field, or are dishonest with us off it, you’re not worthy of being a CFL official.
Jim: There were at least two games which come to mind where the penalties called were extremely one-sided. How can one team do absolutely nothing wrong and the other team gets double digit penalties?
TH: I can tell you, as a guy who has spent a lifetime around football, that the answer is simple: one team was more disciplined. I have never believed in the theory that a well officiated game is one where each team has the same number of penalties, even if one team has committed more infractions.
That would mean officials are looking the other way on occasion, and that’s not what our rule book, or the integrity of our game, demands.
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br />Jim: How can two teams end up throwing punches, but only one team gets penalized?
TH: If two players are exchanging punches, both should be ejected, because we don’t allow fighting. Now, unfortunately it’s not uncommon to see one player push an opponent, or say something to him, and the opponent responds with a punch. We have penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct that may involve pushing or taunting, but punching an opponent will earn you an automatic ejection.
Thanks for the pointed questions and taking the time to send them. From my point of view, here’s the bottom line on our officials: I’m the last person who will tell you our officials are perfect. Our guys make mistakes. But I will always be among the first to tell you that they do a tough job very well, and care deeply and passionately about our game. That’s the thing that strikes you the most when you get to be around them: they are as committed as any coach, player or fan I’ve known in my career.
Last Friday, some of my colleagues here at CFL.ca posted an excellent video documentary that takes you behind the scenes with Referee Glen Johnson and his crew. It’s a unique look at how they work, and inside our game. I urge you to check it out. You’ll see that passion. I know you won’t agree with every call on the field – even I don’t, and I have no rooting interest – but if you watch it, I hope you’ll agree our guys are very dedicated and professional.
