CFL GM MEETINGS NEWS
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| Sportsnet/CKRM’s Arash Madani |
CFL GMs are meeting in Toronto this week in advance of this weekend’s annual Evaluation Camp presented by Reebok. Among their discussions are possible rule changes for the 2015 season and Sportsnet CFL insider Arash Madani discussed some of them on CKRM’s SportsCage on Tuesday.
“They’re trying to do something to fix things because ratings are down, scoring is down, attendance is down and there’s been a number of things out there in terms of ‘do we modify or just nullify the no yards?'” Madani reported. “That’s something that’s been discussed. They’ve been talking about going from a 20-second play clock to a 30-second play clock but when will that start to wind? That’s to speed things up.
“There are a number of things being thrown around and they’re doing what some people are calling ‘radical changes’. They’re talking about, on punts, the punt cover team is gonna stay on the line of scrimmage until the receiver catches it. My solution there is how about how finding some healthy quarterbacks? How about you find some back-up quarterbacks who can play when somebody gets injured? That’ll help you too.
NFL owners and GMs are also meeting in Phoenix this week and many of the same topics are on the table. However almost all of the proposals were thrown out on Tuesday.
“The CFL’s also talking about challenging offensive pass interference,” Madani continued. “Bill Belichik at the NFL meetings this week submitted a number of different things. You know what the fans don’t like? The fans want the call right, yes. But they don’t want to sit there all day and have every other call go under review. You need to have a pace to the game too and my only thing about all this is you can’t eliminate the pace to the game and have too many needless stoppages.”
What’s being discussed in Toronto are only initial rule change proposals and if there’s enough support, they’ll go to the league’s Board of Governors for a ratification vote in a month’s time.
“Yes and that to me is a little late,” Madani observed. “We’re talking about the end of April. Rookie camps start three or four weeks later and do you want to teach something all-together new? I don’t know if that’s the ideal scenario but maybe that’s something they’re going to have to end up doing.”
Maybe they could agree to remove the "National" "International" baloney. How about calling players from Canada…gasp…"Canadian" and another idea…"American"?? If not either then "International"
Who thinks of these stupid terms?
Not allowing the punt cover team to stay on the line until the ball is caught may be the stupides thing I've ever heard!
Talk to the players about the terms… it was part of the collective bargaining agreement.
Tweaks to the rules are fine… wholesale changes are ridiculous. .. especially at thus time of year!! Why not initiate review of a play in the command center as soon as it happens… then aa decision could be rendered fairly quickly rather than waiting a couple of minutes AFTER the request is made.
adding time between plays should improve TV coverage with more replays and more hype if done right like the NFL shows the great plays 3 or 4 or 5 times.
How about forcing each team to invest in a Canadian quarterback as one of your 3 quarterbacks? That, along with possibly removing the starting QB from your salary cap may help.
the rule wont be designed to "add time between plays". Play clock will set to 30 but will be whistled in as soon as ball is set. Not when substitutions are done. Will actually speed time between plays up.
Give the coach one challenge and as long as it's successful he keeps it. He keeps it until he loses it. That way they wouldn't use their challenge unless they were sure they would overturn the call.
I hope that some day, somehow, the CFL can start their season earlier – mid-June would be great.
The one change that makes total sense is on punts – once the ball hits the ground, the 5 yard zone should shrink to two yards. This would reduce penalties and recognize that many games are played in windy conditions.
Old Hank
Why punt if the cover team cannot advance past the line of scrimmage? There may be a lot of nationals looking for work.
The brain editor is supposed to be on even during brainstorming ideas. Whomever came up with this gem should be sent for testing.
Arash is wrong on the punting change. The league is looking at reducing the amount of gunners that can run down field before the ball is kicked, not fielded.
Mandating a Canadian QB would simply weaken the field. There isn't a CIS QB that is even close to taking a sniff at at a CFL roster.
Your QB is a part of your team so why should they be exempt? Both Winnipeg and Montreal QB's weren't highest paid players on team and wont be again this year.
You want to get rid of a DUMB Rule? Get rid of the coin-toss to determine who gets choice to begin the Game and to begin the 2nd Half. No Home field advantage for those who DON'T play in a Dome ?? Just a silly rule. You think Braley had something to do with bringing in this rule a few years ago?
Sick of all the penalties on punts. Eliminate the 5 yard restriction and introduce the fair catch. However if the ball bounces it must be picked up and returned.
You got to be kidding! Introduce the fair catch?? Make every punt return an offensive play.
And there's nothing stupider than seeing four guys watching a punt roll around on the turf and grounding it when it might bounce backwards three or four inches.
You want excitement, you keep the punt runback. You can modify the blocking infringement rules to give the cover team more leeway, which will produce the desired effect of way fewer penalties.
Keep the CFL Canadian.
I have long said when the CFL is a 9 team league they need to lower the ratio and get the best players on the field.
Fair catch….. please the most useless rule in any sport. I do like Hanks 2 yard rule for balls after they hit the ground.
There's nothing more disgusting than seeing several millions of dollars worth of players watching a ball roll around on the ground.
Keep the CFL Canadian!
They have the fair catch in the nfl because they have the blocking talent to hold the punt team off i bet about at least 50 percent of punts have some sort of return in the nfl. And it is still way better than the stupid ridiculous rouge what a dumb dumb rule talk about watching the ball how about punting it back and forth to each other hahaha embarrassing for the league.
Yeh, the Yankees won WW11 too if you watch the movies.