TUNING IN

BY: ARDITH STEPHANSON
FOR RODPEDERSEN.COM

The CFL’s rules committee this week put forward a proposal to expand video replay to include reviewing defensive pass interference.

A proposal approved by the committee would allow coaches to challenge both called and potential defensive pass interference fouls under certain conditions. According to the CFL website, the rule is still subject to final approval by the league’s Board of Governors, but would make the CFL the first football league to subject this penalty to video review.

So, what do you think? Video replay has become commonplace in football, hockey, and this season will see an expansion to its use in Major League Baseball.

Here’s the pros and cons from Tuning In:

Video replay pros:

• Sports continue to get faster and refs have to make instantaneous decisions in fast-paced games. They can’t always be right.

• Decisions made with human error can – and have – determined games, sometimes in a negative way.

• If we have the technology, why not use it? Think of the changes in technology in recent years. When watching at home, we enjoy the replay technology as adding to our enjoyment of the game, so why not use that technology at the park.

• Some decisions make sense, like determining a goal in hockey.

Video replay cons:

• Purists would say decisions like those made by officials are part of these sports. While such decisions can impact outcomes, human judgment is part of these sports.

• Whatever the outcome, half the fans will always be unhappy and criticize the changed (or not changed) ruling.

• Officials are vulnerable to a new kind of criticism. They called it wrong in the first place, and/or they called it wrong on the replay ruling.

• Video replay slows the game down. The more times games are stopped for review, the longer they are.

(A rant here. Technology, advertising, and game analysis have all slowed down games, to the point where CFL and NFL games are pushing three and a half hours or more. If you’re in the stands for Riders games, you know the routine when the guys in red vests come on the field – yet another TV or radio time out, unrelated to the play on the field, giving you time to run to the can and grab another beer! Add in game-related delays like replays, and the games are dragging on. Word of advice – always set your PVR/DVR to record the show that runs immediately after the game, because games run so long that they usually take up more time than the programmers allot!)

Get off the Fence

So enough fence-sitting, what’s the ruling on replay technology? In some instances, such as determining a goal in hockey, or whether a player got into the end zone in football, it makes sense. But generally, I think the continued addition of replay challenges detracts from the games. The expansion in baseball and football will continue to slow the games down, and the reality is that with human rulings, there will be human error. It’s part of the game. And it doesn’t matter how correct the officials are, if the initial ruling or the replay doesn’t go in the Riders’ favour, the fans boo!
I think replays focused on a few key plays are fine, but it’s getting to be too much.

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As an aside, the changes to baseball are pretty big this year. Check out this news release at this
news release at MLB.com.

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So much for Team Canada at the Brier!

Fans of curling may be having trouble keeping up with the swirl of news and ensuing rumours this past week.

With the addition of a Team Canada to the Brier – presumably to increase interest in the event, although its TV ratings are strong – this year’s winner gets a berth in next year’s event. However, before Team Kevin Koe even departed for the world championship in Beijing, news broke that he is putting together an entirely different team for next year, so who knows what will happen with Team Canada – will it be Koe’s remaining three players? Will it be runner-up John Morris, who is also rumoured to be starting a new team? Hard to keep up, so check out this
story at The Leader-Post   and this
story at The Curling News for more info.

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Last week’s theme was all about the changes to Hockey Night in Canada.  Many of us grew up on the television version, and our parents grew up on the radio version.  A bit of nostalgia, courtesy of Dave Stubbs of The Montreal Gazette:

Hockey Night in Canada began as a radio broadcast on Nov. 12, 1931, with Foster Hewitt calling Toronto’s 2-1 loss to Chicago in Maple Leaf Gardens. It would be 21 years before television viewers would see an NHL game, and it was the Canadiens vs. Detroit at the Forum on Oct. 11, 1952, a match called in French on Radio-Canada by René Lecavalier.

As Dave says, despite calls for change on HNIC, “this much is certain: every fan, and every announcer, director, producer, technician and cable-puller, is in debt to Hockey Night in Canada, the brand that since the dawn of television has stitched the sport into a comfortable quilt that has warmed our long winters.”