{"id":291349,"date":"2025-11-18T16:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/291349\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T16:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:39:10","slug":"cfl-to-review-replay-centre-mandate-at-offseason-winter-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/291349\/","title":{"rendered":"CFL to review replay centre mandate at offseason winter meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo courtesy: Bob Butrym\/RFB Sport Photography<\/p>\n

The Canadian Football League is in the midst of reviewing all aspects of its game and it appears the replay centre will be a topic of conversation this offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cGame flow is critically important. I think every league in the world of a similar nature \u2014 not just football \u2014 is trying to simplify that type of process,\u201d CFL commissioner Stewart Johnston said during his State of the League address in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know at the winter meetings in January we will go over how do we keep the excellence of what we do, but simplify the process and move that game flow faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

The league\u2019s replay centre, formerly known as the command centre, underwent a change in mandate last year to focus on what the league called its \u201cclear and obvious principle.\u201d<\/a> The alteration was made amid considerable fan blowback and limited replay officials to overturning plays only when provided with an unobstructed view of the action and unmistakable evidence of an error.<\/p>\n

The replay centre recently came under criticism again, this time from B.C. Lions owner Amar Doman. The lumber magnate took to social media to post a screenshot of Tommy Nield\u2019s game-winning touchdown from the West Final with the caption \u201cnot a catch,\u201d<\/a> a sentiment later echoed by general manager Ryan Rigmaiden.<\/p>\n

Trevor Harris, Saskatchewan\u2019s franchise quarterback, kicked off Grey Cup week dismissing the complaints from Vancouver, telling Doman and the Lions to \u201cget over it.\u201d<\/a> He also indicated he wasn\u2019t even aware the play had been under review until the head official announced Nield\u2019s touchdown was upheld by the replay centre.<\/p>\n

This is a common complaint among CFL fans: it\u2019s wholly unclear when the replay centre will or won\u2019t halt play to conduct a review. Coaches challenges are one thing, but the replay official sometimes butts in at odd moments.<\/p>\n

These disruptions are a problem given Johnston\u2019s commitment to game flow, which was cited as one of the reasons to change to a 35-second play clock next year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The importance of game flow is actually baked into the CFL\u2019s rulebook. On page 68, where the replay guidelines are outlined, it says the replay centre must not cause \u201csignificant delays to the flow of the game\u201d in the very first sentence.<\/p>\n

While the goal is to have fast, smooth-moving football games, the league\u2019s arguably in a no-win situation. If the officials get something wrong \u2014 which they always will at least occasionally, since they\u2019re human beings \u2014 everyone expects a correction. If the replay centre steps in to correct something, everyone expects it to happen instantly.<\/p>\n

Johnston, who remains in his first year on the job, strongly believes in the league\u2019s officials and pointed out that the parameters of review aren\u2019t merely an issue in the CFL.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe we have world-class referees and part of what I\u2019ve really enjoyed learning is dealing with football operations and dealing with our crew of referees. I watch them week in and week out doing one of the hardest jobs I can imagine and they do it exceptionally well. We have very strict review of every play in every game and it is impressive how effective they are,\u201d said Johnston.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe replay centre is trying to support those incredible referees with anything that might be clear and obvious that might be missed. I sat and watched a full game in the replay centre just to get a sense of what that was like. I was incredibly impressed with the communication that happens from that crew down to the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for how the replay centre will look in 2026, one might say that\u2019s still under review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy: Bob Butrym\/RFB Sport Photography The Canadian Football League is in the midst of reviewing all aspects…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-291349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}