Bad Words

Today the CFL fined Winnipeg Blue Bomber Head Coach and some of the players for negative comments made about the officiating in last Fridays 's loss to the Montreal Alouettes.

I understand why the comments were made and why the CFL had to react as they did.

When you see the play that garnered the criticism it is easy to see how members of the Bombers may be upset. It's pretty clear it was a bad call. Instant replay was added to try and get the calls right but it's hard to say they did in this instance.

On the flip side the CFL had to take some disciplinary action. They have a duty to protect the integrity of the game and the league so when people step out of line they must face the appropriate consequences.

The root problem seems to be the performance of the CFL officials. I'm going to assume that they want to do the best job they can. Unless there is a conspiracy to help or hurt specific teams (and if there is, it is a sad day) no official goes out to make a bad call. Assuming this, why does there seem to be so many bad calls being made this year?

No matter how talented any official is and how hard they try there are going to be mistakes. Officials are human and humans make mistakes.

Possibly the CFL has not adequately prepared the officials form the job at hand. The league is prospering, there is probably money in the coffers to better prepare and train officials.

The first step is for the league to accept they have a problem. Hopefully this outburst by the Bombers sheds some light on this reality. They don't have to come out and air the laundry list of problems. They may want to state publicly what they plan to do to improve the overall quality, but the most important thing is they admit and accept they have a problem and start to deal with it.

Ultimately the CFL has a responsibility to protect the sport and the league. If they don't help their officials perform better at a very difficult job then they are not protecting what they should.