CFL’s ‘God Centre’ should have its power reduced

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Just change the name of the league, for crissakes!

It’s no longer the CFL.

It has become the CCFL — Command Centre Football League — because the games are no longer being decided by players, coaches or on-field officials. Instead, the outcomes are being determined by the unpredictable and almighty “God Centre,” a TV-filled room in Toronto where former officials and players incessantly peruse video replays and omnisciently decide how to best disrupt a game.

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Invented 15 years ago to quickly and unobtrusively review obvious mistakes, the Command Centre has vastly overstepped the reason for its existence.

It’s gotten to the point where the worst possible scenario occurred during overtime of Thursday’s 22-22 tie between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and hometown Ottawa Redblacks. The game had been decided in the second overtime mini-game and TSN showed the “Final” score as 22-19 in Saskatchewan’s favour after the visitors strip-sacked Redblacks quarterback Dustin Crum, who had replaced injured starter Dru Brown in the second quarter.

Nobody appeared to be disputing the outcome.

Referee Tim Kroeker signalled the game’s conclusion, celebratory and consoling handshakes ensued, assistant coaches came down from their pressbox perches, players headed to the locker rooms and fans gathered their belongings.

Then came the worst words in sports: “The Command Centre is reviewing the last play.”

After a lengthy delay the God Centre decided Riders linebacker Zakoby McClain, upon being cut-blocked by a Redblacks lineman, had rolled into Crum’s lower leg. A questionable roughing-the-passer penalty meant the game wasn’t over.

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Ottawa got an automatic first down, everyone came back onto the field and the Redblacks ultimately set up the game-tying field goal by Lewis Ward, who had earlier attempts blocked by Riders defensive linemen Caleb Sanders and Miles Brown.

Evidently that last kick was allowed, but the God Centre might still intervene again at any time. Mere mortals such as confused players, diplomatic coaches and ticked-off fans will never know when the interjection is coming. As of Friday morning, the Roughriders sat atop the West with a 5-3-1 record while Ottawa was second in the East at 5-2-1.

A God Centre interjection didn’t come earlier in overtime, when Riders head coach Corey Mace had to toss his challenge flag to (successfully) request a pass interference penalty against Redblacks DB Alijah McGhee. Saskatchewan was trailing 19-13, but numerous camera angles and slow-motion replays showed McGhee touching Riders receiver Shawn Bane Jr. milliseconds before the ball arrived. The overturned ruling allowed Mace’s team to score a tying touchdown by Samuel Emilus.

It was the second TD pass thrown by Shea Patterson, who has a 2-3-1 record in the absence of Riders starter Trevor Harris. The Roughriders are expected to activate Harris from the six-game injury list for Friday’s game against the visiting Montreal Alouettes.

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Much of Thursday’s first half was played in a heavy downpour. It was extremely boring as Ottawa built a three-quarter lead of 7-3. But the God Centre didn’t impose itself much during regulation time and the game was on pace to take less than three hours, before the delays and re-start stretched it to 3 1/2 hours.

CFL games are wonderful because, like all sports, they’re full of mistakes. Players make them, so do on-field officials, especially now that they’re hauling around more transmitting equipment than a police officer.

It’s unconscionable for the God Centre to step into every situation and make unnecessary — sometimes wrong — rulings. Recent rule changes, including the added intricacy of penalizing unnecessary hits on quarterbacks, have helped improve CFL games.

In the wake of this embarrassment and to make sure no game ever again has to end like Thursday’s, the next step should be to eliminate the Command Centre completely. At the very least the God Centre should be restricted to its initial, minimal, fine-tuning purpose.

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