Monday Morning Sentimonies: Catching Up

For those who have been asking, everyone is now home from the hospital. Mom and baby are doing really good. Dad is exhausted but smart enough to keep his mouth shut since he is finding little sympathy from the Mrs... or anyone else for that matter.

Since I’m off work for a few days I decided I might as well get caught up on what’s been going on across the CFL.

The league is moving forward with a few rule changes. The first is so obvious that I’m surprised it took us this long to adopt it. If would seem to make sense that since the helmet is the most crucial piece of safety equipment, if someone loses it and is in a position to get turned into a vegetable the play should stop... not the CFL. Up until we have taken the “let’s see how this plays out” attitude which was popular in hockey before goalie helmets were invented. Well no more. This coming season a play will be blow dead if the ball carrier loses his headwear. Though it will still go on if he loses his pants, shoes or nipple tassels.

Other rules changes include reviewing every scoring play (just as the NFL started doing last season). I get why leagues are doing this but unfortunately the result is more delays during the game in order to fix a small percentage of plays.  That said, if the Riders have another riveting offensive year like last year, our game day experience won’t be delayed very much in 2012. The league will also be adding a penalty if a non-ball carrier loses his helmet and subsequently is involved in the play. So if last year was any indication there will either be a huge increase in penalties or use of super glue.

The league also considered rule changes involving pass interference. One where coaches would be able to challenge one PI call per game and one where PI would become a 25 yd penalty. Both were held off pending further review and discussion. I don’t mind the idea of being able to challenge a bad PI call/no call but the penalty is a subjective one so I’m not sure how well it would actually work in real life. As for the 25 yard penalty I think it’s dumb. If that was the rule every DB would automatically knock down any receiver who gets behind them deep.  It would actually decrease big plays rather than increase them.

E-Camp was this past weekend but I will save the draft talk for when we get closer to the draft... hopefully by then Duane Ford will have written something on the topic since no one else in the country seems to have a clue.

Well that’s it for now. I’ve got to get back the wife and kid... and work on my next excuse to get out of diaper duty. It being against my religion didn’t go over well so my next angle is a medical allergy to whatever it is they make diapers out of.

CFL Ins and Outs

BC

Out: DL Brent Johsnon (retired)

Hamilton

Out: LB Auggie Barrenechea (retired)