Upon further review ... this needs review

Mood: Blue and gold

The CFL tested out its video replay review methods that it, by all accounts, hopes to implement for the 2006-07 season but if what happened in Halifax is any indication, it'd be a surprise to think anyone in the league would be in favour of it.

If you didn't catch the Hamilton Tiger Cats-Toronto Argonauts preseason game over in Hali, then you missed the CFL's incompetence at its best. Not just the officials, but the broadcasters as well — the two things that help ensure the CFL always looks bush league.

Ben Sankey's TD toss in the fourth quarter garnered the most attention and debate. Sankey approached the line of scrimmage on the run before releasing the ball, a flag was thrown for being over the line, which was then taken back when officials huddled and realized there was no infraction. Toronto head coach Mike Clemons challenged the play, referees said he couldn't because it was a judgement call and play went on. George Black, the director of CFL officials, said the refs were wrong in telling that to Clemons and that the play could have been reviewed, because it would have shown the right call was made.

Follow that?

Then TSN colour man Glen Suitor decides he should join in the discussion and proceeds to confuse the TV audience even more by repeatedly changing his angle and, all the while, still finding a way to be repeatedly incorrect.

Now, the two things that get me most irate about the CFL is the game-coverage the networks provide and the unbearable inconsistency and idiocy of its officials. With the CFL toying with the idea of bringing in instant replay, it has the chance of bringing these two worlds together to produce a heretofore unseen level of alarming incompetence. The blind leading the blind, shall we say.

One of the reasons the NFL replay works is because of the numerous camera angles available to an official when reviewing a debatable play. TSN, at best, will provide three angles with which to review a play. Anyone who has ever watched a CFL game on TV knows there isn't a lot of variance in the angles from which you can see a play again. The Sankey play was a perfect example. Despite the fact the angle settled on as the best for which to make a call couldn't tell you anything, everyone around the game seemed to be quite content to make bold statements that what was called on the field was unequivocally correct. Perhaps I wasn't looking close enough.

No one expected the CFL's system to be perfect in its first-ever game, and I'm not going to suggest the league shouldn't be going to instant replay, but let's be straight here. The biggest problem facing CFL officials is their inability to make even the most basic calls and their uncanny consistency in messing those up.

I wish the league the best with this and honestly hope it turns out for the better, but it just seems to have all the making of a situation that will infuriate fans even more than they already are. Remember, this is a league that has always insisted the emperor is fully clothed. It is isn't much of a stretch to suggest that when looking for "conclusive evidence" — the term the NFL likes to use — to overturn a call, that they just won't find any.

I love the CFL, like a parent loves its kid. But I'm also able to tell you that when the kid is trying to stick crayons into his ear, the parent needs to tell him that's not something they should be doing. But people with crayons drilled into their brains have been affecting this league for years, so maybe I'm missing something.

Pass the Crayloas please. Something in the navy-to-denim blue range, if you have it.

Other notes:
• The Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball team is in the quarter-final of the College World Series, held in Omaha, Neb. And meanwhile, the Huskers announced that now three of their football games this year will make national television. The usual Thanksgiving weekend clash with the Colorado Buffaloes, will go on ABC, but the network also picked up a September 17th match with the Pitt Panthers. TBS has signed on to do the game against Wake Forest. TBS has done a heck of a job of doing weekly games and giving audiences some different teams to look at rather than the usual marquis schools.

• Don't be fooled, the hottest team in baseball isn't the Chicago White Sox, Washington Nationals or even the Philadelphia Phillies. It's the Brandon Marlins of the Manitoba Senior Baseball League. Alright, maybe not but only six runs allowed in seven games is pretty good.

• Michael Jackson acquitted. (If you've been living in a cave). More on this tomorrow.

• Alright, one thing: The foreman of the Jackson jury was Paul Rodriguez. Apparently he was able to get some time off from his stint on Latino Comedy Fiesta.

• From one blog to another, Bill Simmons of ESPN.com's Page 2 has perfect analysis of not only the NBA final but of those who are paid to analyze it on TV. Specifically, he addresses the pundits' need to always take one extreme or the other. Find that story here, and tell me he's not right.

Lyric of the Day:
He was 13, brought up in Baghdad
Ate with his right and made money with his left hand
Prayed to the East, 5 times daily
His mother and father just had a new born baby
Now his father was an Imam who carried the weight
And built his family on 5 pillars of faith
Never trippin off Western ways, it meant nada
Pilgrimage to Mecca to circle around Kabba
300 miles away, British troops hit Basra
His cousin waged jihad and died with honor
He heard about the buildings on 9-11
And a man named Bush on a search for weapons
Now here come the U.S., to crush Saddam
Wit 88 thousand tons of missle and bombs
But his family's too broke to move or find shelter
If they all had to die, they would die together and that's cold
Xzibit, Cold World