RULE 10 — REPLAY

SECTION 3 — VIDEO OFFICIAL REVIEWS

The Video Official's role is to quickly fix obvious errors in the moment that are NOT challengeable by replay but are indisputably wrong. These situations will be detected on the broadcast feed or the dedicated “All 24” camera feed.

The Video Official will

  • Confirm CALLED penalties that are NOT Coach Challengeable Penalties (see Article 3, page 69). If there is indisputable video evidence that a called penalty is wrong, the Video Official will tell the crew to pick up the flag and not apply the penalty.
  • Correct specific errors by changing a called penalty or creating a new penalty when a flag has been thrown by an on-field official in the following circumstances:
    • Line of scrimmage fouls, the Video Official will ensure that the correct fouls for procedure and/or offside are applied,
    • Major fouls that occurs post play, the Video Official will ensure that all major fouls that occurred in the post play period are correctly called and applied,
    • Illegal contact or defensive pass interference, the Video Official will determine if the ball was thrown prior to the penalty and ensure that the correct penalty is called.
  • Participate in discussions / huddles by officials when they are uncertain of how to rule on a situation with the philosophy to just get the call / ruling / decision right. An example is when both the offense and defense move prior to the snap and 4 officials have flags, all with a slightly different perspective on what happened. The Video Official would look at the play in a few seconds and tell the Referee what to do. This will speed up the application and get the call right.
  • Help with penalty administration such as where the ball was held when a foul occurred, where to properly apply a penalty from, and fixing incorrect applications of penalties.
  • Correct timing issues such as when the quarter or games ends, or resetting of the clocks to the correct time when necessary.
  • Correct boundary issues such as where a loose or kicked ball goes out of bounds, whether the ball hit a goal post or pylon, or the spot of the ball as it goes out of bounds in flight or on the ground.
  • A coach can never request that the Video Official review anything.

THE OFFICIAL PLAYING RULES FOR THE CANADIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE 2017

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Content compiled and entered by Glen Johnson, Jeff Harbin and Andre Proulx

The CFL Official Rule Book is published annually by the Canadian Football League. Any inquiries regarding the CFL Official Playing Rules may be directed to Darren Hackwood, Director of Officiating at dhackwood@cfl.ca. Any inquiries regarding CFL Statistical Scoring Rules may be directed to Steve Daniel, Director of Game Information and Head Statistician at sdaniel@cfl.ca.