Properly, this is a mousey badge, athough the quality is ratty. It's made out of duct tape that I clumsily cut with scissors. However it's not meant to be seen close-up, so for a quick job, the design works.
The three blind mice refer to the referee crew for our BC Lions games. Maybe it's a little unfair, especially since I have blind friends and I have referee friends (fortunately not the same people). It's hard not to notice inconsistency in the calls for our local games, though.
Today, many of the calls are reviewed by a CFL video crew out in in Toronto, and they have the power to overturn calls made on the field. We have seen the same penalty applied in a Lions game and in an Argonauts game, where the penalty was applied to BC but overturned for Toronto - these were identical plays. Is there collusion? The Toronto head office explained that eastern referee crews sometimes use different standards than western referee crews. Is that fair?
Generally, the on-the-field referee crews do a decent job with play-calling. Instant replay usually keeps their calls accountable. It's the decisons made by the head office, sometimes snap decisions, that cannot be accounted for by the fans or the league. Officiating in the CFL remains a work in progress.
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