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CFL restricts coaches’ challenges to curb video reviews

Aug 2, 2017 | 1:52 PM

The Canadian Football League is making a call on video review.

In a news release Wednesday, the CFL announced coaches will now only be able to challenge one play per game.

The change is effective immediately, and comes after league commissioner Randy Ambrosie ordered an evaluation of the process after his latest visits to CFL stadiums this past weekend.

“Scoring is up, penalties are down, and games are shorter. The last thing we want to have in place is an artificial impediment to our fans’ enjoyment of it all,” Ambrosie said in the news release.

Ambrosie goes on to say video review has done just that, adding too many challenges and reviews are interrupting the game.

“It was put in place to fix egregious and indisputable mistakes that could affect the outcome of a game. It’s not being used that way now,” he said.

“Coaches, understandably since they are under pressure to win, have been using it to try to gain an advantage. Fans have been very clear with me that they want a change. We are delivering that change.”

The CFL noted the proposal to restrict coaches’ challenges was approved in a series of calls with the league’s competition committee, team presidents and lead governors Tuesday night.

Prior to the change, each team was allowed two challenges per game, and a third challenge was earned if a coach was successful for the first two.

Coaches will now only get one challenge for the entire game. They will still need to have a timeout to initiate a challenge, and if it’s not successful – they still lose a timeout.