Football Canada has made some rule changes for this year which apply to all amateur football.     There are several, most of which are housekeeping in nature, but some will have some impact on the game.

The one that I find most significant is the change to holding rules

Rule 7, Section 1 Article 1  (page 41)

they've added that holding should only be called

"if the hold has an impact on the play"

Thank goodness.  Hopefully the CFL will make the same change.

A full list of amateur rule changes can be found here:

http://footballcanada.com/amateur-tackle-rule-book-changes-for-2016-17-season/

 

 

Would that mean that the flag gets thrown and then they decide after the play if it was relevant, or that they decide during the play whether to throw the flag or not?

Since the "impact on the play" is usually easy to tell in hindsight, I wouldn't mind the former but would be terrified to give that kind of power of the latter to CFL refs who already manage to muck up the simplest of things.

Is it even that easy to know in hindsight?  If someone on a return team puts a hold on a cover guy in the first second of a punt play, you won't see the impact until there's a little opening where that cover guy ought to be, a few seconds later.

(maybe this already happens on all punt plays, I dunno, never played special teams ... or any teams)

The refs can't handle simple black and white holding calls. I for one, don't want them to have to decide if each one had an impact on the play. I don't think 'cheating', which holding basically is, is OK as long as it doesn't effect the play. The players won't know when it's OK to hold and when it's not and the fan forums will waste tons of time debating which call should or shouldn't have been made.

This rule is going to be an absolute gong show.  I feel bad for the officials who have to justify calls either way to coaches.  It's going to be an absolute mess. 

I like the theory behind this idea. But putting it into practice will be a mess.

8 hours ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

This rule is going to be an absolute gong show.  I feel bad for the officials who have to justify calls either way to coaches.  It's going to be an absolute mess. 

I respectfully disagree.   Holding is a very subjective call already....it's been said many times that holding could be called on every play.  I think that this change will end some of the ticky-tack calls that slow down the game.   I've played, coached, officiated, managed, and sat on boards, organizing committees and disciplinary hearings over several decades.   I can honestly say that coaches are going to argue with officials either way.  Giving officials a valid reason to not throw a flag will, in my opinion, lead to fewer penalties and fewer arguments than there are now.

I think that there are too many flags for inconsequential situations in both the amateur and professional games.

 

11 hours ago, johnzo said:

Is it even that easy to know in hindsight?

I was thinking simply on offence, some plays like a run to the left while the right tackle is grabbing a jersey 30 yards away from the ball carrier.  The reason I wouldn't want them to be making a decision until after the play is for the reasons you suggest.  It would need to be completely obvious.  CFL QB's can often spend 6 seconds running around in the backfield before they find a receiver and a hold at the start of the play might seem meaningless at that second and have a huge effect on what would have happened 4 seconds later.

There will be coaches who lose their minds over this.

End of the day, calling the existing rules correctly and with consistent application will always be my first choice over adding new twists to the rules.

10 hours ago, Bigblue204 said:

I like the theory behind this idea. But putting it into practice will be a mess.

Kind of like communism.

9 hours ago, Jaxon said:

I respectfully disagree.   Holding is a very subjective call already....it's been said many times that holding could be called on every play.  I think that this change will end some of the ticky-tack calls that slow down the game.   I've played, coached, officiated, managed, and sat on boards, organizing committees and disciplinary hearings over several decades.   I can honestly say that coaches are going to argue with officials either way.  Giving officials a valid reason to not throw a flag will, in my opinion, lead to fewer penalties and fewer arguments than there are now.

I think that there are too many flags for inconsequential situations in both the amateur and professional games.

 

I think this is the reason this "rule" is already in affect, to a degree... there are marginal holding penalties away from the play that don't get called all the time...

may as well since we have all these amateur refs..