A Canadian Football League official has been fired for making a bad call in a game last week, although he was flagged for more than just that one questionable decision, sporstnet.ca has learned.
A league source told sportsnet.ca that side judge Rick Berezowski was dismissed for a call he made in last Friday’s 32-26 win by the Montreal Alouettes over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, but the decision was made on the body of his work. Moreover, another source told sportsnet.ca that Berezowski refused to reverse his call by three other members of the officiating crew.
Berezowski, a 35-year-old who was in his third year of officiating with the league, nailed Alouettes rookie cornerback Greg Laybourn for preventing Bombers receiver Greg Carr from catching a ball in the end zone on the third-last play of the game. The ball sailed some 15 yards over Carr’s head, but he managed to sell the play as if he had a chance to catch it. Replays showed he actually put his arms around Laybourn rather than the other way around.
Bombers quarterback Alex Brink failed on two attempts from the one-yard line to score, both of which went to video review but to no avail. In the final three minutes of a game and overtime, coaches cannot throw a challenge flag. The challenge can only come from the video replay official.
Winnipeg head coach Paul LaPolice believed there was still a second left on the clock following the second attempt, but the officials ruled otherwise.
CFL director of officiating, Tom Higgins, told the Montreal Gazette that the pass interference call was wrong, adding, “We haven’t had that bad a call this year. That’s the kind of call that gets coaches sick and the director of officiating sick. I was sick after the game.
“It was the wrong call,” Higgins added. “That was not an acceptable call . . . and you only needed one angle to (make) that determination. We weren’t at our best. There are no excuses. We were no good. I’m not sugar-coating it. I wasn’t pleased with the last call. It easily could have been called against Winnipeg. I have talked to the referee and officials on the field.”
The CFL source that spoke to sportsnet.ca said Higgins felt it was in the best interests of the league moving forward to remove Berezowski from officiating in any more games this year. Moreover, the source said Higgins didn’t make the decision solely based on a single call.
A secondary source Berezowski was “on the bubble” for his overall performance, but emphasized that he refused to pick up the flag and change his call when advised to do by three other members of the crew.
There is no suggestion that Berezowski won’t be brought back next season. This is the time of year when the CFL whittles down its roster of officials. In a column he wrote this year on the CFL’s website, Higgins said each official is evaluated on every play, and that those evaluations are the key factor in deciding who receives the most work and opportunity to work in the playoffs and Grey Cup. The CFL began the season with six crews and a total of 42 officials, but that was pared down to five crews and 35 officials after Labour Day.
According to his profile on CFL.ca, Berezowski said: “Just getting the opportunity to work in the CFL has been my highlight.”
Questionable officiating has long been an issue for the CFL, but attempts have been made in recent years to change that with improvements to video review. So here is an example of a bad call that can’t go to video review that nearly affected the outcome of a game. Had the Bombers scored and converted the extra point to win the game, it surely would have been an even bigger issue.
In 2004, the National Basketball Association suspended referee Michael Henderson for three games for a call he made in a game between Los Angeles and Denver that the Lakers won 112-111. The NBA didn’t announce the suspension, but Henderson was kept out of three games he was scheduled to work pending an evaluation. He was subsequently reinstated.
