Role of the Measurement in the History of Football Is Reviewed How

Volume 5 Issue 8

August 2011

Role of the Measurement in the History of football is reviewed

How do they Put the first down lines on TV.

Instant replay BCFOA Father Son Team

Sports Officials Canada Publications on Better Officiating

First and Ten Mandate 3

First and Ten editor Ron Hallock 4

First down? Eh, close enough. Hard to explain this ref's mistake-MJD 5

How Does the First Down Line work by Shel Brannan 6

In High-Tech Game, Football Sticks to an Old Measure of Success By 12 John Branch Moving the Chains by Robert Pondiscio 17

Video Play Review Clips courtesy of Hamilton FOA 19

Sports Officials Canada publications for Better Officiating 20

Sports Officials Canada Surveys 25

Comments from Our Readers

Football Canada Rules Editor and Interpreter Walter Berry APAFQ 25

Instant Replay: They are father and son BCFOA Bruce and Dave 27 Hawkshaw Jacques Décarie 2011 Ron Foxcroft Award 31 Working for the development of officiating and football in Canada in cooperation with

La version française du "First and Ten" va suivre chaque version anglaise. Ron Paluzzi, Vice président responsable de la traduction, sera responsable de s’assurer que chaque communiqué soit disponible en français dans les plus brefs délais. D’ici là, je demande à tous

First and Ten Editor Ron Hallock

The year is passing by quickly. Spring football leagues are about to wrap up and after a short break the fall season will be upon us. The Canada Cup will have been completed in Lethbridge Alberta and the 2011 IFAF Senior World Championship held in Vienna, Austria in July will also be in the history books. We will have a report on these events from the official perspective in an upcoming issue.

This issue of First and Ten focuses on how First Downs are determined. We review the history of using yardsticks to determine a first down and explore how television gets the first down line on its screen.

Since most officials have written the CFOA exam(s) by now, and may have had study groups or spring leagues to test their rules knowledge we have some video study clips courtesy of the Hamilton FOA to help fine tune your judgment and develop consistency.

Brian O‘Cain (Pac10,Referee) article states: It is well documented that an experienced official has seen hundreds of plays and stored the memories away for reference. These memories constitute a set of mental images that differentiate between legal and illegal actions. They form naturally by observing the same type of action many times.

The images make a written rule come alive and allow fouls to be recognized on the field. Recognizing fouls is easier than viewing the action and trying to recall if the working of the rule allows the act.

Having mental images of what fouls look like (visualization), is what makes experience such a powerful ingredient to officiating expertise. Consciously working to develop these mental images while off the field reinforces the experience gained on the field. Imagining plays with actions that are legal and then those that are illegal can do this. Great article on improving Judgment by Brian O‘Cain will be featured next issue

First down? Eh, close enough. Hard to explain this ref's mistakehttp://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/First- down-Eh-close-enough-Hard-to-explain-th?urn=nfl-196646

By MJD

On an attempted a quarterback sneak on 4th and 1 against the Browns late in the second quarter of Sunday's game, and in the jumble of arms, legs and sweaty torsos, it was hard to tell if he got the required distance.

The play was close enough to warrant a measurement, and the picture above is a screenshot of that measurement. The guy pulled the big first down stick, the ball wasn't quite there, so no first down, correct?

Incorrect, as it turns out. The official, Walt Anderson, looked at what you're seeing above, and he ruled that it was a first down. The Steelers ended up getting a field goal out of it.

Odd. I would use a stronger word, but the Steelers were going to beat the Browns, regardless of that first down or the ensuing field goal. It didn't affect the outcome. 5

For whatever it's worth, here was how Anderson explained it, via Tony Grossi at the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Anderson told a pool reporter that the tip of the ball penetrated the plane of the marker's stake. He said the angle of the camera shot on TV might not have shown it, but he's sticking to his call.

I guess I can't completely rule out camera trickery, but that would have to be one seriously cockeyed angle. From what I see above, that appears to be a pretty straight-on shot of the football. Maybe it's a few degrees off of center, but it doesn't seem to be by much.

I know that officials aren't going to get every call right, and that's fine. The ones where you're provided with a handy stick for measuring purposes, though ... those, you should probably get right. You don't have to decide anything on those. You just have to look.

And that does not look like a first down to me.

How the First-Down Line Works by Shel Brannan

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/first-down-line.htm

The virtual first-down line that you see in many televised football games is something of a computer-generated miracle. Find out how this line gets "painted" on the field.

Football is a major pastime in the United States. Kids play in the Pop Warner football league, some progress to high school football, some of those play college football, and a very select few play professional football in either the NFL or CFL. This funnel toward greatness continues until the first Sunday in February, when the elite of football's elite play in a game that people all over the world gather to watch: the Super Bowl, the championship game of American professional football.

One of the main objectives in American football -- and a helpful one if you want to score points -- is to gain a first down. In order to get a first down, the offense must gain 10 yards within a series of four plays, or downs. If the offense gains the necessary yards (or more) in four downs or less, the team reverts to first down and the process begins anew until the offense fails to gain ten yards, scores, or turns the ball over to their opponents.

One problem that football players and officials have always had to deal with is exactly how to measure the 10 yards needed to gain a first down. First downs often decide games, but collegiate and professional football officials often measure them using a decidedly antiquated length of metal chain attached between two poles.

Television viewers have had trouble figuring out where the first-down line is in relation to the offense. A small arrow located below the end pole isn't usually visible on your television screen. If you've watched any football games since 1998, however, you've probably noticed that fluorescent yellow or orange line that seems painted on the field from one sideline to the other. In fact, the line is computer generated, representing the exact spot that the offense must reach for a first down.

Sportvision, a company based in New York City, debuted its "1st and Ten" system on during a game between the Bengals and the Ravens, broadcast on ESPN on September 27, 1998. Football fans everywhere rejoiced. Since that first game, Sportvision has continued to provide ESPN, ABC and FoxSports with the ability to enhance their football 7

telecasts with this technology (you can view images from actual games that used the first-down line on their Web site). Other networks use similar technology. In this article, we'll look at how the 1st and Ten system works.

The Technology

One of the quirkier aspects of computer-generated video effects is the vast amount of effort it takes to do seemingly simple things. The most basic concepts can sometimes take a gigantic amount of effort to implement (see How Centropolis FX Creates Visual Effects and How Industrial Light & Magic Works for interesting background).

Painting a virtual first-down line on a football field is an excellent example of this process; the concept of painting a first-down line across the field on people's TV screens certainly sounds simple. As it turns out, implementing this is incredibly complex. It takes a tractor-trailer rig of equipment, including eight computers and at least four people, to accomplish this task

Here are some of the problems that must be solved in order for this system to work:

The system has to know the orientation of the field with respect to the camera so that it can paint the first-down line with the correct perspective from that camera's point of view. The system has to know, in that same perspective framework, exactly where every yard line is. Given that the cameraperson can move the camera, the system has to be able to sense the camera's movement (tilt, pan, zoom, focus) and understand the perspective change that results from that movement. Given that the camera can pan while viewing the field, the system has to be able to recalculate the perspective at a rate of 30 frames per second as the camera moves.

A football field is not flat -- it crests very gently in the middle to help rainwater run off. So the line calculated by the system has to appropriately follow the curve of the field. A football game is filmed by multiple cameras at different places in the stadium, so the system has to do all of this work for several cameras. The system has to be able to sense when players, referees or the ball crosses the first-down line so it does not paint the line right on top of them. The system also has to be aware of superimposed graphics that the network might overlay on the scene.

A key piece of hardware used in the system is a special camera mount that holds the television cameras. This mount encodes all of the camera's movement (such as tilt, pan, zoom and focus). The data the mount produces helps the computers understand exactly what each camera is doing in real Another key piece is a computerized 3-D model of the field. The computers know exactly where the cameras are located in the 3-D model and can orient the virtual first-down line on the field accordingly. The model also accounts for things like the crest of the field and the location of the yard lines on the field.

Color palettes are also critical to the system. The computers must be able to distinguish between grass, on which the line should be painted, and everything else (players, referees, the ball, etc.), on which it should not. Color palettes solve this problem. You can see the palettes at work in this frame:

The player does not have the line painted over his jersey because of the color palettes.

All counted, there are eight computers used in the system:

Four SGI computers One PC

Three special computers used in conjunction with the television cameras

These special computers' sole task is to record aspects of each camera's movement 30 times per second from the camera mount, and then send that data back to the production truck for analysis and use.

Up next, how the line is actually drawn.

Drawing the Line

In order to determine where the line should go, a central computer utilizes several pieces of information:

The virtual field modeled from measurements of the actual field (taken before the game), and the data from the camera mounts showing each camera's range of view The raw video feed from the camera that's currently on-air (determined by a separate computer in the Sportvision production truck) Two distinct color palettes, one representing the on-field colors that should be changed to yellow to represent the first down line, and another representing colors that should not be changed (like those in the players' and officials' uniforms -- this allows a player to appear to "obscure" the line, making the line appear as if it were really painted on the field).

Once the computer determines exactly which pixels should be colored yellow, this information, along with the raw video feed of the tallied (on-air) camera, is sent to a computer that draws the yellow line 60 times per second. The line is then sent to a linear keyer to superimpose the yellow line onto the program video. Since it takes time for all this to occur, the program video is sent through several frame delays so that the generated yellow line and delayed program video can be synchronized and turned into what you see on your TV screen.

On game day, it takes four people to run the system:

A spotter and an operator work together to manually input the correct yard line into the system. The spotter is in the press box and the operator is in the production truck physically keying in the correct number. Two other Sportvision operators are on hand to make any adjustments or corrections necessary during the game. These adjustments might include adding colors to the color palettes due to changing field conditions, such as snow or mud.

Altogether, the process of creating a first down line for viewers at home is far from simple. Any football fan watching at home would tell you, however, that it's well worth the effort.

In High-Tech Game, Football Sticks to an Old

Measure of Success By JOHN BRANCH Published: December 31, 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/01/sports/football/01chains.html

Since 1906, football teams have needed to gain 10 yards for a first down. From the sideline, far from the action, two sticks connected by a chain have measured the required distance, their placement estimated by eyesight. For a game of inches, it has never seemed an exact science. For a game long advanced by technological innovation, from helmets to video replays, the chains are antiques. Dozens of inventions have been patented to improve or abolish them. Yet the chains stand the test of time, if not distance. ―Is it perfectly accurate?‖ said Mike Pereira, the N.F.L.‘s vice president for officiating. ―No, I don‘t think it is.‖

The method, used at all levels of American football, remains virtually unchanged and unnoticed after 100 years, taking place beyond the scope of the television camera and the focus of the fans until a precise measurement is needed. Even at this time of year, in the midst of the college bowl season and the start of the N.F.L. playoffs, little thought is given to how the 10-yard increments are measured in the country‘s most popular sport. On a first down, one end of the chains is placed along the sideline by one member of the seven-person chain gang — hired for game-day duty by the home teams — six feet from the field, supposedly even with the front tip of a football that will be snapped at least 25 yards away. When a play ends, an official estimates the spot, usually marking it with a foot and tossing the ball to another official to set for the next play. When a first down is too close to call, the chains are trotted onto the field. Sometimes the drive continues by an inch. Sometimes it ends by less. ―There must be a better way,‖ said Pat Summerall, the longtime N.F.L. player and broadcaster. ―Because games are decided, careers are decided, on those measurements.‖ There are two sides to the equation. The spot of the ball, now reviewable under the N.F.L.‘s replay rules, is often a subject of great consternation. Rare is the debate over whether the chains, not the ball, are in the wrong place. But every couple of years an inventor patents an alternative to the chains intriguing enough to warrant an audience with the N.F.L.‘s competition committee, which debates rules changes. ―I bet you there is some type of technology that comes along in the next five years that creates that change,‖ said the Falcons‘ president, Rich McKay, co-chairman of the committee. ―I‘m just not sure we have it yet.‖

Past ideas have been dismissed, sometimes because of cost, mostly because they were unproven and deemed unnecessary. Tradition is an issue, too. The ritualistic on-field measurement can be a dramatic, momentum-swinging event as anticipated as any pass or handoff. An official protectively holds the ball against the ground, because precision is suddenly important. The chains arrive from the sideline. An official slowly pulls the chain taut. Breaths are held. ―When we measure, we make sure the players are clear so that TV can get a good shot of the actual measurement,‖ Pereira said. Suspense would be lost if every first down were determined instantly. ―There‘s a certain amount of drama that is involved with the chains,‖ said the Giants‘ president, John Mara, who is also on the N.F.L.‘s competition committee. ―Yes, it is subject to human error, just like anything else is. But I think it‘s one of the traditions that we have in the game, and I don‘t think any of us have felt a real compelling need to make a change.‖

In 1906 the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (now the N.C.A.A.) changed several fundamental rules to reduce football‘s violence. Among them were the advent of the forward pass (it remained highly restricted and not a popular option for another couple of decades) and the requirement of 10 yards, not 5, for a first down. ―To assist in measuring the progress of the ball it is desirable to provide two light poles about six feet in length, connected at their lower ends with a stout cord or chain 10 yards in length,‖ read Spalding‘s Official Foot Ball Guide in 1907. Improvements were imagined almost immediately. In 1929 Luther More of Seattle received a patent for something called Measuring Device for Football Games. It was a contraption with a telescopic ―sighting device‖ that used wheels and pulleys to move along a sideline track.

Early inventors were keen on sights, like those on rifles. Subsequent patents focused on keeping those sights aimed properly, like one in 1967 called a ―football liner up device,‖ using an array of mirrors. The focus turned toward lasers after a portable hand-held laser system was patented in 1968. In 1973 Willis Pioch of New Jersey received a patent for a ―visible line marker‖ for football fields. Ten yards could be determined by laser beams emitted from boxes along the sideline that slid on rails. Thirty-five years later, the chains persist. And inventors like Alan Amron, a 60-year-old from Long Island, plan their extinction. In 2003, with the help of Summerall, Amron presented a sophisticated laser system to the competition committee. Using lasers permanently mounted into stadium lights, a green line — visible to players, coaches and fans in the stadium, and to television viewers — would be projected onto the field to mark the line for a first down. Amron said it would be accurate to within a sixteenth of an inch. The N.F.L. was intrigued but not interested — yet. There were safety concerns (―I just have visions of lasers being sent all over the place, a ‗Star Wars‘ kind of thing,‖ Mara said last week), although Amron said fears were unfounded. More problematic is that the system costs $300,000 to $500,000 to install in each stadium, Amron said, and has not been tested in an actual game. Attempts have failed for trial runs in an N.F.L. preseason game, or in college football or the Canadian Football League. ―What often happens in these cases when there‘s a new proposal, we‘re a lot more comfortable if they‘ve tested it somewhere else,‖ Mara said. Rogers Redding, the secretary-rules editor for the N.C.A.A. football rules committee, said the chain method ―may not be superaccurate, but it‘s as accurate as you need.‖

After all, spotting the ball with an official‘s foot and then setting it down across the field is hardly precise, either. The offense‘s center often moves the ball before the snap. And, Redding pointed out, who‘s to say that the yard lines on the field are perfectly measured in every stadium? ―It‘s kind of a diminishing returns thing,‖ Redding said of reinventing the chains. ―How much do you want to invest in this form of accuracy?‖ That does not deter Amron and his company, First Down Laser Systems. Amron has a patent for a laser system embedded into the actual sticks attached to the chains. A built-in gyroscope and an automatic level keep the beams pointed straight. He sees it as a way to prove the validity of the laser concept, perhaps an intermediate step to the stadium wide system. He hopes for an invitation from the competition committee next spring. Change, if it comes at all, is years away. But the issue presents itself almost every game. Trailing the Green Bay Packers late in the fourth quarter of a recent Monday night game at Chicago‘s Soldier Field, the Bears faced a fourth- and-1. Running back Matt Forte bulled straight into a scrum. The ball was placed on the ground and the chains arrived from the sideline. The tip of the ball peeked just past the marker. Forte scored on the next play, sending the game to overtime. The Bears kept their playoff hopes alive for another week with a winning field goal. In the aftermath, there was some debate about where the ball was marked on the fourth-down play. No one wondered if the chains were in the right place. After 100 years, why wouldn‘t they be?

Moving the Chains by Robert Pondiscio September 30th, 2009

Football fans see it time and again: It‘s 4th down and short yardage. An official standing 30 or 40 feet away from the play sees a running back hurl himself full throttle into a forest of 300-pound linemen and disappear beneath a collapsing pile of players, a football buried somewhere against his body. Chaos everywhere, yet the official, with unquestioned authority places the ball he lost sight of on the exact spot on the ground where forward momentum stopped and calls for the chains. Play stops and the fans grow quiet as a team of officials runs in from the sidelines and takes a precise-to-the-inch measurement of the ball‘s location. If the any part of the ball is beyond the plane of the outstretched chain, a first down is awarded. The crowd goes wild.

Never mind that the linesman is merely estimating the ball‘s position. Never mind that the ten-yard length of chain was placed based on an eyeball approximation of where the series of downs began three plays ago. Never mind that every play in the series of downs begins and ends with a best guess (the wide receiver was knocked out of bounds at about the 35-yard line) When it‘s time to determine whether or not a first down is to be awarded, football is suddenly a game of inches.

Games, playoff hopes, bowl bids and careers turn on a guess–or a series of guesses. But no one seems to question it. Call for the chains! If you stop and think about it, this doesn‘t make a lot of sense. The answer however is simple: Don‘t think about it.

We know this. We see it all around us, but like the football fan caught up in the arbitrary kabuki dance of the moving of the chains, we accept it, applaud it or moan about lousy spots, but the game goes on.

―There must be a better way,‖ Pat Summerall, an N.F.L. veteran and broadcaster said in a recent New York Times article. ―Because games are decided, careers are decided, on those measurements.‖ He was talking about measuring for first downs. ―There‘s a certain amount of drama that is involved with the chains,‖ said New York Giants president, John Mara in the same article. ―Yes, it is subject to human error, just like anything else is. But I think it‘s one of the traditions that we have in the game, and I don‘t think any of us have felt a real compelling need to make a change.‖

Check out Rouge radio every Tuesday on their website

START PLANNING TO ATTEND THE CFOA CONFERNCE AND GENERAL MEETING

QUEBEC CITY May 2012 The next CFOA conference will be the long weekend in May 2012.

Coutrsey of Hamilton FOA Third and short yardage visual illustration of the rule change. Rule 1 Section 8 Article 1: Paragraph I Has been added to cover the ball carrier falling on top of another player on the ground note the exception has been changed to the close line play area to be more in line with the intent of the change. However the close line play area here is more loosely defined and if a team has tight ends then they become part of this are for this application

View this video of a play in the close line play area http://youtu.be/GqX-IuSmrGU Ball in the End Zone with Foul in the End Zone http://youtu.be/airMqKxSODA 2 Plays - No Yards and Spearing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG7qRtIqvFI&feature=related

Check out the Sports officials Canada website for excellent downloadable publications on basic officiating.

Publications List

National Association of Sports Officials / Referee Magazine

No matter what level and sport you work, you‘ll do a better job if you follow the solid, practical advice offered by veteran referees, umpires and officials‘ supervisors in this series of tips presented by Referee magazine.

In the real world of officiating, solid rules knowledge and proper mechanics are givens: They tend to become significant only when one or the other is absent. Sure, rules knowledge and proper mechanics are important, but they are only the beginning. From Referee here are 12 ways to help you become a better official.

Click here to download pdf

You‘re making an officiating error if you...... the most- common errors referees and umpires make during the course of a typical game. As you read through this very brief text, I hope you find advice you can …… Enjoy.

Click here to download pdf

Better Officiating Now gives you the opportunity to think about things that go beyond rules and mechanics. Book chapters, taken from Referee‘s ―Back to Basics‖ columns, examine many different facets of communication, an often-overlooked segment of officiating. ―Back to Basics‖ has been a popular magazine column. It provides necessary information for new officials and needed reminders for veterans.

Click here to download pdf

No matter what levels you officiate, again and again you will find yourself in tricky people handling situations. After all, officiating is a people-handling business. You may find yourself the target of heckling by fans or of more direct verbal challenges from players or coaches. You may have to deal with fights between players. Worst case scenario, you may be physically assaulted. Whatever happens, when people — players, coaches or fans — are in your face, you need to deal with it, and deal with it effectively.

Click here to download pdf

Membership Information New Provincial Sports Organizations/Municipal Sport Councils/Clubs Associate Membership

Sports Officials Canada (SOC) now offers a bulk registration program for our iMembership Program with lots of bonus features. We have also initiated a special Associate membership program directed towards Provincial Sport Organizations (PSO) and Municipal Sport Councils (MSC). This new PSO/MSC Associate membership will provide access to the activities of SOC including the annual Professional Development Conference at a reduced rate. Currently SOC has three levels of membership: National Sport Organization (Voting Member), Associate Membership (Non-Voting Member) and two categories of iMembership (Individual Membership) – Basic & Enhanced (includes the SOC "gap" insurance program). 22

Whether you choose to join as an Associate Member or not, PSOs, Sport Councils, clubs and leagues will now be able to bulk register their individual officials at a prorated discount based on the number you register: < 50 $10.00 per member 50 - 75 $9.75 per member 76 - 125 $9.50 per member 126 - 200 $9.25 per member > 200 $9.00 per member

Click here for full details of these new programs

Click here for BULK REGISTRATION FORM

Click here for ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP FORM Classes of Membership

There are four classes of membership, charter members, voting members, associate members (2 levels) and individual members.

1. The charter members are the applicants for incorporation of the S.O.C. 2. The voting members shall be the representative of each of those who apply for membership and are accepted by the board to represent: - an officials association of a national sport organization; or - an officials association of a professional sport organization. 3. The associate members shall be those individuals or representatives of organizations that are interested in promoting the objects and the work of the S.O.C. and apply for membership and are accepted by the board.

4. The individual members (iMembers) shall be those individuals that are interested in promoting the objects and the work of the S.O.C.

Membership Fees

Membership fees for the various classes of membership shall be set by the Board of Directors, as determined from time to time.

Fees: Voting Members - $100.00 National Associate Members - $50.00

PSO/MSC/Club Associate Members - $40.00 Basic Individual Members - $10.00 Enhanced Individual Members (includes Insurance) $26.00 Officiating Conferences

Join us for our 10th Anniversary as we look at "The State of Officiating"..... Conference 2011 registrations open next week. This year‘s conference is September 23 - 25, 2011 at the Delta Meadowvale Resort & Conference Centre in Mississauga, Ontario. CFOA Biennial Conference START PLANNING TO ATTEND THE CFOA CONFERNCE AND GENERAL MEETING

QUEBEC CITY May 2012 The next CFOA conference will be the long weekend in May 2012

SURVEYS--- Opportunities for officials to have a say

The Canadian Sport Policy Canadian sport is going through a major overhaul and you as officials are being given the opportunity to have a say in our future. The Canadian Sport Policy - the document which defines sport in this country - is being rewritten. Some of you have already taken the time to comment but it is important that all officials have their voices heard. To give you an idea of where officials and officiating rank in the current policy, athletes and participants are referenced 71 times, volunteers 12 times, coaches and coaching 47 and officials or officiating - 10. The government is giving all Canadians the opportunity to have input into the new policy which is due to come out next spring, with a draft due in the fall. I personally attended on behalf of SOC, the Ottawa Review Meeting. About 100 NSO's and organizations were in attendance, including many of our members. It was gratifying to see in the overall ranking of areas which were considered to be important to the Canadian Sport System that officials were ranked 4/12 at least at this meeting. Please take the time to take the online survey. You will have your voice — as an Official — heard. We don't get asked to speak out very often - let's not miss the opportunity here.

English: http://app.fluidsurveys.com/surveys/sirc/csp-renewal-2011/?l=eng

French: http://app.fluidsurveys.com/surveys/sirc/csp-renewal-2011/?l=fra

Violence in Sport.

We hear about it everyday it seems - Violence in Sport. Town meetings have been held by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and True Sport. The message is clear - Canadians want to see the level of violence in sport to drop. This is not just coming from adults but school children as well. The cross country meetings are on hold over the summer but CCES is giving you as Sports Officials a chance to speak up about the issue. Take a moment to complete their online survey at:

English: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ViolenceInSport

French: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Sondage-violenceDansLeSport

Have you as a Sports Official, been the victim of abuse - verbal or physical?

Have you as a Sports Official, been the victim of abuse - verbal or physical?We want to hear from you. For the purpose of this project, Abuse is defined as: Any aggressive action directed at an official which is considered beyond that acceptable within the sport. These actions may be verbal and/or physical in nature. Take the time to report the incident in our confidential survey. The links are:

English: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22BUWK6Z8XC

French: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22BUWWSZG2G

First and Ten appreciates your comments and thanks all those who provide comments on our newsletter and express their thoughts on officiating: training, development, rules and mechanics

First and Ten Described as First Rate Floyd Fennema , Chatham Kent FOA

As usual another ―first rate‖ publication with lots of hard work and good stuff…as you can see our local Association makes this mandatory reading

Recognition of First and Ten Service James Patterson CFL

Thanks for this service. Love the articles .

Great source of information John Kachuik EOTFOA

I would like to pass along my personal thanks to you for the great amount of work you put into the First and Ten Newsletter. It is a great source of information

Hurdling the Centre Kevin Horton Pres EOTFOA

I just have the feeling that this question examines something that most officials are never, ever going to see and then gives it special significance. The most obvious question is if it is the hurdling that is such a safety issue, why do we allow ball carriers to hurdle tacklers? This situation happens a great deal more often than hurdling the center.

The suggestion that the call is UR in this scenario also brings up the issue of OC vs UR. I would think that most officials are coached, from early in their careers, that contact is required to call UR, otherwise officials should be looking at an OC call.

How about this scenario, two players are engaged with each other and one player throws what appears to be a wild punch but misses the other player. What is call.... no call, nothing happened. Should the player be warned that if he throws a punch (and makes contact) that it will be a penalty and possible ejection. Of course.

Anyway good discussion 27

Football Canada Rules Editor and Interpreter

Walter Berry APAFQ

Walters’s reply to Mr Horton’s comment on this play was the intent of the rule is to provide protection to the center SAFETY SAFETY

Yes I agree this is something I would have thought never to happen, but it seems out in the west a coach figured this out and has taught a player to do just that hurdle the center I am sure we can all agree that this is an accident waiting to happen The intent behind the rule Protection of the Center is that to protect him. therefore hurdling the center to avoid contatct is to be penalized the same as if contact occured .

There will be a release in the next week or two of further changes to the playing rules and this will be in there.

Check out Rouge radio every Tuesday on their website

Instant Replay: They are father and son

Bruce and Dave Hawkshaw show off footballs autographed by the on-field officials from their first Canadian Football League games in 1991 and 2006 respectively, plus the 1999 and 2005 Vanier Cup and 2010 Grey Cup games. Len Corben photo

By Len Corben - North Shore Outlook Published: June 15, 2011 11:00 AM Updated: June 15, 2011 11:19 AM

The saying ―Like father, like son‖ must have been coined especially for the Hawkshaws: father Bruce and son Dave.

There have been special father and son connections in the Gordon Sturtridge League ever since North Shore minor football began in 1955 under its original name as the West Vancouver Six-Man Football League.

That season, Harvey Sedgwick, Bill Cornwall and Will McLaughlin coached teams while sons Brian and Kirk Sedgwick, Brian Cornwall and Mike McLaughlin were players.

There have been numerous other father/son links over the years but none more intriguing than that of the Hawkshaws.

Both were players in the league – Bruce in 1956-57 and Dave in the 1980s. Both first took up refereeing in the GSL, Bruce in 1969, well before Dave was even born, and Dave about 1987 while still playing. And both progressed through the officiating ranks of high school, junior and university ball all the way to the Canadian Football League.

―I loved playing the game but I never played in high school,‖ Bruce (who graduated from North Van High in 1963) was saying the other day. ―I was just 29

too small... about 120 pounds. I found officiating was the way I could carry on with the sport.

―A buddy had just got involved in officiating, so I went [back to the GSL] to investigate. That was 1969. I worked pretty much through the ‘90s doing little games down there. It was a great starting point.‖

Not only did he enjoy it but also, it turned out, he was very good. So by 1991 he was doing 80 games a season, including the CFL.

His first pro game was June 27, 1991 – coming up 20 years ago now – in Edmonton, a pre-season contest won by the Eskimos over B.C. 31-10.

―I was the line judge and the game went by in a blur,‖ he admits now, ―because you were just so excited and so full of adrenalin.‖ Nervous, anxious and butterflies are other words he uses to describe his first game.

―I loved doing games in Regina. It was my favourite place just because everybody was so into the game. The people in the hotels were dressed up in their green and white. The whole town was alive and abuzz with the fever. So it felt like a total, total football atmosphere. It was great. That‘s when Dave Ridgway was kicking and Glen Suiter holding. When we‘d walk around the field [before the game], Ridgway, who was a card, and so was Suiter, they‘d always have us practise signalling good touchdown and good field goal. They‘d say, ‗Okay you guys, one, two, three, arms up now.‘ And they‘d throw their arms in the air.

―With Taylor Field being an old stadium, it was just awesome. The stadium held around 25,000 then. One game, they let in about 32,000 people, so you had people virtually standing on the sidelines beside you helping you with your calls all along the way. It was exciting; 32,000 very knowledgeable football fans just having a really, really good time.

―I was fortunate to be in the league when they had the teams in the States, so I got to go to Memphis, Vegas, Sacramento, San Antonio, Shreveport and Baltimore. I was working for the City [of North Vancouver] from 1976-2004 [the last 20 years as city clerk] and I‘d be gone for a few days. I never took time off to do this

without being on holidays but it was hard on my staff to be gone for that length of time – even though they never, ever complained – because there were 16 or 17 games a year. So when you went to these faraway places, it kind of took its toll. I really had to quit in 1996 because of that. I could still enjoy it [refereeing] locally. I love doing high school ball.‖

He‘s also still involved with CFL games as a timer at Lions‘ games.

Dave got into officiating because of his dad. He recalls, ―To make a couple of extra bucks as a young kid, Dad said, ‗why don‘t you come and referee the younger kids‘ games?‘ I was probably 14.‖

He continued playing at Handsworth (1991 grad) and in junior ball but when the playing days ended, he carried on refereeing.

His first CFL game as the line judge (an exhibition won by Saskatchewan 14-8 over Edmonton in Regina, a place he loves to do games too) on June 3, 2006, was a carbon copy of his dad‘s. ―It went by so fast,‖ he remembers. ―I was just super nervous. Lots of butterflies before the game.

―It was pretty cool after the game. My dad and my girlfriend – now my wife – came to the game and surprised me. After the game, the evaluator Ken Picot, who had actually worked with my dad quite a bit, comes in [the dressing room], slams the door and looks at me. I‘m thinking I‘ve screwed up. He says, ‗If anybody can help you, who is it going to be?‘ Then my dad and Gill walk in. We had a big dinner, referee Ken Lazuruk did a little speech and they presented me with a game ball. It‘s sort of a tradition.‖

Dave is a father himself now. He and Gillian (Hicks) are expecting on June 24 (a sibling for daughter Freya, two and a half) meaning Dave will miss his crew‘s first 2011 pre-season CFL game.

In everyday life, Dave and Gill are both firefighters, Dave with the City and Gill the District. They first met at the Hose Reel Festival at Mahon Park a few years back and married in 2007. Gill, daughter of North Van District councillor Robin Hicks, starred in that other football game we call soccer with sister Roslyn at Argyle, UBC and the Whitecaps.

But back to the Gordon Sturtridge League to wrap up the story. The league was re-named for the Saskatchewan Roughriders‘ star who died in the infamous Mt. Slesse plane crash on his way home after the CFL‘s East-West Shrine Bowl all-star game in Vancouver in 1956. Carl Sturtridge, Gordon‘s brother, became a GSL head linesman in 1957, the first year the league was under the GSL banner.

I‘m sure the Sturtridges would be so happy if they knew the story of the Hawkshaws, their rise from the GSL all the way to the CFL and their fondness for doing games in Saskatchewan.

LOOKING FORWARD SEPTEMBER ISSUE OF FIRST AND TEN

Report on the 2011Football Canada Cup and hopefully the 2011World Cup

Improving your Judgment is a great article by Brian O'Cain a Referee in the Pac Ten Conference .Brian O‘Cain was the Referee in the 2010 Capital Bowl This is the first of a series of articles by this individual on football officiating.

Jacques Décarie 2011 Ron Foxcroft Award

Sports Officials Canada also presents the Ron Foxcroft Award, recognizing excellence from an official in a professional sport. The award is in honour of Ron Foxcroft, Founder and Chairman of Fox 40 International, for his personal achievement as a basketball referee at the international level, the NCAA level and as an NBA league observer. The award also honours Ron’s considerable ongoing support of officiating development in Canada and to Sports Officials Canada.

Jacques Décarie of Montreal, QC is the 2011 recipient of the Ron Foxcroft Award. Jacques was an on field official in the Canadian Football League for 33 seasons, from 1970 to 2002. During this period he officiated in the Grey Cup Championship game an amazing 13 times. Jacques has officiated in every position on the field and was judged to be the best at his position, which meant selection to officiate in the Grey Cup. He was the only Quebec based official to have continued officiating during the years Montreal did not have a team in the CFL. Since his retirement Jacques has acted as a game day observer for Montreal home games, as well as being one of the 8 officials who have been designated as an evaluator.

In addition to his CFL duties he remained active with the amateur football community in Quebec, officiating at several levels of competition or to evaluate other officials, for promotion to Junior, CIS and CFL levels. Jacques was also instrumental in translating the CFL rulebook from English to French, thus pioneering current French officiating terminology used by the French media today.

In recognition of his outstanding CFL career Jacques was the recipient of the Tom Chaney Award in 1984. The award recognized officiating excellence in the Canadian Amateur football

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