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“That was a rule that was put in because each offence has their own footballs and someone said, ‘We can’t have the other team throwing our football in the stands. Then we have one less football,’” said Campbell, a member of the CFL committee that developed the proposals for ratification by the board. “Really, it doesn’t matter because we have a bunch of other footballs and it’s way more important to have a good fan experience.

“That’s a good example of something getting corrected that needed to get corrected and there was really no debate over that one.”

Of nearly a dozen changes approved for this season, the “Gavins amendment” will have much less impact that others. Chief among them are the addition of a video official at the CFL’s Toronto command centre, the expanded list of penalties that can be challenged by coaches and a tweak to the definition of “illegal procedure” that will enable offensive linemen in three-point stances to point with their free arm to indicate changed blocking assignments as long as they reset for one second before the football is snapped.

Johnson said the CFL expected that change alone would reduce total penalties by more than 100. Of the 1,905 infractions recorded last season — 23.52 per game, or 8.9% more than in 2014 — 168 were for illegal procedure, which also includes illegal formations by the offensive and kicking units.

The number of infractions per game was 18.2 in 2011, three seasons before the Redblacks played their first contest, and Johnson said the increase since then was the No. 1 generator of complaints to league offices.