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This article was published 12/4/2017 (1253 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Canadian Football League is introducing five new rule changes for the 2017 season in an attempt to speed up the game, maintain player safety and provide an overall better product on the field.

Glen Johnson, senior vice-president of football for the CFL and chairman of the league’s rules committee, was in Winnipeg Wednesday to walk media through some of the finer points behind what and why the moves were made.

Johnson said one of the biggest issues the league wanted to address was to reduce the amount of time it takes for a coach’s challenge. The goal, Johnson said, was to have challenges last no more than 90 seconds, something his group achieved by the end of last season.

Part of why challenges were running so long was because coaches would use the TV timeout to look over a play before throwing a challenge flag. Under the new rule, coaches will now have just 30 seconds into a commercial break to decide whether they want to challenge a call.

To help aid coaches, the backup timekeeper in the game will step onto the field and once the game breaks for a timeout, he’ll raise a green flag. An official will then stand beside a coach, giving him the full 30 seconds to make a decision.

"We’re not trying to trick the coach or catch them," said Johnson.

The league has also limited what a coach can challenge when it comes to roughing the passer, a challengeable offence that was brought in last season. When the rule was first implemented, what Johnson said happened was confusion started over what could and couldn’t be challenged.

In order to dispel any further confusion, the CFL has informed each team a play can only be challenged under the true definition of roughing the passer — rule 7.2.4 on page 56 of the CFL rulebook — meaning the quarterback must be in the midst of a passing motion for a play to be challenged. Also, when it comes to head contact, it must be a deliberate blow to the helmet, with inadvertent contact not classified as a punishable offence.

There will also be an increase in the duties of the video official. Before, a video official would be monitoring every play in search of the right call. Now, when a penalty flag is thrown the video official will be in charge of correcting or looking for additional infractions. This includes dead-ball penalties, with the video official now able to look back on the play and to see how the melee first started and provide additional penalties if necessary. This rule has also been put in place to ensure, in the case of an ejection, the right player is penalized.

In an attempt to rid potentially dangerous low blocks from the game, the CFL will now issue a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty when it occurs on a possession change (kickoff, punts). Johnson said although the number of injuries were low last season, the number of blocks that were happening are too high to ignore. And the only punishment — a 10-yard illegal block call — was not enough of an incentive to prevent them from happening. Teams would usually just decline the 10-yard penalty because often the return was greater and therefore deemed useless. Now, teams will earn an additional 15 yards on the return.

Furthermore, the league has restricted Team B (defence) substitution rules on kick-return plays. Johnson said the issue arose after a few occasions last season when the returning team, considered the "defence" on the play, took advantage of being able to substitute a player at any time without the ref acknowledging a change. Under the old rules, a team was able to have a player step off the sidelines just before the play started and, in some cases, it resulted in a trick play, with the returner lateralling the ball across the field to a player with an open run up field. Now, a player must come into the numbers and be recognized by an official.

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @jeffkhamilton