Lindsay H. Jones

USA TODAY Sports

Though the NFL has continued to balk at expanding instant replay to include pass interference, the Canadian Football League could provide a blueprint how replay could help get those calls correct.

The CFL is in its third season in which pass interference calls – and more importantly, the missed pass interference calls – can be challenged by coaches. In 69 games this season, coaches have challenged 50 calls related to defensive pass interference, and 18 have been overturned.

"I think it has worked for us, because to me, it's better to have it and fix. Even if we fixed 18 of them, in 69 games, we had the opportunity to protect the integrity of the outcome of the game,” Glen Johnson, the CFL’s Senior Vice President of Football, told USA TODAY Sports. “That's critically important, and we feel that is working for us.”

Had a similar rule been in place in the NFL, it could have changed the outcome of at least one game last week, when Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman was not flagged for apparent pass interference on a deep ball intended for Atlanta receiver Julio Jones on the Falcons’ last offensive play. Replay showed Sherman hooking his arm around Jones’ body. Atlanta coach Dan Quinn was, understandably, livid, as the Seahawks were able to hold for a 26-24 win.

That play, as well as a questionable pass interference call against Giants cornerback Domonique Rodgers-Cromartie against the Ravens on Sunday, have helped renew calls around the NFL to expand instant replay. Quinn told reporters he believed the issue would wind up on the competition committee agenda, while Saints coach Sean Payton this week said he hoped coaches would be allowed to challenge pass interference “sooner rather than later.”

The league’s competition committee routinely receives proposals from teams, notably the New England Patriots, to expand and refine replay, but there has been little momentum to include judgment calls, like pass interference and holding.

In Canada, the change came after the CFL decided its officials were missing too many pass interference calls. Now, if a coach wants to challenge either a call against his defensive back, or a non-call against the opposing team, officials in the command center in Toronto will review the play to see if there is “indisputable” evidence to overturn the on-field call. Starting this season, coaches are also allowed to challenge illegal contact and offensive pass interference calls.

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“The first season, it took us some time to adjust to an appropriate standard. I think that was one of the big learnings out of it was we needed to make sure we were only changing obvious mistakes. You'd sit down and look at it and it was indisputable that we missed it, for whatever reason -- positioning, the angle, or just a bad call,” Johnson said. “You need to have a very strict set of standards and say, we have to assume the call on the field is correct and we're only ever going to change it if there is indisputable evidence to do that.”

It isn’t a perfect process, Johnson said, but it has helped fix bad calls in big moments. That includes a critical moment in last year’s Grey Cup, the CFL’s equivalent to the Super Bowl, when an Ottawa Redblacks defensive player was not penalized after colliding with a receiver from the Edmonton Eskimos on an incomplete pass. From Toronto, the play was overturned.

“It was a clear miss,” Johnson said. “[Edmonton] kept the ball, marched it in and scored, and it protected the integrity of the game. Had we not been able to change that, we'd still be talking about the bad call in the Grey Cup. I think the benefit of those big plays -- that's the positive I would say. It's been able to help us in big situations, and big plays, that can protect the integrity of the game.”

Follow Lindsay H. Jones on Twitter @bylindsayhjones