CFL - No Longer Under The Hood

I've never been accused of being the sharpest knife in the draw or the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree so I guess it doesn't come as a real surprise that it took me until week number three and I don't know, about a half dozen games, to realize that
CFL referees are no longer going "under the hood" on replays.
I've never been a big fan of the long delays while the referee stands with his head under some kind of a sack, reviewing the play, and then making the long walk to signal his decision. Well now that is no more.CFL referees will have one less decision to make this season with the league adopting a command centre at its head office to review coaching challenges.
Instead of an on-field official going under the hood to review a play, a replay official in Toronto will make the final call based on video review using high-definition technology.
CFL commissioner Mark Cohon said the new process is designed to be quicker.
A replay official at the command centre can immediately start reviewing a play from various angles instead of fans and teams having to wait for the on-field referee to reach a video booth on the sideline before examining the replay.
The lead replay official at the command centre will be Jake Ireland, who retired last year after working 30 years -- 557 games and 15 Grey Cups -- as a CFL referee.
"I'm excited about it because I think it does a couple of different things," Cohon said. "It speeds up the game, which I think is very important.
The biggest change for fans is the replay boxes on the sidelines will be gone," said Tom Higgins, the former CFL head coach who is now the league's director of officials. “But I think our fans will truly notice the difference because the moment a referee does put on the headset, when we went through our trial runs we had the decisions made already.
“That's where we're hoping we'll be able to tighten our belts somewhat to get the play going a little bit quicker than they have the last couple of years."
They say that if you never notice the referee out there calling any game then he's done a pretty good job.
So here I sit, a fan that didn't notice the difference, that didn't even notice the referees were no longer going under the hood.
I guess maybe that says something about the calibre of both the Canadian Football League and the referees that are working this year. Good move by the CFL and good job so far this year to the guys in the striped shirts.