Have you ever been to a sporting event and saw a call so egregious and terrible that you said “Hey, I could do a better job than this zebra?”
Well, the Canadian Football League is giving you the opportunity to learn how referees make calls on the field.
The event, which will be held in Sasketchewan on March 23, promises fans a unique experience through the eyes of the referees. CFL vice president of football Glen Johnson will take fans through real life CFL in-game scenarios and then give fans the opportunity to call a penalty– or not.
It’s an event being held as part of something called Mark’s CFL Week, which is a CFL-sponsored hype tour with a full schedule of player appearances, fan meet-ups, trivia games, all-access viewing of the CFL National Combine and (of course) a beer cave.
The best part about it? It’s completely free to register for and up to 160 people can attend the event.
This is a pretty cool event to give fans a different perspective on their favorite game and the CFL itself is unique in how it calls penalties that you don’t normally see in American football. (Also, the Canadian penalty flag is a gigantic red monstrosity, as opposed to the mellow yellow cousin from across the border.)
The NFL has tried out events related to its own combine before, but not nearly to the same engagement level, choosing a more passive approach. The NFL recently started selling tickets to the combine and this season, they allowed fans to run the 40-yard dash for the first time and to also sit in on prospects’ workouts for scouts (which caused some controversy.)
Who knows, if you do really well and feel like you have a good hold of it, you could always register to be a CFL official. They’re always looking.