CFL ref’s hilarious deadpan rule explanation cracked up announcers

Sunday night saw quarterback Nathan Rourke making his hotly-anticipated return to the Canadian Football League’s B.C. Lions, but he was held to just 126 passing yards with two interceptions in a 20-11 loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. And Rourke, who only recorded eight completions on 25 attempts, didn’t wind up being the star of this CFL game.

Some might think that was Winnipeg’s Zach Collaros, who threw for 288 yards and a touchdown in that win. An argument could also be for made his Bombers’ teammate Brady Olivera, who ran for 78 yards on just 10 carries, or for the ferocious Winnipeg defense. But the true starring moment on the day came from a rule explanation from referee Ben Major, after an unusual moment where a punt hit the BC Place scoreboard, which got the CFL on TSN booth of Dustin Nielson and Glen Suitor (calling the feed also seen in the U.S. on CBS Sports Network) to burst out in laughter:

An officiating explanation from referee Ben Major after a punt hit the scoreboard cracked up the @CFLonTSN broadcasters: pic.twitter.com/YdC1pjWmyC. “The kick hit the scoreboard…which is pretty odd. We’re going to redo everything.” #CFL

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 19, 2024

“The kick hit the scoreboard…which is pretty odd. We’re going to redo everything. We’ll redo the play. We’ll reset the clock to 2:44 with a new 20-second clock. It’s just a redo.” Nielson then chimes in with “Ben Major just saying what we’re all thinking” and Suitor, between peals of laughter, adds “I love it, I love it.”

A punt off a scoreboard is indeed pretty odd, or at least unusual. But it has come up a few times. This particularly came up around of the opening of the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium with its massive central Jumbotron in 2009, which also led to the implementation of a do-over rule. That video board has been hit several times since, seemingly most recently in 2022 (twice!), and that last one didn’t even prompt a do-over because the officials missed it.

Fortunately, Major and his crew didn’t miss this one. And this led to this great on-mic explanation of an unusual rule, and to the referee indeed saying what many were thinking. And he wound up as a bigger star than Rourke in this one, at least for one game.

[Awful Announcing on X/Twitter]