This CFL game ended in the weirdest way because a football player ...
It’s a tie game, just over a minute is left on the clock and you’re receiving a kickoff in the end zone: What do you do?
Anyone who has watched football for years will tell you this is a simple decision. You take the touchback, have the ball moved out, and hope the offense gets in field goal range to win. There’s just one problem: When it comes to the CFL there are no touchbacks — and this was lost in translation.
If you don’t watch CFL, you may not understand how this is the wrongest thing you could have done in a tie game.
Saskatchewan wins on a rouge.
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CJ Sims, a wide receiver who played at New Mexico Highlands University is playing his first season in the Canadian Football League, and evidently nobody told him there aren’t touchbacks in the CFL. So, when he saw the ball was heading to the endzone he casually trotted back, picked up the ball, and expected to take a knee. However, in doing so he actually conceded a “rouge,” a single point score that happens only when the ball is kicked into the endzone and an attempt isn’t made to return the ball.
There are some times when you might tactically make this choice, because after a rouge the receiving team gets the ball at the 40-yard line. The problem is that on a kickoff like this in a tied game with so little time left isn’t the moment — especially when your team is out of timeouts.
Saskatchewan went on to win 12-11, and Sims was left to lick his wounds. Surely he’ll remember the rule now — or lack thereof.
