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Tomorrow is the 105th Grey Cup in Ottawa. Toronto Argonauts, Calgary Stampeders. And joining me on the program is the referee for the game. It's his fifth Grey Cup.
First is referee, Dave Foxcroft, on the Green Show. Dave, it's great to talk to you. How are the nerves? Hey, Roy.
Great. Thanks for having me on here. Great to hear your voice. I know usually when you and your listeners hear my voice, I'm usually delivering bad news, announcing a penalty or something like that.
So thanks for having me on here, talking a little CFL football. And so far, the nerves are okay right now. No penalties until tomorrow. That's right.
That's right. And we have two great teams playing, so I know they'll stick to football, and I know the fans are going to have a great view of the game. No question. Dave, what do you do between now and game time to prepare?
What do you do, you personally, I'll ask you about your officiating team in a second, but what's the routine for you? Prepare. That's what you said, and that's what we have to do. We have to prepare.
You know, the team's put a lot into this, and it's not just this game. It's throughout the whole season. You know, we have a normal week that we go through, you know, getting ready for the game. We watch some video.
We read the standards. You know, we're not trying to change any standards. We make our calls to the standards, and it's about preparing. And we have to out-prepare the teams.
We never know what they're going to throw at us, so we have to be ready for anything on any one play. It's all about preparation. Yeah, do you do this as a unit, or do you prepare individually? Because this is an all-star officiating team, isn't it?
We prepare leading into the game individually, and then we come together. And I have a great crew. I'm really excited about working with these guys. I've worked with them all season.
We don't work in crews in the CFL, but we get to officiate with each other throughout the whole season. So we're all familiar with each other, and we get evaluated in every game. So my crew, these are the guys that are the highest-ranked officials at their position throughout the whole season. So I'm really excited to work with these guys.
I know them, and we're ready to go. When you talk about getting evaluated every game, you know who's going to be evaluating you, don't you? Well, he'll be up there. I think he may be a little nervous than I am, my father.
I got to see my dad last night. The local association hosted us here, and we were able to celebrate this assignment of being here for the Grey Cup. And my father, Ron, was there, and he got to speak, and he actually presented us with Grey Cup rings that we get for doing this game. And last night was our night to celebrate the assignment, but the crew knows, you know, the job isn't finished.
We still have one more step, one more step to go, and that's the game tomorrow, so we're pretty focused on that right now. We're actually at the stadium right now doing our walkthrough, getting ready as part of our preparation for the game tomorrow. So, Dave, do you call the game as you would a regular season game? Do you call it tightly, or do you allow the players a little leeway?
You know, in some leagues, when it gets to the playoffs, and then it gets to the final series or the final game, the refs back off a little bit. How do you approach that from that perspective? Well, I've heard that happening in other leagues. No, you know what?
We have a standard. Now is not the time to start changing standards. You know, so the players know it, the coaches know it, the referees know it, we know the standards, we know what a penalty is, they know what a penalty is, and now is not the time to start changing things, and we're ready to go. Yeah.
Right. So the game doesn't matter, the level of the game or not, you know, whether it's the first game of the year, the last game of the year, we're calling it the same all the time. You're getting close to the game, the end of the game, it's a very tight game, there's a call that can be made, you have the option of making it, and the game may hinge on that call. Do you approach that particular type of situation as you would any other during the season?
It's the standards, you apply them regardless of what the situation may be. You know, that call you're talking about, that's the dream call. We all want that. As officials, we all want to be the one to have that call present itself in front of you, and we all want to get it right.
And that's the big thing, where replay can come in. Replay is our friend. That's what we like to say. You know, we have our video official, we have replay.
We're going to make that call. If something happens where we're, you know, unable to, we get blocked out, you know, we have replay here, really that can help us. I know it can be frustrating sometimes for fans, the delay of a game, getting it, but getting that call right is the important thing that we want to do. And yeah, like I say, that's the dream call as a referee.
Get out there, get that call at the end of the game, and get it right. And you're not shy to work with each other and talk over a play if a flag has been dropped and some other official feels that maybe the flag shouldn't have been dropped and you're not able to do that. There's not a problem with that, right? No, if a guy's coming to us, you know, he's bringing us information.
He's not bringing in any doubt or anything. You know, he knows something, and something happened on that play. And we're a crew. We're a crew out here.
Do the players talk to you a lot during the game? Do you talk a lot to the players? How's that work out during the breakup particularly? You know, just like our fans, our players are great in this league, and we communicate with them, and they have great respect for us.
We have great respect for them. They're very approachable, you know, and we'll talk about things that have gone on. And we have some fun. We have a lot of fun out there as well.
I get to know that they go through a lot of the same things as us. You know, we have families. You know, they have families. My kids have to go to school on Monday morning, and they hear that if something went wrong in a game, you know, my kids, they go to a school where Palmsati is a teacher, so they may hear it more than others.
But the fans and the players in this league are what it's all about. So at Grey Cup, that's what I love about Grey Cup is all the fans coming together, and I get an opportunity normally to go out and talk to our fans. I haven't been able to do that as the head referee in this game. The league kind of has me isolated in a room right now with the rest of my crew as we prepare for this game.
So meeting and talking to the fans and the players that are here as well. That's just what I love about our league is the accessibility we have to that. Dave, all the very best tomorrow to you and your crew. I'm sure you'll do a tremendous job refereeing the 105th Grey Cup, the Canadian Football League champion.
Thanks, Dave. Thank you very much, Roy. All the best. Dave Fox, referee for tomorrow's 105th Grey Cup in Ottawa.
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