Glen Johnson named CFL VP of officiating, replacing the not-thrilled-to-leave Tom Higgins

The CFL didn't wait long to replace former director of officiating Tom Higgins, who left the job last Thursday, announcing Monday that referee Glen Johnsonhas been tabbed for a new vice-president (officiating) role. That's an interesting choice, as the league's not only gone from a guy with a coach/general manager background to a former official, they've also elevated the position to vice-president status. It also fits in with Higgins' comments to The Calgary Heraldthat the CFL pushed him out in favour of installing a former official. It's certainly possible that this move will work out well for the league, but a lot depends on how Johnson treats the role. Meanwhile, it's unfortunate that the league didn't do this more clearly instead of issuing a statement that made it look like Higgins' choice to leave. Johnson would seem to check a lot of positive boxes here. He's spent 24 years as a CFL official, working 416 career games and 11 Grey Cups (including last year's historic 100th game), and he was the standby referee for this year's game. He can bring a long-time official's perspective to the table, and he's undoubtedly gone through a lot of official training situations over the years, so he'll have a good idea of what officials are instructed to do and when they're fulfilling that mandate. CFL officiating is often criticized, though, especially for its inconsistency. Will Johnson decide that improvements have to be made, or will he be satisfied with the status quo? Also, an advantage with Higgins was that his outsider status and his coaching background gave him the opportunity to aggressively push for better officiating; will Johnson be able to do that with former colleagues? The feeling from this corner is that he probably can, but it does present a challenge. As for Higgins, his comments to the Herald were quite interesting, and they certainly make his departure seem very different from the story the league initially presented that he was leaving for a coaching or front-office job. Here's the key part of what he said:

That was an easy conclusion to draw from the league's release:

This isn't necessarily malicious from the league. The thinking might have been that it would be easier for Higgins to get a coaching job if it looked like he was aggressively looking to move out of the CFL office rather than being pushed out. (The timing would still make that curious, though, as Higgins only parted ways with the league last week, after all three vacant head-coaching jobs and several coordinator positions were filled, limiting what's out there for him.) It seems silly to make that decision without consulting Higgins about how he wanted his exit to be seen, too; if he'd suggested it or gone along with it, fine, but it doesn't look good for the league for him to repudiate their statement in the media. A simple "We appreciate the work Higgins has done, but we're looking to go in a different direction with someone with officiating experience" would have sufficed, and it wouldn't have created any controversy. It's water under the bridge now, of course, and the success or failure of the Johnson hire will be judged by what he does, not by how Higgins exited. Still, the CFL might want to be a little more careful with how it handles personnel changes going forward.