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Umpire Ben Major still has a black eye following the cleat he took to the head, thinks CFL officials should consider wearing helmets

andrew bucholtz

One of the few really impressive performances in Saturday's Montreal Alouettes-Toronto Argonauts game, a 31-5 blowout win for Toronto, came not from a player, but an official. That would be umpire Ben Major, who took a Kyries Hebert cleat to the face in the first half, received 11 stitches from the Alouettes' doctor and finished the game despite a rapidly-swelling face. Major's eye was still swollen shut Monday, as you can see from the photo at right. He spoke to Vicki Hall of The Calgary Herald for a piece published Tuesday about his recovery from the Hebert hit, and said although he's feeling the aftereffects from that collision, he's still planning to work Friday's Calgary-Ottawa game as originally scheduled:

"I'm a bit disfigured," Major said during a brief break from a family vacation in Ban National Park. "I've got swelling and discoloration going on, so it's interesting, I guess. It's gone from red to purple to black now.

"My girls say if it were Halloween, I wouldn't need any makeup." ...

The schedule calls for Major to work this Saturday's game between the Ottawa Redblacks and Calgary Stampeders. At this point, the Montrealer considers himself probable pending a visit Thursday with the Stampeders medical staff to remove the stitches and examine the damage.

"The only issue right now and the only thing that's got me a bit worried is the swelling at times affects my vision," he said. "I don't have full vision in my left eye depending on how the swelling is.

But that's the only issue going into Saturday that has got me a bit concerned.

"But there's still five days left, so I'm hoping the swelling will subside."

This story's more proof that football officials (and football players; Major was a linebacker for the McGill Redmen before becoming an official) are tough. They're not dumb, though, and the hit on Major has him thinking about if officials should look into head protection. He told Hall he'd been against the idea throughout his 10-year CFL officiating career, but is reconsidering now:

"A few of the players came up to me and said, 'You know what? We need to get you guys some equipment from now on,'" Major said. "It's been sort of an ongoing unfortunate theme early in the season that umpires are getting hit more than in the past.

"Up until getting this injury, I would have said no. But the way I look at it now, had I been wearing a helmet, I would not have got the injury I sustained. So I think it's something that should be considered."

That's something that definitely should be talked about, perhaps especially for umpires. Umpires have traditionally been positioned in the defensive backfield, which means they tend to get hit more than just about anyone else. In fact, the NFL moved its umpires to the offensive backfield in 2010 following a series of bad injuries in 2009. As Major also mentions, that's perhaps something the CFL should look into as well, although it would be more difficult with the expanded motion in Canadian football. Either way on the positioning, though, head protection might be a good idea. Full football helmets probably wouldn't be workable for CFL officials, but rugby-style or even hockey-style headgear could work, or even just making hats that look like their current ones out of hard plastic. Those wouldn't necessarily protect against hits to the face, but they could help prevent head injuries. Protective gear for officials is an idea that certainly should be discussed, especially if it could mean we'd see less hits like the one Major took: