By Sean Millington,
CBC Sports
Let’s get one thing clear right from the get go. The melee at end of the first half of the British Columbia-Saskatchewan game in Week 13 was wrong and is not something that should be condoned by the League; that being said I can certainly see why it happened, and for Lions’ fans it turned out to be just the tonic the doctor ordered.
The Lions had been outplayed for the entire first half and appeared to be listless, merely going through the motions. In contrast the Riders played with passion, flying to the ball and in general seemed to be much more focused. This difference was also reflected on the scoreboard, although not as definitively as it should have been. Then came the turning point; Rider defensive end Fred Perry gets loose and plants Jarious Jackson into the ground like a new geranium and after the ensuing brawl the Lions turn the game around and go on to win in front of a shocked Rider crowd.
At halftime Wally Buono said he liked the emotion, and that my friends is really what this is all about, emotion. No doubt about it, it was inappropriately expressed, but emotion had been sorely lacking from the Lions up to that point, and if a fight was what it took to wake the giant then I could understand Wally’s reluctance to chastise his players.
A team that plays with passion beats a superior team that doesn’t most days of the week. Take hockey for example; this principle is at the heart of most fights in that sport. Is your team a bit sluggish, not playing with enthusiasm? Send your thug out to start a good brawl and watch your team come alive. It’s a time honoured technique.
The amount of fuss that has been raised over this situation has me wondering if there is a little bit of something else going on here. Okay, okay, so the boys got a bit unruly and ultimately ended up getting their hands slapped. I just wonder if it’s a coincidence that in a seemingly disproportionate number of cases where teams are complaining loudly, they also happen to be on the losing end of the scoreboard.
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t seem to remember Wally Buono making the kind of fuss that has been coming out of Saskatchewan and Calgary when Dave Dickenson was knocked out. Is it just a coincidence that his team also happened to win that one? Hey things look better when you win and it always hurts more when you lose and that goes for management too, I suppose.
Ultimately in the final analysis I like the intensity and the emotion, I just wish it was channelled more appropriately. Football is a violent sport and when grown men are competing not just for points on a scoreboard but for their livelihoods and the ability to support their family, things are going to get out of control every once in a while. Everyone needs to take a step back, take a big breath and recognize the fight for what it was — grown men working hard. No one was hurt, and no one was likely to be hurt. I can’t remember any player ever having to leave a game secondary to an injury sustained in a fight. This is really not that big of a deal.
Justice has been done; the offending parties have been disciplined so let’s just move on. It’s just unfortunate that what turned out to be a pretty spectacular game got overshadowed by all this mess.
Sean Millington played 13 years in the CFL with the Edmonton Eskimos, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, B.C. Lions and Toronto Argonauts and has been a panellist on the CFL on CBC since 2003.
(The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily of the Canadian Football League)
