Rough plays, tougher calls

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/07/2011 (5219 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The issue has so much grey to it you wonder if it might rain at some point.

Maybe that would help wash away some of the uncertainty surrounding late hits on the quarterback, helmet-to-helmet shots and everyone’s favourite — the always subjective subject of how one determines a player’s intent on the football field.

The league office shed a little light on the topic Monday:

“I liked the tough call referee Glen Johnson had to make,” CFL director of officiating Tom Higgins said Monday.

Higgins talked to Johnson after the game about the hit from Toronto Argonaut linebacker Ejiro (E.J) Kuale on quarterback Buck Pierce during the Bombers’ 33-24 win at Rogers Centre Saturday night.

Kuale crushed Pierce just after the quarterback threw the football early in the third quarter. Replays show Kuale’s helmet making contact with Pierce’s helmet and Johnson ejected Kuale from the game.

“It was late, our quarterbacks are in a vulnerable position and are not protected,” Higgins said. “He launched himself and there was helmet-to-helmet contact. If you’re late, you get rough play. If you launch yourself and lead with your helmet, you’re done.”

For his money — of which he’s about to be lighter — Kuale not only doesn’t think the hit was late, he also doesn’t think his helmet hit Pierce’s on contact. Here’s what he told the National Post Monday:

“I asked (Johnson) what I was getting ejected for and he said, ‘Because it was helmet-to-helmet contact.’ I don’t feel it was helmet-to-helmet contact. I was taught to lead with my shoulder and that’s what I did.”

Higgins said Johnson made the right call, but didn’t care for the explanation the ref gave Argos head coach Jim Barker as the dust settled. Johnson told Barker the player was ejected for intent to injure — a near-impossible determination from a third-party witness in any incident.

Higgins wished Johnson had explained it thusly:

“‘Coach, your player is disqualified for excessive rough play, not intent to injure,'” Higgins said. “He (Johnson) has the right (to determine) excessive rough play — I don’t want to put myself or anybody in a position to officiate on intent.”

Guessing what a player intends to do and making a ruling on that determination only adds to the debate on which hits are legal and which aren’t and Higgins tried to rule out the intent factor completely Monday. Of course, by doing that, it eliminates some of the heat regarding the issue and changes the perception of the Kuale ejection as it relates to another controversial hit during that same game.

Bomber LB Joe Lobendahn’s tackle on Argos QB Cleo Lemon is certainly a different brand of violence — no one disputes it’s the type of hit that typically occurs during the course of a game — but the end result was equally as dangerous.

It was a helmet-to-helmet hit that knocked Lemon’s hat off (and the pivot out of the game) and while Lobendahn didn’t receive a flag on the play, Higgins did wish officials would catch more of those types of helmet-to-helmet cracks and make a ruling on the field.

“Those are tough calls because they happen so fast,” he said, adding players won’t get fined for helmet-to-helmet hits if they keep their heads up when making a tackle.

Higgins says the league is looking at supplemental discipline on the Bomber linebacker. That ruling, like the decision to make an extra hit on Kuale’s wallet and the Argos organization for its comments on the matter, could come as early as today.

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Kuale has stated he will appeal any fine. Two players in the CFL have already been fined for helmet-to-helmet hits this season.

As for the Argonauts’ contention of a “cone of protection” around the Bomber quarterback, Higgins provided the expected defence:

“Doesn’t matter what quarterback it was, doesn’t matter what player it is,” he said. “We’re not protecting anyone differently than anyone else.”

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca

Bomber Report video on YouTube: Buck Pierce on late hit, LaPolice on helmets