No malice behind Westerman hit on Redblack’s QB

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/10/2015 (3724 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jamaal Westerman said he was sorry. Henry Burris said he had no ill will toward the former, even if he offered his best Mike O’Shea impressions in the process.

“It’s one of those things, like once you see it on tape you’ll know, and hopefully the league will look at it as well and make a decision,” Burris said.

Burris, who passed the 60,000 yards milestone on his opening throw in the game, went down injured with nine seconds left in the second quarter after completing a 51-yard touchdown strike to Redblacks receiver Chris Williams.

The hit appeared dirty in nature, but Westerman said there was no malice behind it, arguing he was pushed into the veteran quarterback while falling down.

“I apologized, I didn’t do it on purpose, you never want to see a guy go down like that,” Westerman said. “I hope he’s OK. I was happy to see him come back in the second half. I just let him know I wasn’t trying to do anything malicious.”

Westerman was penalized for roughing the passer on the play.

Burris, who led his Ottawa Redblacks team to a 27-20 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Saturday night, played the cool guy role following the win.

“When a hit like that happens, you automatically think one way, like someone is trying to take you out,” Burris said. “I know they’re not a dirty team. There’s a lot of respect that goes both ways there. Right now, definitely in my mind, I didn’t think it was intentional.”

That plays in stark contrast to the mood following Westerman’s low hit.

The Redblacks sideline was incensed, with former CFL pivot and offensive coordinator Jason Maas having to be restrained from tearing a strip off one of the officials on the sideline.

The jawing continued after the whistle blew for half time as a Redblacks assistant coach and Bombers defensive lineman Zach Anderson came close at midfield to offer words to one another.

Burris said he had time to cool down over the half-time break and Westerman and him spoke briefly later in the game.

“He said he got hit into me as he was falling down. So, I mean that’s kind of the way I’ll take it. We will see it on tape and see kind how it happened. But there’s nothing you can do about it at this point, just move on. Thankfully, nothing serious happened to my knee. We will use this as motivation moving forward.”

Burris, meanwhile, said he was going through a checklist while on the ground.

“Thankfully, I was just thinking about what I felt, did I hear anything and all the questions that I asked myself about what I had were negative,” he said. “I had a bout of confidence because I just moved it around and made sure I did little things while I was just laying there.

“I didn’t know it was a touchdown, honestly. As soon as I felt the hit, my mind went straight to finding out if I was fine or not. But I knew it wasn’t and ACL, thankfully.

Westerman’s rap sheet isn’t going to help his cause when the league reviews the hit.

The first-year CFLer has already been fined on three occasions this season — Week 10 for unsportsmanlike conduct, and Weeks 11 and 14 for unnecessary roughness.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @scottbilleck

Scott Billeck
Reporter

Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.  Read more about Scott.

Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.