I just heard that Jon Oosterhuis of the Blue Bombers has been fined $200 by the CFL for wearing pink gloves during a recent game. Although I understand the CFL's policy and need for respect of the uniform rules but really is this worth the negative publicity. As I said in an earlier thread, "Is this really a hill the CFL wants to die on?
I would hope that the league at least donates the $200 to breast cancer research!
The league had no choice. No matter how good a cause it was, Oosterhuis knew the glove colour was not approved and he chose to wear them anyway. If the league didn't fine him it would have set a precedent and who knows what colours some players would start adding to their uniform.
I don’t disagree but I think donating the fine to breast cancer would at least help the optics of the move.
Maybe someone could take up a collection at Commonwealth tomorrow and pick up the tab for the fine.
Just meet in the middle. Allow the players to wear laces gloves and wrist bands whatever color they want. Smithing else needs aproval. But still no advertising or pics. Just a thought
Side note. In the NBA you can't even where your head band upside down
the HC and the team should also be fined for allowing the player to do it.
Yeah, that was just introduced. Stern is a petty, petty man. :lol:
Even the no fun league allowed a exemption for October! I guess the league can,t stand good press ? Please spare me , it,s a rule BS ! It,s gloves :roll:
Mark Cohon and the league had to do it because they didn't want a precedent set. If they say o.k. to the pink, then what if a player wants to honour someone who had Prostate Cancer (more men will get that (1 in 4) than women will get breast cancer), or heart/stroke, or leukemia, or juvenile diabetes, or Down's Syndrome, or Alzheimers, or Pancreatic Cancer, or Multiple Sclerosis, or Creeping Snarcoma.
You get the idea. It's not about "not supporting a cause'... it's about not being able to support all of them.
BTW... the NHL doesn't allow Anything that isn't standard equipment. No sponsor logos, no nothing. Neither does MLB. Even the NFL is already feeling heat from the decision to allow pink.
Gee.. a $200 fine..that'll bankrupt him... :roll: It would have been a promotional idea for the league to allow players to wear pink.. its also smashes the stereotype that pink is "gay" colour... too bad Cohon missed the chance.
Read my post before yours… Cohon didn’t miss anything.
The $200 fine is purposefully low… it’s only a symbolic thing, not something to really ‘hurt’ a player. Duh.
I think they should fine all the bombers players, just for being blue bombers 
Is there an argument for allowing players to wear pink that isn't based on things like optics and pr? "Because it makes us look bad if we don't" doesn't strike me as a great reason to support a cause, but that seems to be predominant argument in favour of pink. It feels like bandwagonism.
It's no big deal to me if the league wants to allow a player to wear pink gloves. But, for the sake of fairness, the league should not make an exception for breast cancer if they're not willing to make an exception for any other cause to which other players are committed, nor should we be expecting them to lift their policy for one cause if we don't expect them to lift it for all causes [/my opinion].
I support the Bombers for giving him the fine. Bombers do there part in a big way to help out charities so dropping a fine on a player for not following the rules is expected.
It wasn’t the Bombers who fined him. It was the League.
Umm… what he did miss the boat on is the chance to show how progressive a league the CFL is… instead of just fining a player $200, why not embrace the pink October promotion and allow players to wear the colour… CFLers are the most community minded athletes there are… they really could have done a lot with this… is what I meant by Cohon missing the boat on this… but then,you post this way just because you are arrogant enough to believe that you are smarter? Don’t mistake that whooshing noise as wind… it just something that goes above your head… again…
I'm not really sure why the Sun decided this was news now (assuming it was an article from the Winnipeg Sun that got picked up by the other Sun papers that is the source of this information). The game that Oosterhuis wore the gloves was the BC game on Thanksgiving day, not the Argo game as the Sun reported. Bomber fans at the Extra Point have been discussing this since Oct 19.
I found a website that lists all of the national awareness campaigns and these were the ones for October: Autism Awareness Month, Brain Tumour Awareness Month, Canada Library Month, Car Safety Month, Child Abuse Awareness Month, Community Living Awareness, Eye Health Canada Month, Innovation in Eye Care Month, Investor Education Month, Islamic History Month, Learning Disabilities Awareness Month, Lupus Awareness Month, National Flu Prevention Awareness Month, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Awareness Month, Celiac Awareness Month, Women's History Month and Healthy Workplace Month in addition to Breast Cancer Awareness Month. There were also more day and week long campaigns as well as regional campaigns of various lengths. All worthy causes so if the League allowed pink to be worn in October, should they also allow players to wear different colours for all of these campaigns as well?
That is total BS, the NHL allows a great deal of leniency in uniforms, take a look at goaltender eguipment. By the way watching the NHL highlights tonight, one or the Toronto player played with pink skates. So much for that argument!
Brilliant post Blue Blood !
What's so hard to understand about a league having policies on what players wear? Give it a rest really. I've lost people to cancer but if I was a player, I don't need to go out and "show up" the league I'm playing in to show they are "wrong" and I'll do what I want for a great cause. So many more ways to contribute to a cause you love.