I did. So do I get to comment in this thread? 
This was a dirty hit by a dirty player, who has a history of dirty play. It’s a disgrace that he wasn’t suspended, and shows just how seriously the league takes the health of its players.
So now we’ve got a situation where the players have to take matters into their own hands. This is bad all around. But mostly I blame the CFLPA for going to bat for dirty players and not for the guys who get injured by them.
I think a few years back there was a similar situation with an Eskimo player. Where he got suspended the an arbitrator overturned it. I think the arbitrator was an Eskimo season ticket holder or something like that
That incident involved AJ Gass, and yes, the arbitrator in that case was an Esks season ticket holder. I cannot say whether or not that had any influence on his decision to overturn the Gass suspension. :?
It’s been downhill for CFL discipline since then.
On the other hand, kudos to a lot of Cats fans. The Hamilton board has lit up on this topic, and many of the Cats’ fans themselves are calling for a suspension or at least some internal team discipline against Jiminez. I respect that. They value the honour and integrity of their team and themselves above winning at all costs. This is in very stark contrast to the BC Fans’ general reaction when Jiminez was involved in a dirty play back in 07. (Notable exception to that was FootballYouBet, who has been consistent in his criticism of Jiminez and dirty play in general, both then and now. Props to him :thup: :thup: :thup: )
It was the Lion’s handling of Jiminez and Murphy and their antics that started my great hate-on for that team, and they have done nothing to make me change my mind.
while the ticat fans may be calling for JJs head, the ticat team will probably play him as the lions did, and that makes the ticat organization no better than the lions.
agreed. But hope springs eternal that the team might just listen to its fans. Oh, what am I saying? 
Still, kudos to those who continue to think that a life with honour and principle are still more important than winning a game. :thup: :thup: :thup:
I have to disagree with you there. The Tiger-cats never defended Jimenez’s dirty shot. Before the sentence was handed down, MB made a comment basically saying that JJ is going to have to face whatever punishment he gets. It wasn’t exactly the fire-and-brimstone speech I would have liked to have heard, but I doubt they would have appealed a suspension, the way the Lions did, after making that statement.
When the Cats signed Jimenez, I was nervous, because I remembered his antics from a few years ago. But as I thought about it, it seemed the last couple of seasons he hadn’t been any worse than the average lineman. Maybe he learned his lesson, I thought, and he’ll be okay here. GAME FRICKIN’ ONE!! I don’t remember: did he even get through the first quarter before making a blatant attempt to injure? I have not been so ticked off at a Tiger-cat player since Keith Baker was going around poking players in the eyes. Part way through my rant I stopped myself because I realized I was yelling too loud for that time of the night, and needed to tone down my rage before getting a visit from the super (or the police.)
Apparently signing Jimenez was a mistake. Trade him to Toronto, where he can rejoin Rob Murphy, and they can recreate the outlaw gang they led in B.C.
I’m not sure who deserves most of blame, but I was wondering this about the CFLPA myself. If they would really have fought against a suspension of Jiminez (or a player like him), then it would seem to me that they’d rather avoid having a guy sit out a game or two than avoid having a guy sit out permanently because Jiminez destroyed his career. It’s an odd position, in my opinion.
Could the league not have gone to the CFLPA and tried to negotiate a suspension, rather than choosing a fine because they want to punish him but they’re afraid of having their preferred (I hope) punishment overruled?
OK, let me get this straight....in 2007, Jiminez, then with the BC Lions, ends the career of a promising young CFL player with a dirty hit during a game against Calgary.
The league tries to suspend him, but Wally Buono and the BC Lions defend Jiminez to the hilt, no matter the blanket condemnation from others. Jiminez is not suspended, and Buono refuses to bench him. Lions fans on this forum (with a few exceptions, but not many) rush to the defense of their embattled lineman.
In effect, Buono teaches Jiminez TWO lessons from this…
- That this is how we expect you to play in this league, and
- That if the league doesn’t like it, there is nothing they can do about it.
Fast-forward to this last week, when Jiminez, having learned his lessons as a younger player, again throws a dirty hit, and it is only luck that prevents another career ending injury at his hands.
Only this time, it is one of Wally Buono’s BC Lions who is on the receiving end of the dirty play. Lions players and fans scream for a suspension, but none is forthcoming, likely because of the precedent set with the help of the Lions and Buono himself back in 2007.
JM02, since you are an english teacher, can you help me out here? Is this the textbook definition of irony? Or is it Poetic Justice?
Maybe it’s the cut throat don’t give a rip stance of today but I miss a time when a player feared their coach more then the League if they did crap like that.
[i]bit too touchy feely in the NFL IMHO nowadays in the name of "protecting the quarterback" in particular ...and with this situation quite the opposite "slap on the hand" treatment in the CFL.
It would be great if the leagues found the correct middle ground on such an analogous matter of being pro-active on player safety enough not to compromise the game yet preserve also its integrity.
Most fans thankfully don't want to see a NO FUN LEAGUE on one hand or a THUG LEAGUE on the other.
After Goodell otherwise has done a great job of weeding out more of the jerks in the NFL, you can go to the NBA, NHL, or WWE for the thugs but keep those jerk types out of my football![/i]
You have a point Paolo. Look Jimenez just got back, once more and he's gone. This is about the CFLPA more than anything I think. Ray Lewis brings up a point though that the NFL is becoming a joke in a different way and I respect RL to be honest. There is a fine line here.
If I were the league, I would have suspended him anyways. That achieves two objectives: 1. they cannot be criticized for trying, even if it didn't stick after appeal; and 2. if it doesn't stick, fan and media reaction would be even greater and they could have then leveraged that to put pressure on the PA to look at changes ... there is no law that says a collective agreement cannot be modified during the course of it.
I'm frankly surprised that the new CA does not handle suspensions differently.
I find it amusing that every time a player does something that warrants a suspension, somebody brings up the tired old, yeah but Gass didn't get suspended.
I am not going to argue that Gass should not have been suspended but let's face it folks, he was suspended for throwing his helmet, not for trying to injure anouther player. Jiminez and Labinjo both committed fouls that could have seriously injured an opponent and the league hands out what amounts to little more than a stern warning. The league said that they were going to crack down on this type of enfraction yet they have done nothing.
Do we have to have somebody seriously injured by one of these goons before something is done? Oh yeah, Jiminez already seriously injured an opponent.
Actually that was a Calgary player, Reynolds, that did the walk across.
I agree, while throwing his helmet was incredibly dumb on AJ Gass’ part, it’s not really in the same category as the crap Jimenez and Murphy do. I also recall Cohon saying he was going to crack down, and he came out with that player conduct policy that said if players did the kind of crap that Jimenez did, they’d be suspended, yet no one has been suspended.
I say his teammates should suspend him…by the jockstrap from a hook! :rockin: :rockin:
If I was the CFL boss I would not just suspend Jimenez but I would also kick him out of the CFL for good and not let him back in.
Given what you can get away with in this league right now, I’m trying to picture exactly what you have to do to get a suspension.
Pull a baseball bat out, maybe?
I've seen guys in the NHL board guys from behind and sleuth foot guys skating fast along the boards which is equally, if not more, dangerous than what Jimenez did, with those types of plays a guy can go head first into the boards and have a serious concussion and those plays are very close to an intent to injure. And no suspensions at all.
Or what about icing when guys get rammed in with their face towards the boards trying to touch the puck, way more dangerous than Jimenez's play. Again, no suspension.
Yes, but one would hope that the CFL would have higher standards than the NHL, not be in the gutter with the NHL.
Wow, Earl... I'm surprised. So are you saying guys shouldn't be suspended unless they stomp on someone's head a-la Haynesworth? Anything short of that is OK in your books? 