Tillman and Austin Unglued

Eric Tillman is more than living up to Cal Murphy's claim of being nothing more than a pissant which the dictionary defines as "one that is insignificant" and "not important".

His campaign to get Lion players suspended for the purse swinging incident in the Riders game is a matter the CFL should investigate and this includes listening to the tapes of his radio interviews yesterday and today on Vancouver radio stations.

This conduct should not be tolerated by the CFL as he is clearly trying to influence league officials who have a challenging enough job and should not be bowing to the pressure of this turkey.

This is a matter that is under league review apparently and GMs commenting as he is bringing disrepute to the CFL and this should get Tillman a reprimand.

Both Tillman and Austin are becoming unglued these days and for different reasons.

Kent Austin has never accepted responsibility in football as a player - he was always one to blame everyone else and now he is calling out his players which he will find will wear thin by year's end. Now we might be seeing why Toronto dumped him mid season.

Tillman is wearing out his welcome mat in the CFL for coming across like goody two shoes. He should be concerned about his own team.

Thanks for posting the same thing you did in the BC forum here.....I would encourage Rider fans to not respond, for obvious reasons.....

I want to say something, but I wont…

You’re welcome.

I’d not be defending Tillman either. His behaviour is becoming ridiculous. I hope for the sake of the Riders he gets back to his team rather than campaigning for suspensions, a fight he will find he will regret as he loses all credibility with fans and teams around the league.

As to encouraging Rider fans not to reply, it is your prerogative and that of others to choose to reply or not. These boards are for stating views and I’m stating mine. Whether others post theirs is immaterial to me.

I hope Mr. Tillman replies as I think he is becoming a joke. I used to respect and admire him both for his football acumen and his broadcasting. He is losing that respect across the league with lots of fans. What is odd is that he and his coach have done a super job of building and fielding a very good football team and I really don’t think he needs to be campaigning in the national and local media to have Lion players suspended just to have his team succeed. His team doesn’t need that kind of help. What will they will need down the stretch is some cooler heads in the leadership roles both at the GM and Head Coach position.

I don’t condone fighting in sports but that melee following the non-call for piling on by two Riders was hardly the earth shattering and reputation of the league destroying event as is being made out. However, I have heard now from non-CFL fans how crazy that battle was but they didn’t see it!!! The actions of the GM of the Riders is doing more to bring disrepute to the CFL than the incident did.

I hope Tillman gets told to shut up which would do him and the CFL a lot of good.

If people want to hear it for themselves go to the CKNW and Team 1040 audio vaults and listen to it for yourself. Tillman is hard to defend after his smarmy, arrogant, mealy mouthed attack on the entire BC Lions organization and the coaches he just did this morning on Vancouver radio. I am sure Mr. Buono will find it very tough to be calling that guy a friend after today’s attacks. It is one thing to attack someone after the heat of the battle, but that game was Saturday and it is now Tuesday.

Oh right, the CFL is still pondering discipline!! Hmmm why is Tillman talking like a torrent??? Hmmm. I wonder why.

Maybe the CFL should review the audio tapes and fine Tillman for getting his panties in a twist!!!

Let me guess, your a BC fan right? Tillman is doing his job, there should be a suspension and I hope that there will be a suspension. Plays like that and players like that, not Tillmans actions, are what cause the CFL to lose all credibility in the media in and outside of Canada. To say that Tillman isn’t doing his job is completely ridiculous. So let me get this straight, sticking up for your players isn’t the right thing to do, and isn’t doing your job as a GM, give me a break.

Austin does what every good coach does, he holds himself, his coaches and his players accountable for everything. There were a number of plays in that game on offense and defense that were beautifully called plays that were gassed by the players:

  1. The dropped interception that would have resulted in a touchdown and iced the game - a players mistake

  2. Joseph overthrowing Fantuz on 2nd and 10 late in the game that would have sustained the drive and not allowed BC to get the ball back and score - a players mistake

'Nough said, go back to your outhouse and have another toke and stay off the Riders boards.

Don't encourage the trolls, people....he came here to disturb, nothing more.....

Let me repeat myself. I don’t think that Austin calling out his players like that is going to help him win football games. That stuff wears thin after a while. Coaches rants need to be few and far between. Now if he cut a guy after he ranted, I’d say fair deal and fair comment as the guy is gone. But if you want your players to keep playing hard for you, coaches need to take care when they call out their guy.

I still think Hugh Campbell got it right when he told Dave Cutler who missed a possible game winning FG and was sitting in the locker room disconsolate “never be so arrogant to think that one play or one player wins or loses a football game”.

You can pick lots of plays in a game that determine wins or losses.

Maybe if we ignore him he will go away

BEGONE TROLL!

I only have one thing to say. bitching Buono did the same thing, trying to get Perry suspended for hitting his QB made of glass, so stop insulting Tillman for it Mr.BC Fan. That is all.

did anyone else hear the wind?

The only thing I will say about this is that when Fred Perry used his helmet and hit Dickenson in the face, Buono sent a tape to the league which happens weekly by teams and is their right. Tillman has every right to do so. The difference is that Buono never went on the radio in either Vancouver or Regina and made harsh and insulting comments against the entire Rider organization. That is where Tillman crossed the line and he should be held accountable by the league as should any coach or GM that does that. It was very unprofessional and Buono never did that and never would. Even after all of Tillman's rantings on any radio show that would let him say his stuff, Buono still took the high road which i would assume was the tough thing to do but also the professional thing to do. Its probably why Buono is held in very high regard by his peers and Tillman is not and he is making it worse. We know about him in BC because he used to complain to the league constantly. This time he took it too far and he looks bad. I hope this is not offensive to the fans of the Riders. It was not meant to be but I am aware that you have to be careful about what you say on other teams sites.

Win or lose....that last game was exciting and why the CFL is so much fun.

As a BC fan you should get your facts straight. Not only did Wally continue to talk to the media about the hit until the decision was made. Two weeks after the decision was made, he commented on the decision and how it was wrong, in his opinion. Showing the reporter from the Province, a blow-up of Perry hitting glass jaw dave. For which he got his hand slapped by the league.

While you make some valid points about Tillman’s recent behaviour, this is one instant, I will stand behind him and say what he has been saying is right. However, his messaging is suspect. Now before you go off on another rant, I will tell, you I am not a big supporter of Tillman. But you do have it wrong in this instant, imo.

that melee following the non-call for piling on by two Riders
It wasn't Piling on, It was a fumble.

Sure it was!

TSN Headline .. ET fined. Enuff said:

"Saskatchewan Roughriders general manager and VP of football operations Eric Tillman was $1,000 for publicly making comments disparaging to the B.C. Lions. "

The articles goes on to quote Tillman's further attack on the CFL:

"Tillman released this statement in response to his league imposed fine.

"Yesterday, the league validated our complaints at every level,? stated Tillman. “Today, they felt it was appropriate to fine the messenger. We accept both decisions made by the Commissioner and believe each speaks for itself.""

Supporting your team is one thing - being critical to the point of being obnoxious is another.

This just in - your not on a CFL team - so why are you becoming more obscessed with it then they are? I can only guess that its because you have zero valuable input and have to revert to name calling mentatility as you lack anything productive to share

Being obnoxious and a troll is in the eye of the beholder, yes.

As I recall, I started this by stating that Eric Tillman was bringing the whole CFL into disrepute. The league must have seen it this way too and fined him a thousand dollars. Should I have left out the Cal Murphy pissant comment? Probably.

I hope ET returns to being the GM he used to be and the person who all CFL fans can admire and respect again.

As to me being obsessed, no, but I am a long, long time fan who has bought tickets to football games here in BC and at other venues in Canada since 1955 and it bothers me deeply to hear league execs. I rarely missed a game in all those years and attended in good and bad times.

What I have been hearing since Saturday from the marginal ticket buyers and fans is that the CFL is bush based on what they heard of this melee and ETs leading of the charge on this.

What ET did was wrong for the CFL. Forget the Lions and the incident. He went off on this in the Vancouver media from Saturday to Tuesday. The sports talk about football in Vancouver is spotty to begin with and there has been very little focus on the upcoming game and this is what pisses me off. By the way, fans on these boards are just as entitled to a view as any.

Being attacked for your views is of little concern to me. In fact, attacks and troll comments etc prove that those who need to resort to that have little to contribute but to tell people they are trolls, that they are from an outhouse, they are a whiney soccer mom (wow, women haters are we?) etc etc.

I have yet to see a Rider fan post any comment on Tillman’s outrageous attacks on the CFL. All are mired in the incident and are missing the larger picture. They are some fans who care about the overall CFL, not just some dumb melee.

I guess you have just been to busy trolling to have noticed that on the open forum, where most of what you have ben saying should have been, Rider fans have nearly unanimously stated they agree with the fine ET got.
Exactly what more would you like from them?

The fact is, if you are sick of the media coverage of this, call your local radio station and complain to them.
The fact that ET has not shirked his duties to speak to the media isn’t really something you should be complaining about.

As for being more concerned over some “dumb melee”, the very credibility of the league was at stake over that, especially after the Gass fiasco.
But you are busy looking after the “big picture” so no worries.

And repeatedly posting the same thing over and over again is the definition of trolling.
If you don’t want to be called a troll, stop trolling…

Football16 > the stations contacted Tillman. They wanted to do the story. Tillman didn't contact them. And if he had said "no comment", you would have been on here criticizing him for not standing behind his players.
He made his comments, he got fined, and all the Rider fans I have spoken to or read agreed with the league's decision. Let it go.