So many major issues confronting CFL these days

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There have been too many ambulances on CFL fields lately, reminding everyone that injuries are an inherent part of football.

Do you know what isn’t an inherent part of football? Gambling. Abusive players. A Command Centre. Yet listen to a radio broadcast of a CFL game, or a TSN telecast, where the words “command centre,” “video review” and “coach’s challenge” are becoming more a part of the sport than “touchdown,” “first down,” “tackle” and “interception.”

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The Command Centre has been instructed to back off, which has created even more confusion about when it will impose its God-like interventions. And that’s not even the biggest issue surrounding the league, which just allowed the return from a nine-game suspension of 2023’s outstanding player, Toronto Argonauts quarterback Chad Kelly, and days afterwards upheld an indefinite suspension to Montreal Alouettes defensive end Shawn Lemon for gambling on CFL games.

It’s disconcerting that the CFL appears to treat Lemon’s $100 bets way more seriously than Kelly sexually harassing a female Argos employee. And still nobody from the Argonauts administration has been publicly disciplined for ignoring the complaints of the employee, who was subsequently terminated and filed suits that were settled out of court.

The CFL confirmed Lemon bet on league games when he was with the Calgary Stampeders. He was suspended, allowed to play upon appeal and suspended again when he requested a delay for his hearing. An independent arbitrator on Wednesday upheld Lemon’s indefinite suspension.

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Gambling is permeating sports. The CFL wants fans betting on its games, but believes the integrity of the sport suffers when a player bets on one of his team’s games. The league isn’t wrong, but the hypocrisy is appalling as legal wagering and its non-stop commercials disrupt broadcasts even more noticeably than on-field injuries.

Hamilton Tiger-Cats receiver Luther Hakunavanhu, Winnipeg Blue Bombers tackle Stanley Bryant and Ottawa Redblacks receiver Jaelon Acklin looked seriously injured during last weekend’s games.

With cautious, time-consuming care from attending medical staffs, the injured players were transported to local hospitals and subsequently allowed to leave. Fortunately those injuries weren’t debilitating. So the respective games resumed shortly after the injured players were taken off the field.

It’s OK to debate whether the games should resume, or how leagues are trying to make football safer with stricter rules, new tackling techniques and impact-absorbing equipment such as Guardian caps. It won’t matter.

Football will never be 100 per cent safe. It’s a contact sport, more of a “collision” sport, so it lends itself to even more injuries than hockey, basketball, baseball, soccer or even rugby, where the participants collide less violently because they don’t wear hard-shelled helmets or other protective equipment donned by football players.

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Since the invention of every sport, injuries have been part of the games. Everyone involved accepts that fact, even while things are being done to make sports safer.

The CFL believes it’s dealing with the issues of gambling, workplace harassment, injuries and the Command Centre. We could also add the woeful crowd counts in Calgary and Edmonton, but that doesn’t leave the league enough fingers to plug all the leaks.

Last week the Command Centre trimmed its staff, hoping to become more consistent with its rulings, and was told to intervene only in “clear and obvious” situations. So the commentators were always wondering when the “God Centre” would appear.

After Toronto’s 20-19 victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders, Argos head coach Ryan Dinwiddie was dismayed by a video ruling that disallowed an apparent touchdown catch by Damonte Coxie.

“I don’t know why we have a Command Centre,” Dinwiddie said to reporters.

“What is it doing? It’s slowing down games. I’m not trying to get fined, I’m just going to leave it at that.”

It’s interesting to note that coaches, who love to have more and more control over football games, have usually been the strongest proponents of video reviews. And also note that the Command Centre actually made the correct call on the Coxie incompletion.

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It’s really an easy fix to get rid of one thing that isn’t inherent to football. Dump the Command Centre and focus on the other, more important issues of injuries, gambling and workplace safety.

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