CFLPA president defends decision to appeal Lawrence suspension

Simoni Lawrence’s hit on Zach Collaros in Week 1 of the CFL regular season continues to reverberate across the CFL.

Lawrence, a linebacker with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, hit Collaros in the head as the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ quarterback slid feet-first just three offensive plays into the teams’ game June 13 in Hamilton.

Lawrence was penalized for roughing the passer — Saskatchewan gained 25 yards on the play — but he wasn’t ejected from the game.

The Roughriders put Collaros on the six-game injured list on Sunday and, on Monday, commissioner Randy Ambrosie slapped Lawrence with a two-game suspension.

On Wednesday, the CFL Players’ Association announced it was appealing Lawrence’s ban. That move prompted Ambrosie to release a statement saying he was “deeply disappointed” that the players’ association was acting contrary to the CFL’s stance on player safety.

On Thursday, the union fired back, saying Ambrosie’s comments were “both disappointing and unhelpful.”

On Friday, CFLPA president Brian Ramsay joined The Green Zone’s Jamie Nye to discuss the union’s take on the situation.

“What we want nothing more is to make the game safer and take unnecessary injuries out of our game,” Ramsay said. “We’ve said that for the past number of years and, specifically, over the last number of months.”

The irony of the CFLPA’s stance — standing up for one of its members after his hit sidelined another of the union’s members — hasn’t been lost on many observers.

Ramsay, however, noted that the union’s decision to appeal Lawrence’s suspension doesn’t mean the players’ association condoned his actions in the game.

“It’s important to see that there are two key issues here,” Ramsay said. “The first is that we have a player who’s exercising his right under the collective agreement to appeal a suspension. That’s the first issue and it’s straightforward.

“It doesn’t mean, as the CFL commissioner has implied, that our credibility on player safety should diminish at all. Mr. Lawrence will have his day in court and to imply that he exercising his right under the collective agreement in any way suggests that we are not supporting our membership in player safety is quite frankly ridiculous.”

The second issue is that the players’ association is looking to protect all of its players — including one who was injured by another’s actions.

Ramsay said the union wants the league to be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to player safety. In this particular case, though, the CFLPA says Ambrosie reacted to the hit instead of taking steps beforehand to make sure plays like that didn’t happen.

Ramsay noted that the CFLPA suggested “a discipline structure” during the recent CBA negotiations. He said the league dismissed that notion, as well as nixing the creation of a committee that would have helped promote player safety.

“The issue that we see now is, in this instance, Zach is already injured and the league’s discipline is reactive to that,” Ramsay said. “We’ve requested time and time again — and we’re going to continue to request — that we’re proactive in making these changes so that there’s fewer of these happening.”

That would require a change in the league’s culture, Ramsay said, and that would start with management, coaches and players.

When asked if the union could have told Lawrence that it wasn’t going to appeal his suspension, Ramsay said the CFLPA is “obligated” to help its members receive due process.

He also turned the focus back to the league — and to Ambrosie’s comments.

“When we’re looking at this case in particular, what we’re appealing itself is the inconsistencies of the discipline,” Ramsay said.

“In the past, we’ve looked at individual instances where there has been progressive discipline up and to a point where there has been a suspension and the association and the member did not appeal that. What we’ve identified here is that there is a clear inconsistency and we want to ensure that our members are treated fairly — (that) every one of our members are treated fairly in terms of discipline.

“What we’re being asked to do right now as players is to have the responsibility to punish our members for rules and standards that we have zero say in setting — and that’s outrageous to do.”

Because Lawrence is appealing his suspension, he’s eligible to play Saturday when Hamilton faces the Toronto Argonauts.