Thomas rejecting Rourke

[PurpleReign]

Sorry he should not have done that. Really looks bad on him. Football is a war but class is class. I know Nathan personally, and he is a heck of nice guy if you really knew him.

[Lincoln Locomotive]

Classless act IMO, but nothing to see here. Lots of classless football players.

Do you really think Chris Walby, the greatest Bomber O-lineman ever,  helped an opponent up off the field after violently knocking them to the ground?   I thought it was kind of cheeky for Rourke to even put his hand out for a hand up and he smiled when JT refused the offer. 

Calling JT's refusal "classless" is a stretch and somewhat reactionary on your part.   

[BBRT]

Do you really think Chris Walby, the greatest Bomber O-lineman ever,  helped an opponent up off the field after violently knocking them to the ground?   I thought it was kind of cheeky for Rourke to even put his hand out for a hand up and he smiled when JT refused the offer. 

Calling JT's refusal "classless" is a stretch and somewhat reactionary on your part.   

Amen! Well said. JT did what any good player should do  - play within the rules of the game, play fair and play as hard as you can. Mind the rules but at the end of day this is not a garden party. Shake hands when it is over but until then your opposition is not your friend nor team mate - anyone how thinks otherwise just has never put on the pads.

[GOLDMEMBER]

Do you really think Chris Walby, the greatest Bomber O-lineman ever,  helped an opponent up off the field after violently knocking them to the ground?   I thought it was kind of cheeky for Rourke to even put his hand out for a hand up and he smiled when JT refused the offer. 

Calling JT's refusal "classless" is a stretch and somewhat reactionary on your part.   

You are the best Linc. It was a cheeky move no question to even ask and Rourke knew it. To Thomas classless is way over the top label to put on that action. Jake Thomas is just as a nice guy as precious Rourke. I met him several times and he has always been more than accommodating.

[wpg#1]

Do you really think Chris Walby, the greatest Bomber O-lineman ever,  helped an opponent up off the field after violently knocking them to the ground?   I thought it was kind of cheeky for Rourke to even put his hand out for a hand up and he smiled when JT refused the offer. 

Calling JT's refusal "classless" is a stretch and somewhat reactionary on your part.   

Agree 100%

[Sergio105]

I agree with Linc Loco that "it was kind of cheeky for Rourke to even put his hand out for a hand up and he smiled when JT refused the offer." This put JT on the spot. There have been other incidents where a player put out a hand to help an opponent up and had his hand slapped away while the downed player waited for a teammate to help him up. The operative word here is OPPONENT and class has nothing to do with the situation. If anyone lacked class here, it was Rourke, hopefully innocently. He is a rookie, after all. 

[J5V]

The kid will learn not to ask for a helping hand up from the opposition. If that was Zach, and a BC lineman offered him a hand up after knocking him down, Zach would have waved him off! LOL!

[NewBlue]

How can anyone say Jake was disrespectful/classless for that?  It was a silly request by Rourke, and Jake owed him nothing.

3 years down the road, maybe Rourke earns that respect.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

Hahaha this thread is hilarious.

[VictorRomano]

Jake didn't do anything wrong.  This is serious business, and he set a tone.  Sometimes the key to defeating your opponent is not to break his body, but to break his will to compete.  You don't need to smash his (and your) body for 60 minutes if you can make him quit in 30.....

[J5V]

You don't need to smash his (and your) body for 60 minutes if you can make him quit in 30.....

Agreed and that is exactly what happened. BC wanted nothing more to do with us and you could sense that the Bombers had ratcheted up the intensity for this one. Message sent. Both BC and Calgary know that if they make it to the WF they will have their hands full with this Bomber team.

[TecnoGenius]

Agreed and that is exactly what happened. BC wanted nothing more to do with us and you could sense that the Bombers had ratcheted up the intensity for this one. Message sent. Both BC and Calgary know that if they make it to the WF they will have their hands full with this Bomber team.

And spare me the war zone BS. This game was a glorified pre season game that had no impact whatsoever on the standings. Class, you either have it or you don?t. No biggy either way, it?s just the way it is

Listen to J5V.  This wasn't a nothing game.  Both teams wanted to send a message and set the tone going into the playoffs.  Both wanted to win.  This game was very important from a psychological perspective.

BC's morale and momentum has been greatly weakened by their limp, sad-sack showing.  If CGY was the favorite before, they are the ultra-favorite now.  I don't see how BC can even make a fight of it now.  On the flip side, if BC had dominated WPG, the GC champs, and rubbed their noses in the turf, and Rourke showed like a superstar, then CGY would be the ones fearing going into BC Place against a hot team.

dd: You seem too preoccupied on the immediate effects.  You need to think about the 2nd and 3rd order effects.  Ya, I'm like you in that when I saw Fatboi disrespect Rourke live at that exact second I though "what a douche", about Fatboi.  But then I thought it through, and recognized the mindset realized all the 2nd order effects.  That's why I'm cool with it now.

And neither of us ever played high-level football, so sure, we can't fully understand the "war" vibes; but I've listened to enough interviews from greats (like Biggie), to understand that when these guys are playing it is war.  And I listen when they say that their team mates are like a "band of brothers".  Go watch that mini-series to find out what shared trials and tribulations and battles do to a small group of men.

[Waffler]

It used to be something you'd see once in a while but sportsmanship like that is long gone from pro sports. I think we are lacking context, I am sure words were passed first and we'll never know what.

[TecnoGenius]

those who say if you aren?t cheating you aren?t trying hard enough. What a sad statement that is.

No one here has said anything about "cheating".  This isn't about cheating.  I don't advocate cheating, even when (say) SSK is getting away with holding murder all of '19 and '21.  They got their karma comeuppance in 2022.

What Fatboi said has nothing to do with cheating.  Domination and even humiliation has nothing to do with cheating.

[TecnoGenius]

What you don't do is help someone up, during the heat of the battle, after nailing him to the turf.  It's a physical game - a battle.  And, like it or not, it's about winning for your team and defeating the other team, again, within the rules.

Slightly related but unrelated:

There have been a couple of guys, QBs mostly, that, in the past, have helped up the opponents (offering before requested).  Mike Reilly comes to mind.  He would pat guys on the butt and compliment them on their great hit or sack on him.

I always wondered about the psychology of that.  I wonder if they were making a great reverse-psychology play there.  In certain instances you might be able to slightly defuse attackers' "kill kill kill" mindset with mind tricks like that.  How can you want to kill someone as affable and tough as Mike Reilly?  You hit him hard once and he helps you up and compliments you, are you going to hit him harder next time??