Argo QB, Chad Kelly sited in harassment/wrongful dismissal charges

[Ridermania]

$300K signing bonus goes against SMS.

[Blue In BC]

$300K signing bonus goes against SMS.

Normally that is true. The league may amend that due to the suspension. Regardless, Rourke was picked up on waivers by the Giants so he's not coming to the CFL for the moment.

[blue_gold_84]

$300K signing bonus goes against SMS.

Good. The Argonauts deserve absolutely no relief. This slimy situation is bad enough but the organization needs to suffer for being complicit in Kelly's disgusting antics*.

* alleged

Normally that is true. The league may amend that due to the suspension.

I really, really hope not.

[Blue In BC]

Good. The Argonauts deserve absolutely no relief. This slimy situation is bad enough but the organization needs to suffer for being complicit in Kelly's disgusting antics*.

* alleged

I really, really hope not.

I'm not sure I agree with you on that statement. Where does the league draw a line on any such problem going forward.

We'll see how the league responds on this matter. The entire issue of advance money can be a problem in several different scenarios.

Example: A top player is given 50% of his $500K-$600K salary and is injured in TC and lost for the season? A number of choices in recent years.
Example: A player takes a large advance payment and then retires before TC ( Darian Durant )
Example: Lawler suspension going into 2023.

Now I realize the Kelly situation is different than my examples. I don't know whether we have enough info in regard to the Argos culpability.

If they do " waive " the advance money, there isn't much place for the Argos to spend it until the end of the season with re-signing of their free agents?



 

[blue_gold_84]

Where does the league draw a line on any such problem going forward.

With regard to situations such as this, I think the precedent was set today.

[Blue In BC]

With regard to situations such as this, I think the precedent was set today.

For the suspension but are we certain about the SMS aspect?

[Blueforlife]

Props to the league for doing this but way too late

[theaardvark]

Props to the league for doing this but way too late

Guessing it took this long to investigate fully.  If they get it wrong, they can have an issue...

[TecnoGenius]

CFL has suspended Kelly for pre-season and the first 9 regular season games --- YAHOO

Wow.  Just wow.  I'm truly shocked.  Is there any precedent for this?  In the last decade I think the Simoni or Marino situations were the worst punishment doled out.  Simoni had the longest suspension at 3 games, right?

Missing TC, missing PS, and missing 9 reg season games is really making a statement.  And to do it to the "most important CFL team"?!  Argo owners must be livid!!  Surely they were applying the pressure to Ambrosie for a favorable outcome.  Say what you want about Ambrosie, this move took some massive footballs.

Knowing all of the above... 9 games?  Half the season with some joe blow at QB instead of league top-3 Kelly?  This instantly puts Argos down 2-3 places by labor day.  And it destroys ticket sales and TV ratings.  Just wow!

The investigator must have found some gold to cause this result.  As in there must have been multiple players and other staff that turned on Kelly when questioned.  That's the only "proof" there will be in these types of situations.  Outside of the backup QBs (hehe) it's a strange thing for team-mates to turn on their leader, especially knowing that could cost them playoff/cup money as they go from heroes to zeroes.  Yes, Ambrosie must have gotten some big beefy ammo to dole out 9 weeks and then walk into the Argos' club to explain their decision.

Which then leads to the fact that Kelly & Argos are really really dumb for not settling at the first whisper of trouble, all off the record, no suspensions, no bad optics.  And all SMS free!!  Now they are going to be out a whackton of SMS *and* real cash money.  And left QBless... the worst of all worlds.  Dumb!!

It still doesn't all add up, unless Kelly really is that stupid, maybe so dumb he doesn't even know how he is behaving, and really thought it was nothing or he'd get away with it.

But this makes my perennial point about teams hiring less near-locker-room women even more poignant: the risk isn't just bad optics, or SMS loss, or money loss: no the risk is you lose an entire year of competitiveness and ticket sales!  This is a complete disaster for Pinball et al, and next time they want to look great for a hiring, they are going to think twice.  And that's not necessarily a good thing.

[TecnoGenius]

Not good enough. I wanted him gone at least a season. He's a serial offender of various sorts, maybe just this one in the CFL, but we know that the NFL won't touch him. He takes a hit in pay but is back for the playoffs. It's the East, you are in it even if you go 2-7 to start. Being a poster boy for the Argos got him off easy.

A season?  Nothing like that has ever occurred in recent CFL.  9 games sounds insane to me, let alone 18.  You have to sit within the confines of the CFL CBA and precedent.  It seems each new "bad thing" that happens in the CFL is getting a larger and larger penalty.  That's not always a good thing.

If you're an Argos fan who just bought their ST, how are you feeling about now?  What if this was Zach?  Heck, at least if it was us we'd have a decent .500 Strevie, not like completely hopeless Argos... who's the next man up... ah, Dukes.  Ya, good luck with that!!  The fans didn't do anything to deserve this!  GC favorite to as bad (or worse?) than OTT in one swoop of Ambrosie's pen??  Yikes.  Vilify Kelly all you want, but have some empathy for the fans.

[TecnoGenius]

Touched on briefly but needs more fleshing out:

Does Kelly just take his ball and go home now?  This is a slap in his face.  He'll take this personally.  He probably doesn't really need to be playing, he probably has family money.  He might just say bleep it and go home.

He doesn't strike me as a "strong character" guy that would truck through this and serve his penance with humility.  But I could be wrong.

So few talented QBs in the league, and we're always in need of more, and we may have just chased him off for good.  Ya, we all don't like him, but is this really best for the league and the on-field/TV product?  It was fine with Manziel, as he never looked good on-field; but we can't argue Kelly wasn't a talented, productive QB.

On a lighter, self-serving note, WPG@TOR is Kelly-free week 8, TOR@WPG week 19.  So our likelihood of sweeping the season series just went up 30-60%.

Now... off to get the (always more raunchy) ridersfans takes on it...

[TecnoGenius]

The pressure on the league/Ambrosie to act as fast as possible must have been immense.  All the statements to date were hinting at a long, drawn out "investigation" going well into the season.  Even the last one put out by Ambrosie in the draft hinted at that.

And then BAM, a week later they're handing out the severest punishment ever.  I wonder if the pressure just got too great, and/or outside forces "above" Ambrosie told him to deal with it, or maybe all the other clubs joined together to green-light the hit on MLSE?  I don't think you make this move without major firepower backing you up.

I really like that it's dealt with before week 1: no one needed it looming over the celebration of the return to football.  But it certainly is odd!

[TecnoGenius]

Oh ya, mods, change the thread titled to "cited".  We don't want to look like the lesser side of the banjo bowl rivalry!!

[1chad]

The pressure on the league/Ambrosie to act as fast as possible must have been immense.  All the statements to date were hinting at a long, drawn out "investigation" going well into the season.  Even the last one put out by Ambrosie in the draft hinted at that.

And then BAM, a week later they're handing out the severest punishment ever.  I wonder if the pressure just got too great, and/or outside forces "above" Ambrosie told him to deal with it, or maybe all the other clubs joined together to green-light the hit on MLSE?  I don't think you make this move without major firepower backing you up.

I really like that it's dealt with before week 1: no one needed it looming over the celebration of the return to football.  But it certainly is odd!

The most severe punishment was recently handed out to Shawn Lemon, a season-long suspension.

[Waffler]

A season?  Nothing like that has ever occurred in recent CFL.

December 8, 2021, Toronto Argonauts Exec John Murphy Suspended INDEFINITELY After Altercation with Fans
April 27, 2024, Shawn Lemon suspended INDEFINITELY.

They can do it if they want to.