Let 'Em Know You're There!

"Get that lumber in his teeth. Let 'em know you're there!" - Player/Coach Reg Dunlop

With all the whining and complaining about the brawl between Saskatchewan and B.C on Saturday night I felt compelled to weigh in as well.

Here's what I know:

Should Sherko Haji-Rasoulli be suspended? Yes, absolutely without a doubt. One game and get it over with. Of course this will turn into an A.J Gass Arbitration Situation and if he does end up having to serve a game it won't be for a month. A further indictment of the CFL.

Should Rob Murphy be suspended? Meeehhhh......I don't know. I don't think so. A fine is probably more appropriate. Yeah he had John Chick pinned to the ground, chokehold or not, but Murphy didn't strike Chick or anything. But if Fred Perry doesn't get a fine or suspension for drilling Dave Dickenson in the chin with his helmet, who knows what's appropriate any more?

But here's what I want to know...why oh why oh why didn't any of Chick's teammates come to his defence? Murphy had him pinned to the ground and defenseless and not one of the Rider players came to help him. I think that says more about the Roughrider team than anything else I've seen or heard this year (I will admit that I didn't see the game but in the highlights I saw nobody made any attempt to get Murphy off Chick).

I realize that you don't want your team to be instigating anything and taking more penalties but you do want your team to stand up for itself - there is no way around that. And from what I saw the Roughriders did not stand up for their teammates. Someone should have been horse-collaring Murphy and sending him flying off of Chick.

I think an extra 15 yard unnecessary roughness penalty is a small price to pay for something that would undoubtedly bring the team together as a group.

But now... how would you feel if someone from the opposing team had you defenseless on the ground and not one of your teammates came to your aide? Though you may deny it, it would probably make you feel like the people around you were not people you could trust to get your back. And that is not the mentality you want on a team.

What if someone on the Riders had stood up for Chick and blasted Murphy? I think this was the moment the defence has been looking for to give themselves an identity - one of those moments where you either stand up for each other or stand down. There is no doubt in my mind that the defence could have used that as a rallying cry for the rest of the game and probably the rest of the year.

Instead the exact opposite happened, BC used the brawl as a rallying cry to come back in the game.

Make no mistake, that was a street fight and from what I saw Saskatchewan got whipped - but who knows, I could be wrong....

...Ok, I just managed to find some more video of the fight and Fred Perry tugging at Rob Murphy's arm was not an adequate response to the situation.

Anyway...the NFL Review later on today.