‘What we want to do is continue to try to get better in every aspect of things’
VANCOUVER — An injury, not a suspension, is keeping beleaguered Toronto Argonauts quarterback Chad Kelly from participating in this year’s Grey Cup.
It’s not karma. It’s not poetic justice. It’s just football.
Although nobody ever wants a professional athlete to get injured, Kelly’s absence may save the CFL from an embarrassing reality check during this week’s Grey Cup preliminaries.
The league’s most outstanding player in 2023, Kelly began this season serving a nine-game suspension for harassing an Argonauts assistant coach. Although he played surprisingly well as this season progressed, Kelly remained publicly petulant off the field with a series of social media posts promising he would remember who wronged him. His presence at post-practice scrums and media events during Grey Cup Week could have become testy if he were repeatedly being asked about remorse and rehabilitation.
Several of the female coach’s claims against Kelly, which came after the Argonauts terminated her contract, were verified through a private investigation. That led to the unprecedented suspension levelled by outgoing commissioner Randy Ambrosie.
Female employees throughout the CFL especially expressed their dismay about the situation and there are still a few questions percolating across the league:
Do the Argonauts provide a safe workplace for female employees? Will this make CFL teams less likely to hire female employees for coaching, office or support jobs?
It may take years to reveal all the ramifications of Kelly’s actions and the Argos’ reactions.
“You can’t keep individual situations from happening, right?” said Clemons. “What we will try to do is continue to educate our guys. You know, our fans talk about how nice our guys are and the kind of people they are.
“What we want to do is just continue to try to get better in every aspect of things.”
When asked about Murphy’s failure to react properly, as one should in a managerial role, Clemons demurred. The incidents evidently occurred during the 2023 season.
“This topic is not a topic for this week,” said Clemons. “This is not a Grey Cup topic. These are the kinds of places we try to not run down anyone. If you wanna have a sit-down about that later, you know we could do that.”
“I don’t think that’s fair to have that sort of discussion,” said Clemons. “These are private conversations, right?
“We are not supposed to be broadcasting this to the world. We are working hard to make this better.”
Of course Clemons would rather discuss the fact the Argonauts have won their last seven Grey Cup appearances or their 18-6 record in championship games, giving them more titles than any other CFL franchise. Without Kelly around it’s easier to quickly visit that subject, but there’s still an overriding issue lurking in the background.