Calgary’s Messam ‘not too happy’ as league slaps him with fine
Running back penalized $750 for dragging Als linebacker to ground by his face mask
CALGARY An unwelcome surprise awaited Jerome Messam when he returned to the Calgary Stampeders locker-room after Wednesday’s practice.
As the result of an incident during last Friday’s game in which Messam dragged Montreal Alouettes linebacker Chip Cox to the turf by his face mask, the Stampeders running back said he’d been fined $750 by the CFL.
Having already been ejected from the game because of the incident, the further punishment seemed excessive to Messam.
“I just don’t think it’s warranted — $750,” Messam said after practice. "Like I said, I was retaliating to a B.S. play by a player that’s known for doing stuff like that. Worse comes to worse, at least fine somebody else on (the Alouettes). They had a third man in on the incident.
“I’m obviously not too happy about it, but what can I do? I’ve got to take responsibility, and I guess pay up and move on.”
In the time since the incident, replays don’t appear to have caught the full incident between Messam and Cox on camera.
What we do know is that Messam had fumbled the ball and the Als’ Branden Dozier had recovered it and run into the end zone for a touchdown. Replays show Messam and Cox in pursuit, and several yards into the end zone, Cox appears to strike Messam in the face. Then the Stamps running back retaliates by grabbing him by the mask and dragging him to the turf.
By Messam’s own admission, it was a mistake, and he accepted full responsibility for the disqualification when he spoke to the media after the Stamps returned to McMahon Stadium on Saturday.
For his part, Cox seemed forgiving when he spoke to TSN after Friday night’s game.
“I just think he got a little frustrated,” Cox told TSN’s Matthew Scianitti. “I kind of bumped him a little bit. That’s not in his character. He just lost his cool a little bit.”
The fine comes a couple weeks after Saskatchewan Roughriders receiver Duron Carter was fined after grabbing Winnipeg Blue Bombers linebacker Sam Hurl in what the CFL described as a “reckless and unsafe manner,” and while the incidents have some similarities, Carter did not appear to be retaliating to any immediate provocation on the field and his actions did not result in an ejection.
While Messam was clearly frustrated to receive further punishment, he said it would have no impact on his preparations for Saturday’s game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders at McMahon Stadium (7 p.m., TSN/ News Talk 770).
“I always want to have a breakout game. I’m focused, I’m locked-in, and I’ve just gotta trust the system and continue to chip away,” Messam said. “I don’t feel like I’m not playing well. I just want to be consistent and continue to work hard. Just gotta continue to trust things, and hopefully, they keep calling my number to run the ball.”
The Stampeders are eager to get their running game going after a couple weeks in which they haven’t put up the same numbers they did last year, when Messam won the CFL rushing title.
Nobody around the team seems to be pinning responsibility for the run game’s slow(ish) start on Messam, necessarily. Head coach Dave Dickenson said Tuesday that the offensive line needed to do a better job of opening up holes for the running backs, and QB Bo Levi Mitchell explained that the Stamps opponents had as much to do with the team’s reliance on throwing the ball on offence as anything.
“The teams we’ve been playing, we felt watching film and things like that, we had to throw to win,” Mitchell said Wednesday. “We’ll always get back to the run game — (Messam) is a guy who we’ve gotta give him his carries. He’s not a four carries-for-100-yard type of guy. Give him his touches, give him his percentages, and he’ll go out there and make plays.”