Elks release lineman Ruby due to COVID protocol breach
On the final day of a 10-day, club-wide quarantine following a COVID -19 outbreak that led to postponing last week's game, the Edmonton Elks showed just how serious they are taking things.
On Tuesday, the club released starting left guard Jacob Ruby, “due to a breach of COVID protocols.”
It is not clear whether the 29-year-old native of London, Ont., was one of the 13 players who tested positive last week, when a wave of COVID spread through the Elks locker-room, postponing last Thursday's game against the Toronto Argonauts.
Ruby, a six-foot-seven, 325-pound Richmond, B.C., product, was drafted in the firstround (eighth overall) by the Montreal Alouettes in 2015.
“The move is part of the club's ongoing commitment to strictly following the Canadian Football
League's COVID protocols, which are in place to ensure the health and safety of all Tier 1 members and anyone they come in contact with,” read the news release. “No further comment will be provided at this time.”
On Monday, Elks president and CEO Chris Presson told 630 CHED'S Morley Scott, the team's play-by-play voice, that they were able to trace the origins of the outbreak.
“I think we had someone break protocol unintentionally and was trying to take care of his body — had a massage therapist come about to try to take care of his body. Apparently contracted it from her,” Presson said.
“And before that, you're in
Tier 1, your wives aren't, they have to do everything for the family to make the family go. And we had a couple wives pick it up from outside of the house and bring it in to their husbands, who then infected our team. It's the first time I've said that because I just got that information over the weekend, but that's where it came from.”
The Elks haven't identified the initial individual, or any of the 13 players who have tested positive, but said anyone who ends up missing practice time due to the virus once the team returns to the field this week will appear on the team's daily injury updates.
“That's how quickly it spreads,” Presson said. “And that should hopefully squelch the rumours that guys are out and about and partying and things like that.
“Again, it came from someone from outside the organization.”
Ruby was one of a handful of Elks players whose wife lives with him in Edmonton.
The choice to release the Canadian O-lineman couldn't have been an easy one, given he's been a starter on the Elks offensive line for the past two seasons after being acquired as a free agent late in 2017.
Rookie Tomas Jack-kurdyla, a six-foot-four, 300-pound Buffalo product drafted fourth overall in 2020, dressed as the backup Canadian on the offensive line in the last game.
QUARANTINE OVER
After going five days in a row with no new positive tests, the Elks are scheduled to resume team activities with meetings and a walk-through session on the field Wednesday, concluding a stretch of having all facilities shut down and Tier 1 personnel — all coaches, players and team staff who work closest with them — sent home to isolate since
Aug. 21.
The next full practice is scheduled for Thursday, giving them a full practice week to prepare for their next game, the annual Labour Day Classic against the Calgary Stampeders at Mcmahon Stadium on Monday, Sept. 6.
The Elks announced earlier this week that everyone in the stands at Commonwealth Stadium will have to be fully vaccinated or a show proof of a negative COVID test beginning Oct. 15.
WRASSLIN' MOVES
TSN play-by-play broadcaster Dustin Nielson caught the attention of the professional wrestling world during Sunday's game between the Stampeders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
“Just watched a D-lineman on the Calgary Stampeders German suplex the quarterback from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers,” All Elite Wrestling 's Peter Senerchia, who goes by his in-ring persona Taz, posted to Twitter.
“So, the play-by-play man doing the game on TSN with a nice segue plug for AEW ... It was hilarious!”
When he's not in the booth calling CFL games, Nielson is in Edmonton hosting the Nielson Show on TSN 1260 on weekday mornings.
POWER SLAM
That wasn't the only move to make its way from the squared circle to the CFL gridiron this season.
In Edmonton's 21-16 win over the B.C. Lions prior to going into quarantine, Elks running back James Wilder Jr. raised linebacker Bo Lokombo high into the air and threw him over his shoulder while blocking in pass protection for his quarterback, Trevor Harris.
“He's a bigger guy and I actually expected a lot of impact,” said the six-foot-three, 232-pound Wilder, who had a tryout with World Wresting Entertainment in the spring of 2019. “But once he jumped, I have to move him out of the way of the passing lane for Trevor. It was a pass play, so I don't want to make it seem like a WWE move but, you know, I had to get him out of the way. I'll just leave it at that.”