BATTLE OF ALBERTA GAME DAY
STAMPS PREPARE FOR ESKS WITHOUT STAR CORNISH
CALGARY HERALD EDMONTON — Defensive end Odell Willis is not about to pen a gushing sympathy card or courier a bouquet of tulips and daisies to the Calgary Stampeders headquarters off Crowchild Trail over the concussion troubles of Jon Cornish.
For no Cornish, in Willis’s mind, means a better chance Thursday at repeatedly plowing quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell into the turf at Commonwealth Stadium.
And that, for Willis, is the name of the game in the first instalment of the 2014 edition of the gridiron Battle of Alberta.
“Jon Cornish is a great back in this league,” Willis pronounced Wednesday as the 4-0 Edmonton Eskimos sauntered to their dressing room after a brief walk-through practice. “The things he’s done in this league, they speak for themselves. He’s the most outstanding player. He’s the most outstanding Canadian. He’s a hard runner. He’s a hard worker. It’s unfortunate what he’s going through. I hope he gets better.
“But without him in there, I feel we can tee off a little bit more on Bo Levi Mitchell. No disrespect to the other running backs. We just don’t feel they have the same capability as Jon Cornish with running and catching and blocking and all the other things.”
Life without Jon Cornish is the new reality, at least in the foreseeable future, for the Calgary Stampeders. On Thursday, head coach/general manager John Hufnagel as expected assigned the face of the franchise to the six-game injured list, which makes him eligible to return Sept. 6 for the Labour Day rematch in Edmonton.
Should the symptoms mercilessly cease in the meantime, the Stamps can use one of their two early recalls on the CFL rushing leader in 2013.
“He had done well, and then he had some recurring headaches,” Hufnagel said in the bowels of Commonwealth Stadium. “And then he would do well and the headaches would come back. So we wanted to put him on six-game, because right now we don’t know the length of time. We’re hoping it’s not six games, that we can bring him off.
“But at least if it is, then we have some protection under the salary cap system.”
The Stamps have protection against Cornish’s cap hit, and Cornish has at least a degree of peace of mind in knowing his employer does not want him to rush back before he is ready.
“It’s frustrating for him,” Hufnagel said. “Maybe removing the pressure of him trying to get back as soon as possible will help the healing process. We’ll just hope for the best and get him back on the field when he’s healthy and he’s comfortable.”
Cornish, 29, is clearly on the same page.
“The future of my job(s) and life necessitated making a decision I will not regret,” Cornish, who passed the Canadian Securities Course last winter and works in investments at TD Canada Trust wrote Wednesday on Twitter. “To the fans that are worried about stats/accolades … the things I still have left to win aren’t won during the season.”
In the season opener against Montreal, Cornish suffered a concussion on a vicious clothesline hit to the head by linebacker Kyries Hebert. The CFL fined Hebert half a game cheque. Cornish has not played since. With Cornish sidelined, Calgary product Matt Walter will once start Thursday at tailback for the Stamps in Edmonton, with help along the way from import Jock Sanders.
Mitchell, for one, believes in both guys and sees no reason the Eskimos should feel they don’t need to respect the run game with No. 9 back home in Calgary.
“I think we have very capable running backs, and we have a great oline,” Mitchell said. “Nobody’s had much success in getting to us, so we’ll see how Odell’s comments work out.”
At age 24, Mitchell is a burgeoning leader in the Calgary locker-room, and he wants Cornish to know the guys have his back no matter how long it takes to return.
After all, retired receiver Arland Bruce launched a lawsuit last week against the CFL for what he deems as mismanagement of a concussion. So why would anyone want to risk long-term brain damage for the sake of what is, in the final analysis, a game?
“I think it’s the right thing to do,” Mitchell said.
“If you look at what’s going on with Arland Bruce, he thinks he was told to come back too early or whatever happened. I think that’s something you’ve really got to avoid — to come back too early and take a big, bad hit, that could possibly injure you for a long time.
“The head is not something you mess with.”
WINNIPEG—