COMING UP ROSES
Beleaguered Redblacks DB Rose is eligible to play in Grey Cup despite suspension
EDMONTON — Despite being handed a one-game suspension by the CFL early Tuesday, Ottawa Redblacks defensive back Jonathan Rose will play in Sunday’s Grey Cup.
The CFL Players’ Association filed an appeal of the suspension on behalf of Rose, which puts a hold on the one-game penalty — the appeal will not be heard before the Grey Cup.
So Rose will be in the lineup for the Redblacks against the Calgary Stampeders Sunday.
The CFL suspended Rose for an incident during last Sunday’s
East Division final against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Rose pulled Ticats receiver Bralon Addison to the ground well out of bounds near the Hamilton bench. In an ensuing scuffle, Rose pushed a sideline official.
While believing it wasn’t Rose’s intent to shove an official, CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie said he had no choice but to penalize the Redblack with a suspension.
“When I watched it, and I watched it many times over and over again, it was pretty clear what happened,” Ambrosie said Tuesday night. “The initial play, (Rose) was well deserving of a penalty. Then he gets pushed over backwards, hits the ground and gets up. That’s why the phrase ‘blind rage’ exists. He was going after the player that shoved him. It just so happened there was an official between him and that player and he knocked him
down. I think you could watch that a thousand times over and get that he had no intention of doing any harm to the ref, but you still can’t do it.
“What I struggled with, the guy has to play in one of the biggest game of his life. He’s got a bunch of teammates that have that opportunity to play in one of the biggest games of their lives. People think, if they don’t get to the Grey Cup this year, that’s fine, they’ll do it again. Well, sometimes it never happens again.
“I really struggled with the idea of taking the player out of the game, but, when you look at it through the lens of having to respect the principle that you can’t touch a referee, I had to take action. I had more than my fair share of inner turmoil over the decision, but, in the end, I believe it was right.”
Knowing that the incident would draw the CFL’s attention, Rose wrote down his side of the story and sent it to the league Monday.
“To his credit, he sent us an apology,” Ambrosie said. “It was very thoughtfully written and very sincere. I read it and really thought, ‘OK, he got it.’ There was no doubt in my mind that he got it.”
The commissioner said the league contacted the officiating crew and kept in touch with them during the process.
“One of our first conversations was with the crew. I had my guys reach out to them right after the game,” Ambrosie said. “We wanted to make sure they knew whatever we did, we would do in consultation with them. There’s such a human side to the incredible guys who officiate our games. They, I think, understood what happened — that it wasn’t an attack on an official, that it was a player getting knocked down and going after another player. If you look at the play, the (official) basically fell back over somebody lying on the ground.
“I sensed in them, they didn’t have a heavy-handed thought on the whole thing. But, if you give up on the principle that a player can go through a referee, knock him down … if you get rid of that, sports gets worse from here.”
The Redblacks were relieved that Rose wouldn’t be prevented from playing in his team’s biggest game of the season.
“He’s a great football player and I know his intentions were not bad on that play,” Redblacks safety Antoine Pruneau said. “He felt sorry about what happened.”