Thursday, July 2, 2009 10:33 PM
Will Argos have Ace up sleeve for next visit to Hamilton?
David Naylor
So what’s Arland Bruce got up his sleeve for the next time the Argos visit Ivor Wynne Stadium?
For Bruce’s sake, hopefully nothing.
Argo head coach Bart Andrus was in an awfully good mood following his team’s 30-17 win over Hamilton on Wednesday, and therefore didn’t come down – at least publicly – hard on Bruce.
But had the Argos lost that game? Well, that would have been a different story because Andrus doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to put up with these kinds of theatrics.
The fact is there’s no excuse for what Bruce did, especially since the two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties it produced had Hamilton scrimmaging on the Toronto side of midfield.
The CFL acted quickly Thursday, fining Bruce for the second time in less than a year, following the Spiderman mask stunt he pulled in Hamilton last Labour Day.
Here’s betting there won’t be a third trick when the Argos are back in Hamilton this Labour Day.
On a related stopic, here's a question worth asking: did the league set a double standard by fining Bruce but not fining the Winnipeg receivers who engineered a Barack Obama tribute in the endzone during a playoff game last November?
The short answer from the league is that Bruce was fined because he took his equipment off and laid down to delay the game.
But what if the next time an endzone salute a political leader involves someone not quite a palatable to the league as Obama?