Bad boys, bad boys

1
1246
Article: Brady Lang - Sports Writer

Article: Brady Lang – Sports Writer

Riders commit off field penalties

The Saskatchewan Roughriders code of conduct is pretty straightforward. The last line states that it is the players job “to be pleasant, to be professional, to be cordial, and to be respectful of the law”.

But they played anyways.

Roughriders’ second-year receiver Taj Smith and their prized acquisition this past off-season, cornerback Dwight Anderson, are in trouble with the law. Both players are facing charges of aggravated assault stemming from an incident, which occurred last month outside of a Regina nightclub.

Even though the players were in the lineup, they didn’t do much last Saturday night as Smith ended up with three catches for eight yards and Anderson only notched one tackle in the 31-29 loss to the Toronto Argonauts.

But still, why were they playing?

Many rumours have been swirling about the situation, but I don’t believe we will ever hear the true story of what happened for quite some time, if ever.

A lot of people believe that if the players violated the team code of conduct that they should be punished for it whether they are on the practice roster or are the CFL’s top rusher, like Kory Sheets – who was injured early on in the first quarter in Saturday’s loss. Riders General Manager Brendan Taman said that there wasn’t enough information to sit the two this weekend. He did comment that the team would deal with the situation accordingly when they gather the information necessary.

The team has kept pretty quiet on the whole nightclub situation but they did announce that the players decided as a whole to institute a ban on any players attending clubs on Dewdney.

I think this thing will blow over. I don’t think it’s going to be a situation like NFL bad boy Aaron Hernandez, but it is even more adversity that the team will have to face headed into the latter part of the 2013 season.
 The Riders are on their first slide of the season, losing two games for the first time since the West-Semis during week 19 of this season and dropped their first at home since losing to Toronto last year in week 18.

This situation with Smith and Anderson won’t be fully resolved for a while, but Oct. 8th should be circled on fans calendars as the players are scheduled to be back in court.

This incident definitely isn’t the first time a member of the Riders organization has been in trouble with the law.

In January, Sheets had domestic violence charges laid against him after an incident near Tampa, Fl. The state of Florida decided not to prosecute the running back after he completed a domestic violence program.

Whatcha gonna do when Inner Circle writes a terrible rap 'bout you?/ image: riderville.com

Whatcha gonna do when Inner Circle writes a terrible rap ’bout you?/ image: riderville.com

And who could forget former Riders GM Eric Tillman and the sexual assault case that stemmed from “pain killers” because of his “bad back”. Tillman did plead guilty in Jan. of 2010 and was granted an absolute discharge receiving no criminal record.

Tillman resigned as Saskatchewan’s GM there shortly after.

Trevis Smith, a former linebacker for the Riders, was charged with sexual assault in Feb. of 2007. Two women complained that he exposed them to HIV without informing them that he had the virus.

Trevis Smith was subsequently given a five-year sentence in jail after being found guilty.

Even though Trevis Smith’s trial ended up with him in jail, things will likely blow over in Riderville or the case will be moved to the off-season. At the same time, however, should they even be playing? The code of conduct does clearly state “to be pleasant, to be professional, to be cordial, and to be respectful of the law”.

We’ll let you be the judge.

1 comment

  1. Tamia 20 July, 2015 at 14:12

    Everyone is only addressing the criminal cases that hit the news. The fact that former Argo Pacino Horne beat his ex-girlfriend regularly, and was hospitalized once. And he didn’t get convicted. There I’m sure is a lot more cases that the general public is not aware of.

Comments are closed.