A member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders is once again facing allegations of dirty play, sparking a late-game altercation with the Ottawa Redblacks.
With six seconds remaining in their 29-16 loss at Mosaic Stadium, Redblacks’ receiver Kalil Pimpleton caught an eight-yard pass from quarterback Jeremiah Masoli and was met by Riders’ defensive back Deontai Williams. The rookie pass catcher was turned upside down over the course of the tackle, before being driven head-first into the turf in what looked like an intentional finishing move.
“I saw it from my side of the field and I could tell what happened. To me, it didn’t look like a clean football play but the refs ejected him,” Redblacks’ head coach Bob Dyce told TSN 1200 post-game. “They did their job. You can’t control anything like that so the refs did their jobs and I will leave it at that.”
Fellow receiver Dominique Rhymes immediately rushed to his teammate’s defence, sparking a heated altercation on the Saskatchewan sideline. Officials pushed into the fray to separate the two teams, with a hot mic catching a snippet of the profanity-laced interaction.
“That’s bullsh*t in this league. We know the game’s pretty much over, for you to slam somebody on their head, you have no regard for their lives or them as a football player. We don’t need that type of stuff in the league. That’s bush league-type stuff,” Rhymes said post-game.
“It’s just one of those things that don’t need to happen. We’re professional football players, we know how to take care of each other but still play good football, hard-hitting football. That type of stuff, that don’t need to be in this league.”
Williams was assessed a 25-yard penalty for unnecessary roughness and given a rough play disqualification. Rhymes was also assessed a 15-yard objectionable conduct penalty, his second of the night, which prompted an automatic ejection. After initially remaining down on the field, Pimpleton was able to get up prior to the arrival of the training staff.
“I understand it from maybe the Ottawa perspective, Rhymes got upset and temperatures were a little bit high. We made some decisions we probably shouldn’t have and we want to try to push ourselves to be a team that can win with class, so there’s always lessons in everything that we do,” Saskatchewan head coach Corey Mace told the 620 CKRM post-game show.
“The way we want to finish the game, that’s not exactly it, but we do play a physical sport. We’ll look at the tape to make sure that there was nothing that should have been penalized as far as the flag that was thrown on the tackle, just understanding a little bit more from the referee’s standpoint, the official’s standpoint.”
For Masoli, the incident hit close to home. The quarterback was making his first start back in Regina since July 8, 2022, when a low hit from Riders’ defensive tackle Garrett Marino in the late stages of a loss caused him to miss the remainder of the season. That incident, which also included allegations of racist language, was met with a four-game suspension from the CFL — the longest ever for an on-field play.
“I’m not going to say too much about it. I mean, it consistently happens out here, but it is what it is,” Masoli said pointedly.
The Riders have been embroiled in allegations of dirty play already this season, with defensive tackle Miles Brown causing injuries to three different quarterbacks and twice being fined by the CFL. That pattern began in a Week 10 tie with the Redblacks when Dru Brown was forced to leave the game following incidental low contact from the Saskatchewan pass rusher. The play was penalized on the field but did not trigger supplemental discipline.
Williams was not the only player to generate an outcry from viewers on Saturday afternoon, though he did draw the most pronounced reaction. Some members of Rider Nation took issue with a low hit from Ottawa safety Money Hunter on Saskatchewan receiver Shawn Bane Jr. in the second quarter, which appeared to cause a serious knee injury. The defensive back seemed to be trying to play for an interception when that contact occurred.
With playoff implications for both teams, Riders’ defensive back Marcus Sayles chalked up the late-game altercation to a natural reaction to physical play and dubbed the offending hit a “hard tackle.”
“I think a lot of emotions just started going and guys just wanted to protect their teammates,” he explained. “It’s kind of a situation where everybody’s just running up, the referees are just trying to break us all apart, but I think that’s just two teams riding for their guys, trying to stand up for each other. There were a lot of emotions already throughout the whole game. It was just them sticking up for their guys, that’s all it was.”
That assessment won’t be satisfying to either head coach, with one seeking greater discipline and the other hoping not to lose another contributor from an already banged-up roster. Mace told the broadcast crew that he addressed the altercation with his counterpart post-game and was not happy with the way his team finished.
“You never want to see that. I talked to Bobby about it after the game, that’s not the way either of us wanted to end the game,” he said. “We’ve just got to stay composed all the way through.”
The Riders (7-7-1) will return to action on Saturday, October 5 when they visit the Edmonton Elks (5-10).
