By now the events that transpired in the Banjo Bowl Brawl in week six of play in the CFL in which the Winnipeg Blue Bombers faced the Roughriders has definitely made the rounds of news. We have reported on it extensively here at the CFL News Hub and many have had an opinion on what went down.
“Hey, man, 33,000 (fans), we gave them exactly what they wanted. They wanted smoke; we gave them smoke. We gave them action…”
via Defensive End Willie Jefferson /Winnipeg Free Press
Many fans have been outspoken on social media, specifically to the point that suspensions should have been doled out, and even that players involved should have been ejected from the game.
Said players have stood by their actions, as we covered yesterday.
But…fines were most certainly handed out, making up for a lack of suspensions all around.
For his involvement in the melee, Andrew Harris was given what has been stated as being a pretty hefty fine (amount not shared) by the CFL. During the roughhousing that took place pretty early in the game, Harris actually pulled the facemask off of Christian Campbell.
And for his part in what went down, offensive
lineman for the Bombers, Drew Desjarlais, was also fined…the reason being, according to the CFL: ““instigating the altercation between the two teams.”According to the Regina Leader-Post, Saskatchewan Roughriders defensive back A.J. Hendy and also tackle Garrett Marino were both taken out of the game for their involvement in the roughhousing and brawling that took place…an obvious point of contention amongst fans as it stands right now.
There was a fining and a suspension however for Roughrider Mike Edem (safety), for a tourist hit on Nic Demski specifically…this not occurring during the Banjo Bowl Brawl.
As of this writing, the Roughriders, who are second in the West Division just under the Bombers (who are first), are set to face Toronto this evening.
Despite the disciplinary fine and controversy surrounding the Banjo Bowl game, they did win, and impressively so; moving forward, Harris is certainly in a good headspace, and is willing to put in the necessary work to meet his ambitions. According to the Winnipeg Sun, he has stated of the Bombers’ game and his own game at present and moving forward:
“We have a lot more to get out of each game and each play…We need to finish better and sustain drives a lot better. We still haven’t reached our peak at all, yet. Maybe I’m not on the right side of the edge of a cut, and I’m getting arm tackled. I want to reach perfection or damn near close to it on every play…It’s definitely something that we’re always working on and it’s a big part of my game…And running backs releasing out of the backfield, there’s always that extra element for check-downs or if you can create mismatches or opportunities… but it hasn’t happened, yet. I’m sure we’ll be getting to more of that down the line, here…”
via Winnipeg SunNEXT: Bombers RB, Andrew Harris, Stands by Reasons for Brawl at Banjo Bowl
With an impressive 80 yards rushing in the last game, he has definitely improved and stands to improve that much more judging by his comments.
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