Cleyon Laing’s fine is deserved, but will it be enough to start a culture change? Likely not…

It's not surprising that Toronto Argonauts' defensive lineman Cleyon Laing was fined an undisclosed amount Wednesday for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Edmonton Eskimos' quarterback Mike Reilly in Saturday's game, but it is a decision that can be questioned. Reilly was examined by the training staff, controversially left in for a play (where he threw a touchdown) and then removed from the game with a suspected concussion, which has since been confirmed. Laing's hit has been widely criticized since then, and few would argue it should have gone unpunished. The real debate is if a fine alone is enough to deter such plays in the future.

Fines aren't inconsequential, particularly in a league like the CFL where the salaries tend to be quite low, but they're handed out for a whole variety of offences, some which aren't all that severe. For example, Saskatchewan quarterback Darian Durant was also fined Wednesday, but his crime was swearing at a fan on Twitter. While that's problematic and deserves some discipline, it's hard to equate it with a helmet-to-helmet hit like Laing's that's so potentially dangerous; Durant hurt someone's feelings, while Laing actually hurt someone. We've seen suspensions for injury-causing plays in the past, so there's some reason to suggest that Laing deserved more punishment here.

However, based on past precedent, Laing's suspension fits right in. Most helmet-to-helmet hits this year have only drawn fines, if that. Granted, most of them haven't been quite as blatant and haven't had as substantial implications, but the latter's problematic; discipline should be mostly about the action, not about the result (or else "Well, he didn't get hurt" would be a defence for dangerous play). You could say that Laing's actions were more blatant than most helmet-to-helmet hits and that's what elevates this play beyond merely a fine, but trying to define just how blatant a hit needs to be to draw a suspension also carries significant problems.

Really, if the CFL's going to do more to protect its players and specifically its quarterbacks (and it should: Reilly was one of the two remaining quarterbacks to start every game for his team this year, so if he can't go this coming week, that leaves just Henry Burris), the standard of discipline for helmet-to-helmet hits needs to be raised. Fines aren't meaningless, but they're clearly not serving as a substantial enough deterrent to stop these plays. Moreover, fines only impact the players, not their teams or coaches, so the organizational pressure to play hard isn't going anywhere.

Suspensions would change that, though, and implementing an automatic suspension for a helmet-to-helmet hit (to avoid endless debates over what is and isn't significant enough) would force teams and players to reevaluate their approach and choose safer technique-based form tackles instead of attempting head shots. If a coach could lose a key defensive player for a helmet-to-helmet hit, he's going to do anything in his power to encourage his players to avoid those. That's the kind of culture change that really needs to happen if we want to see these hits taken out of the game. Until then, the mismash of no discipline and fines that currently exists for helmet-to-helmet shots isn't going to be enough to change anything.