Esks' GM Ed Hervey fined for "bringing league into disrepute": over tampering?

Less than a week after he became the first black general manager to win the Grey Cup, the CFL fined Edmonton Eskimos' general manager Ed Hervey $1,500 for "comments that bring the league into disrepute." The CFL didn't specify what those comments were, but they're presumably these ones made Wednesday:

This is a league that's often been publicly against tampering (offers made by clubs to players or coaches who are not currently free agents), and they've fined the Eskimos $10,000 for it before (when Hervey announced the 2013 signing of Odell Willis only four minutes after the free agency period opened). However, in practice, there often do appear to be tampering situations that arise around the league, not just in Edmonton. For example, consider what happened with current Edmonton head coach (although perhaps not for much longer, as he's in Regina to interview for the HC/GM job with Saskatchewan) Chris Jones when he left Calgary for Toronto ahead of the 2012 season; the Stampeders said the Argos never asked for permission to contact Jones, and Toronto was eventually fined $5,000. The issue is that it's only these sorts of extremely blatant tampering situations that seem to be punished, but there probably are many others that go on and that teams get away with.

The problem with the league fining Hervey is that they're essentially just perpetuating a fiction. He's right; tampering does go on all across the league, with teams frequently reaching out to coaches or players before asking permission or before free agency just to see if there's initial interest. The CFL doesn't really have the ability to stop all tampering (are they going to check everyone's phone? e-mail? social networks?), and there isn't necessarily the need for them to do so. They're not wrong for wading in and fining people in the really blatant cases, such as Hervey/Willis and Toronto/Jones, as those situations make a mockery of the free agent deadline and the requirement for teams to ask for permission respectively, but coming down hard on Hervey here seems a little over the top. (Then again, this could probably be added to the collection of things that Hervey should think and not say.) In the end, this is a pretty minor controversy. The league obviously has the power to Hervey, but he's really only telling the truth, and he's not really "bringing the league into disrepute." It's not going to ruin the CFL for people to know that tampering goes on; they already do.