Watch: Redblacks GM Marcel Desjardins leaves game after sideline collision
Football games can certainly be hazardous for the players, but it's rare to see them be dangerous for the general manager. That's what happened in Thursday's CFL clash between the B.C. Lions and the Ottawa Redblacks, though, as a hit on B.C. running back/returner Chris Rainey drove him into Ottawa general manager Marcel Desjardins on the sidelines. Desjardins was then helped to the locker room for evaluation:
After this sideline collision @REDBLACKSGM has been escorted to the @REDBLACKS lockerroom. #CFLGameDay pic.twitter.com/jjb4OSyzvd
— CFL on TSN (@CFLonTSN) August 26, 2016
An odd coda to this is that Argonauts' defensive end Shawn Lemon has been accused of celebrating the hit publicly. Lemon, who played for Ottawa for half of last season, famously had a war of words with Desjardins over supposed texts in January, and he put out some vague tweets just after the Desjardins hit. Some Redblacks' fans accused Lemon of celebrating Desjardins getting hurt, and he denied his tweets were about that:
.@SLemonator tweets this after @REDBLACKSGM tumbles on sidelines, then pretends it's about something else? SMH @CFL pic.twitter.com/ZhhYC1qojs
— Defend the R (@DefendTheR) August 26, 2016
I'm out for my bday dinner don't know what y'all talking about #Getoffmyline
— Shawn Lemon (@SLemonator) August 26, 2016
I could careless out that Ottawa Redblacks right now man focus is Toronto Argonauts 💯💯✊🏿
— Shawn Lemon (@SLemonator) August 26, 2016
There's no way to prove what Lemon was or wasn't tweeting about here, so it would be unusual to see any formal fallout from this, but the timing is certainly curious if his tweets were in fact unrelated. Meanwhile, TSN's Matthew Scianitti has reported that Desjardins took a hit to the knee, got up, then fell down again before being helped off, but he appears to be okay now. That's good news for him and for the Redblacks; having the general manager hurt certainly wouldn't help.