http://www.theprovince.com/sports/fines ... story.html
CFL fines Argonauts for tampering
By Matthew Scianitti, Postmedia News December 2, 2011
The Canadian Football League fined the Toronto Argonauts $5,000 Friday afternoon for violating the league's tampering rules by approaching Chris Jones while he was still under contract to the Calgary Stampeders.
Whoooooooooo $5000. Yikes. LOL ...
But it does the right thing. It sends the right message.
CFL tampering rules state any person “directly or indirectly” connected with one club is prohibited from “directly or indirectly through an agent or by public or private statement or inference, contacting or negotiating with … any non-playing person connected with another member club.”
In a statement, the Argos accepted the fine called the violation an “inadvertent error.”
“The Toronto Argonauts recognize that casual conversations between various individuals frequently take place in professional sports that may unintentionally violate the spirit of a league’s bylaws but are often not subject to fines,” the statement read.
Milanovich should not have talked to Jones, even though Milanovich was not yet with the Argos. Too close for comfort. Too much of a done deal. Bad for the optics.
On Wednesday, Calgary head coach John Hufnagel told reporters that Jones, his defensive co-ordinator, came to him and resigned on Tuesday and informed Hufnagel he was moving to Toronto.
“I’m very surprised; had no forewarning of it,” said Hufnagel, who also confirmed the Argos did not ask permission to speak with Jones. “That is just what happened. I would have liked to have seen things go differently.”
After a flurry of speculation during this week, Toronto on Thursday hired Montreal Alouettes offensive co-ordinator Scott Milanovich as head coach. It was expected he would hire Jones as defensive co-ordinator and bring Montreal receivers coach Marcus Brady to be his offensive co-ordinator. On Thursday, however, only Milanovich was introduced, and Argos general manager Jim Barker would not discuss further changes to Toronto’s coaching staff.
But Barker did say Toronto did not approach Calgary for permission to speak with Jones.
“Chris Jones was never even brought up in discussions we had about staffing,” Barker said. “So that is what happened. We have not approached the Calgary Stampeders. There has been nothing else done at this point.”
When a reporter asked if Milanovich had spoken to Jones about coming to Toronto, Barker interrupted before his new coach could speak.
“I don’t think we need to talk about specifics of this,” Barker said. “It is getting totally off topic.”
Barker does dodge the question of whether Milanovich talked to Jones. It was Milanovich's mistake.
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Not a big deal IMO.
Sounds like Milanovich, before he is announced as Argos' HC, talked to his colleague Jones about a possibility. Then when Milanovich gets the Toronto job Jones knows he will be going there. It is borderline stuff. A misjudgment by Milanovich. I would say $5000 covers it.
The Alouettes are being picked clean. They lost Tim Burke. They lost Scott Milanovich. They seem likely to lose their receivers coach. Ouch. But Trestman did a good job filling in the slots when he first arrived without a lot of time to do it. He will no doubt find good people once again.