Khalif Mitchell signed to Rider PR

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CardiacKid
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This was bit of a surprise (and yet, in many ways not); Mitchell was not a guy I thought would be turning up again in the CFL.

He had a shot at redemption with the Leos that didn't work out; he simply didn't deliver on the field. Of course, the off-field stuff was a distraction and so completely unnecessary.

What is not so surprising is the fact the Riders would sign the guy. I never thought for a minute the Riders were going to turn their fortunes around this season; not based on the degree they gutted their roster and brought in new faces. But I did think before the season started that Jones and Murphy would be able to bring in quality guys who would compete and show an upside while they got used to the Canadian game. They are personnel guys after all.

But the circus that is Riderville this season; anything and everything is fair game. This smells of desperation...how long has it been since Mitchell played? Never mind the fact he has a tonne of baggage.
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Big Time
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Good luck with this, Riders. The backlash towards this move is already not worth the price of bringing him in.
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DanoT
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The melt down at Riderfans is on the verge of going nuclear, mostly due to Mitchell's off field baggage. We know Jones doesn't care about that stuff but 2014 I think was Mitchell's last season as a Lion and he wasn't very good and he didn't play in 2015. So what is Jones thinking?

Jones and Co are becoming a complete bust, gutting the entire D, taking on and failing with not 1 but 2 project player conversions to positions that they have never played, and now bringing in a questionable guy in Mitchell. Add in the roster and ratio cheating and Jones is becoming a Rider Nation embarrassment. :popcorn:
maxlion
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I just had a gander at Khalif's twitter page. Much of the content would clearly violate Canada's hate speech laws. Riders are crazy for bringing this guy anywhere near their team. Big mistake.
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CardiacKid
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Just finished reading a post on Yahoo Sports by Andrew Bucholtz where he discusses the signing of Mitchell in which he particularly highlights the Twitter activity of Mitchell within the last month. And without being overly dramatic, it is truly an offensive bunch of crap. I had to stop looking at them as I found they made my blood boil.

Edit: Here is the link to Bucholtz's article....https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/cfl-5 ... 48303.html. He wisely did screencaps of Mitchell's tweets as I imagine if Mitchell had any brains, he would be deleting them.
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CardiacKid
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DanoT wrote:The melt down at Riderfans is on the verge of going nuclear, mostly due to Mitchell's off field baggage. We know Jones doesn't care about that stuff but 2014 I think was Mitchell's last season as a Lion and he wasn't very good and he didn't play in 2015. So what is Jones thinking?
He plainly isn't.....

If you could take Mitchell's tweets, replace every instance of "jew", "jewry" and "zionist" with "Tennessean" and then show them to Chris Jones (Jones is from Tennesse), I wonder how he would feel?!?!
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Big Time
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The twitter feed is disturbing, and you have to believe that the Riders organization didn't even bother looking at it before signing him because if they did, and they signed him anyway, well, I guess that's the difference between regular incompetence and gross incompetence.

I've never been a fan of Mitchell and was an extremely harsh critic of his when he was with the Lions. While some tried to defend his actions as those of someone who was immature and ignorant, what I saw was someone who had no understanding of his actions, and who was not smart enough to understand the opportunity the Lions gave him. He was a danger to his opponents every time he stepped on the field, and his lack of discipline and immaturity was a detriment to the team. I was furious the Lions brought him back in 2014 and was glad he was cut.

There is no place for Khalif Mitchell on any CFL roster, practice or not. While I have some sympathy in the sense that I truly believe Khalif suffers from a mental illness, I believe this is something the CFL should be getting involved with and prevent him from playing in the league. If the Riders don't have enough sense to do it themselves, the league should step in and do it for them.
TheLionKing
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The signing of Khalif Mitchell just shows how desperate the Rider organization has become.
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WestCoastJoe
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Hmmmm ...

This CFL fan cannot help but think that Jones is exhibiting the inflated ego many have seen all along. He is something of a maverick. No problem there. He tries different approaches, as with not shaking hands post game. He ended that, it seems, in the friendly confines of CFL culture. He plays people in positions new to them. OK. He won the Grey Cup. Yup. But his arrogance seems to be leading to disaster in Regina. Couldn't happen to a more deserving organization. Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy. Has he even lost his coaching mojo? Dunno, but he is running his team off the rails. One wonders what the private thoughts of Ed Hervey are regarding Jones.

This fan had sympathy for Khalif, as a Lion, until we saw his tweets. He seems to be nothing but trouble, aside from whether he can still play the game of football.

Just IMO ...
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TheLionKing wrote:The signing of Khalif Mitchell just shows how desperate the Rider organization has become.
Chris Jones background as a defensive coordinator in the CFL was filled with success in Montreal, Calgary, and Toronto. He took an Edmonton team that was 4-14 in 2013 and turned that team around with a 12-6 record in 2014 and last year the Eskimos were 14-4 and went on to win the Grey Cup. That turnaround necessitated some very good coaching.

Chris Jones gutted the Riders this season but he brought over most of his successful Grey Cup coaching staff. One would have expected some early growing pains but I expected that things would be looking at least promising at this stage of the season in Regina.

I can only guess.... but there appears to be two major problems with Jones right now....the first is that he is wearing too many hats in Regina and secondly his quick turnaround of the Eskimos made his head too swollen.

At 1-8, Regina fans are growing restless and ever more disappointed. Jones came over as a savior and he believed he was a savior too. Turns out that it was not as easy as he expected, to say the least. Perhaps, if Jones wasn't so arrogant, fans would have more empathy.

Its important to the CFL that fans in Regina get an exciting product to watch play. Even though I always want our Leos to beat them and to finish higher in the standings I don't think its good to see Regina this mediocre. I also think its a good thing that Winnipeg is having some success as well.

Jones may be getting some well deserved medicine but having a league in which all teams can beat another team on any given evening or afternoon is a good thing. Eight of the nine present CFL teams are very competitive this season, which is a good thing.

Signing Khalif Mitchell is a head scratcher. Regina fans have stongly supported their team through some very tough times and are doing so again. They deserve better.
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DanoT
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There may not be a very large Jewish community in Regina but if Mitchell continues with his anti Semitic tweets and retweets, then I don't think that the Jewish communities in the rest of Canada will wait for the plodding CFL to take action.

Mitchell will need to change his off field actions or his stay in Regina will be very short lived regardless of his play on the field.

If Mitchell wants to play football he should shut up and shut down his twitter account.
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CardiacKid
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I am beginning to wonder if Jones simply signed Mitchell in order to poke and prod the Commissioner into doing something, anything that could then be portrayed as yet another example of the league's prejudice against the Riders.

Time to circle the wagons! Oh and by way, don't pay any attention to the wretched state of our play on the field. The ODS (Orridge Derangement Syndrome) pandemic that has swept across Riderville earlier in the year has been dormant for a couple of weeks; high time to resuscitate it.

I am partially kidding...but the fact I am potentially holding out for some weird Machiavellian manoeuvre on the part of Jones....this just keeps my head shaking.

Brian Bulcke apparently preferred being cut by the Argos instead of being dealt to the Riders. Ordinarily you would think defensive players would jump at the chance to play for the head coach who won the Grey Cup the previous year but also is a coach who has a great reputation for being a defensive guru.

Are we going to keep seeing guys like Mitchell signing with the Riders because the well has run dry?
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Well first off, Mitchell is only on the practice roster, not the active roster. Jones has probably brought him in for a look see thinking that if he doesn't like what he sees, Mitchell can be as easily punted. One might say that Jones is thinking he has nothing to lose with this guy but his popular opinion in Sask right now is waning very quickly. It isn't so much a lack of patience as it is a questioning of some of the moves that Jones and co have been making. No matter how much I hate the Riders fan base and what has been an insufferable lack of humility, I don't wish this kind of gong show on them. The league is better off when all teams are strong. I guess if there is a silver lining, the Riders organization is probably in a better position to weather this kind of overall collapse that has been 2016 for the Green and White.

I suspect Jones may not have been entirely aware of Mitchell's politics. Otherwise you would have to think that even he wouldn't have opened up this can of worms. Otherwise you are left with the conclusion that he is blatantly stupid which I don't believe to be the case.

Mitchell will probably be quietly released over the next week or two with the official reason being that he didn't show enough to merit staying.
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Lionsfan65
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Sir Purrcival wrote:Well first off, Mitchell is only on the practice roster, not the active roster. Jones has probably brought him in for a look see thinking that if he doesn't like what he sees, Mitchell can be as easily punted. One might say that Jones is thinking he has nothing to lose with this guy but his popular opinion in Sask right now is waning very quickly. It isn't so much a lack of patience as it is a questioning of some of the moves that Jones and co have been making. No matter how much I hate the Riders fan base and what has been an insufferable lack of humility, I don't wish this kind of gong show on them. The league is better off when all teams are strong. I guess if there is a silver lining, the Riders organization is probably in a better position to weather this kind of overall collapse that has been 2016 for the Green and White.

I suspect Jones may not have been entirely aware of Mitchell's politics. Otherwise you would have to think that even he wouldn't have opened up this can of worms. Otherwise you are left with the conclusion that he is blatantly stupid which I don't believe to be the case.

Mitchell will probably be quietly released over the next week or two with the official reason being that he didn't show enough to merit staying.
True, it is just a practice roster shot but still a surprise. If by some crazy chance Mitchell can return to his dominant 2012 form, this could go well for Jones and co. This is more likely to be a bust. If they keep loosing and making crazy moves Jones won't last past this season. I think the Rider fans might be sharpening the pitchforks and lighting the torches pretty quickly. :popcorn:
maxlion
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His tweets were as vitriolic towards muslims as towards jews. None of the media reports or public commentary mention this, so just pointing it out.
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