Darrell Davis: Football hurts the victims

For different reasons, the two principal characters in the Hit Heard Around the CFL won’t be playing football for the next three weeks.

Hamilton Tiger-Cats linebacker Simoni Lawrence is on a bye week, but afterwards he’s serving a two-game suspension for maliciously hitting Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Zach Collaros. Lawrence’s foul tackle occurred in the season opener, but his appeal of the suspension wasn’t upheld until an independent arbitrator finally ruled on it this week.

Collaros hasn’t played since then because of a concussion, and he has three weeks remaining on the six-game injured list, according to Riders head coach Craig Dickenson.

Lawrence certainly wants to play again. Hopefully this suspension convinces him to change his on-field tackling, because the CFL certainly wants to take helmet-to-helmet hits out of the game. Collaros has repeatedly resumed playing after his earlier concussions, but it’s time he considered a safer profession.

It’s unfortunate the perpetrator in this incident is going to play again while the victim may not. But, hey, that’s football.