It would have been interesting to see how the CFL handled Garrett Marino this week, with the Blue Bombers and Riders meeting again in Saturday’s Banjo Bowl.
Turns out the Riders did the dirty work for the league.
The dirtiest and most dangerous player in three-down football is out of a job today after Gang Green handed Marino the pink slip late on Tuesday.
The move came after the defensive lineman delivered yet another cheap shot, flattening Winnipeg quarterback Zach Collaros after a pitch-out late in the Labour Day weekend grudge match in Regina on Sunday.
“You’ve got to protect the quarterback,” Collaros said as the Bombers returned to practice on Wednesday. “I don’t think anybody thought it was necessary.”
What happened two days later was absolutely necessary.
Marino’s release means No. 92 won’t be Public Enemy No. 1 in the Banjo Bowl rematch in Winnipeg, Saturday.
“Ultimately the league and teams are trying to protect the quarterback and that’s the most important thing,” Bombers O-lineman Pat Neufeld said. “He does bring things to the table, but then he plays the way that he does sometimes.”
Neufeld and his fellow linemen stopped short of celebrating the news, but you can be sure players around the league will raise a glass in favour of it.
“Says it all – he’s not in our league anymore,” is how Jermarcus Hardrick put it.
That it took this long is a puzzler.
Until Tuesday, Riders head coach Craig Dickenson had defended Marino as if he were kin.
“How Sask handles their business is none of my business,” Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea said. “From a fan’s perspective… putting the league’s welfare in your thoughts should be important. We all want the league to thrive. So not having really great players available definitely hurts our league.”
Over a career of just 15 games, spread out over two seasons, Marino managed to compile a rap sheet longer than Willie Jefferson’s shirt sleeve, including the longest suspension for an on-field incident in CFL history.
The four-game ban earlier this season came after Marino completed a half-witted hat trick against Hamilton: a dirty hit that sidelined quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, a racial slur and another dirty hit on an offensive lineman.
That one game, the punctuation mark on a career littered with transgressions, should have marked the end of him.
Instead, he returned to take another flagrant foul in his first game back, making a mockery of his claim to have learned his lesson.
Sunday’s brazen attempt to knock Collaros silly – the quarterback with a history of concussions landed hard on his throwing arm, but shook it off to remain in the game – was somehow the straw that blew some sense into Dickenson.
Or perhaps it was league commissioner Randy Ambrosie, recognizing there was only one option left, who made the call.
Either way, Ambrosie ensured Marino’s CFL resume will forever be limited to 15 games – and about half that many incidents – by sending a note to all nine teams on Wednesday.
The memo reminded them he, the commissioner, has the right to veto any contract, as long as he has a valid reason.
Keeping the rest of the players safe from the reckless hits of someone who can’t control himself seems as valid as they come.
There’s certainly nobody in Blue and Gold who thinks Marino should receive yet another chance.
“The behaviour’s repeated so many times, it’d be pretty tough,” O’Shea said.
So the heat is turned down a notch for Saturday’s sold-out Banjo Bowl.
Or is it?
“I don’t think so,” Collaros said. “It wasn’t a talking point going into last week. It’s a great rivalry. Saskatchewan’s a great football team, a great football town. Obviously there’s a lot of history between the two provinces and it’s going to be a great atmosphere in here. We’re really looking forward to it.”
That’s exactly it. While bad blood can fuel a rivalry – and lord knows we in the media are known to sprinkle a little fuel on a fire every now and again – a real rivalry, forged over decades of dislike, doesn’t need it.
It doesn’t get more real than Bombers-Riders, a conflict that’s about more than just football. It’s geographical and it’s personal, passed down through the generations.
Somehow, all that spills onto the field.
“They’ve got lots of guys who play on the edge,” Neufeld said. “And I think you have to play on the edge. You can’t habitually cross it. But they have some tremendous defensive linemen there that play hard and really physical and they’re leading the league in sacks for a reason.
“We’re going to have our hands full.”
Leave it to Hardrick to sum it up best.
“It’s still cranked up,” he said. “Another heavyweight fight. You take away the records. You just put two of the prairie teams in one bowl and let ’em go.”
Minus one ingredient the game doesn’t need.
pfriesen@postmedia.com
Twitter: @friesensunmedia
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