With any sort of criminal or civil allegations against an athlete, it’s understandable when it takes a while for the results of a league or team investigation to emerge. But it’s surprising when there’s a serious allegation and it takes a full week for an investigation to even be announced. That’s what’s now happened with the Canadian Football League and Toronto Argonauts’ quarterback Chad Kelly, who was accused of serious harassment in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit filed by a former strength coach last Thursday. (The plaintiff also has notable allegations against the team and particular executives around their reception to her reports of Kelly’s behavior, including that assistant general manager John Murphy told her she “should not have spoken to [Kelly] and that she has now ‘opened a can of worms that didn’t need to be opened.'”)
When that lawsuit initially was filed, and was reported on by TSN’s Rick Westhead, the only response from the team and the league was “The league is aware of the legal claim that has been made by a former employee against the Toronto Argonauts and Mr. Kelly. The League is currently reviewing this matter but has no further comment at this time.” That quote was given by an anonymous league spokesperson to media Thursday night, but it didn’t suggest any level of league investigation. And even that wasn’t posted to team or league platforms, but merely given out to media who asked.
That led to a lot of criticism for the CFL and the Argonauts. And there were discussions of if Kelly was receiving special treatment considering his status as the 2023 league Most Outstanding Player, as many less-prominent CFL players have been cut quickly after facing civil or criminal allegations, even without an investigation. But, on Wednesday, the CFL finally got around to announcing their own investigation into Kelly, and even posted a statement to that effect on their website. Here’s that statement:
The CFL is committed to creating healthy and positive working and playing environments for all those associated with the league and its member clubs.
We take the allegations against the Toronto Argonauts and Mr. Kelly very seriously and we have opened an investigation in accordance with the league’s Gender-based Violence Policy.
Out of respect for this process and all the parties involved, we will not be able to provide further comment until our investigation has been completed.
Of course, that doesn’t mean this is anywhere close to a resolution. And it doesn’t mean any action will necessarily follow against Kelly. The investigation may not find sufficient evidence to punish him for violating league policies. (This investigation is separate from the civil lawsuit against Kelly and the team, and that may have a different outcome of its own.)
However, it is worth noting that the CFL gives its commissioner (currently Randy Ambrosie, who has held that role since 2017) tremendous power to discipline or ban players. And allegations or charges of gender-based violence have often led to players being outright banned from the league. One of the most recent cases there came with Teague Sherman in 2018, when he was a member of the Ottawa Redblacks. Sherman was charged with sexual assault on July 12, then cut by the team on July 18, and Ambrosie issued a statement on the 18th that the CFL would not register a contract for him if any other team tried to sign him.
The two situations here are not one to one, of course. Sherman was facing criminal charges, Kelly is not at this point, and they were accused of very different things. (For the record, Sherman ultimately pled guilty to a lesser charge of assault in 2021.) And not all commissioner interventions have been outright bans.
A famous past commissioner intervention came with Johnny Manziel. Ambrosie did not allow Manziel to sign with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2017 over concerns about his past plea deal in a domestic violence case. He then allowed Manziel to sign in 2018 under certain conditions, but then eventually banned him from the league in 2019 after he violated those conditions. At that point, he was just the fifth player ever banned by the league, following Ray Rice (who the league changed its rules to block, and who it’s unclear if anyone even actually tried to sign), Justin Cox, Jerome Messam, and Sherman. So outright bans are certainly uncommon (and it’s far from clear that there’s anything here that would lead to that, with all of those previous cases involving criminal charges) but commissioner discipline up to and including that level is possible.
We’ll see what eventually comes of this Kelly investigation. But it is definitely notable that this has now progressed to a league investigation. Even if it took almost a full week for that to happen.
[CFL.ca]
