Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting has been a theme in Canadian sports before, with CBC actually using the Nickelback cover to introduce Hockey Night In Canada for a while. Well, this Saturday night was also all right for fighting, but in the CFL, where Montreal Alouettes’ receiver Adarius Bowman and Edmonton Eskimos’ defensive back Mercy Maston got into quite the confrontation in the second quarter of Saturday’s game:
Here’s another look at that exchange, which saw some initial contact, then a push from Maston, Bowman knocking off Maston’s helmet with a shot of his own, and Marston responding with a couple of slaps:
That led to both players getting ejected:
It’s notable that Bowman (who played for North Carolina and Oklahoma State in college) played in Edmonton from 2011-2017 before getting cut in February, signing with Winnipeg and then getting traded to Montreal. Boise State product Maston was signed by Edmonton last May, so the two were teammates last season. And they definitely weren’t happy with each other on this play.
The ejection exchange may actually have worked in Montreal’s favor, as Maston is a starting cornerback and Bowman’s more of a depth receiver at this point, but the game went in Edmonton’s favor. This came near the end of the second quarter with the Eskimos up 27-14, and they extended that lead to 30-15 by the end of the third quarter. But that’s not all that surprising, considering that the Eskimos entered this game 5-3 and the Alouettes were 1-7 (and also giving Antonio Pipkin his first CFL start thanks to Johnny Manziel being in the league’s concussion protocol). The fight may have been the most surprising part of this game.
[Clippit]
