AM LEAVING FOR GOOD: Chad Kelly Announced he is leaving and never return again

There was a time earlier in his career when Zach Collaros would have fought tooth and nail to stay in a game after suffering a head injury.

He might not even have let his coach or medical people know that he’d been shaken up.

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But the Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback has learned a few things over the years.

So when he had his brain rattled by a late hit in Regina last Sunday, Collaros understood exactly why he was told to take off his helmet and shoulder pads for the rest of the game.

“With my history of head injuries, as you guys know it’s well-documented, and neck issues that I’ve had, we usually err on the side of precaution,” Collaros said as the Bombers returned to practice on Wednesday. “I wasn’t really in a position to fight with him. He is the doctor. Understanding some of the consequences if you do have a concussion and what can happen after if you stay in the game… certainly at this phase of my career I lean more that way.

“That’s something that I can trust in, my wife can trust in, my mom can trust in. So that’s good.”

Leading 22-14 when Collaros went down late in the first half, the Bombers immediately extended their lead to 15 points, then hung on for a 35-33 win without him, the outcome in doubt until the last second.

Even with the knowledge and maturity he’s gained about concussions — he’s suffered a near handful of them in his CFL career — the quarterback’s brain still wrestles with the notion of being taken out of a game.

“That’s the hardest part,” Collaros said. “You feel awful being out. It’s the battle you have in your head, and it feels like it’s a really long period of time but it’s usually a couple of minutes. It’s something you never want to do.

“You take all the reps at practice, you talk in the meetings, all that goes into it, you do it together for you to be out there on the field. You’re the guy with the ball in your hands. To just leave the game like that, it sucks.”

The Labour Day Classic was shaping up to be one of Collaros’s best games of the season — he’d thrown for 218 yards and directed two touchdown drives — when Saskatchewan defensive lineman Miles Brown delivered a head shot after he’d released the ball.

It’s the third straight season No. 8 has taken a dirty hit in the big rivalry game.

Two years ago, it was the final straw in Rider D-lineman Garrett Marino’s controversial career, while last season it led to a one-game suspension for Pete Robertson.

Collaros stopped short of calling for the league to impose a fine or suspension against Brown.

“I don’t want to sit here and advocate for people losing money,” he said. “That’s up to the league and our union. Our union is typically in a tough spot. Because they have to protect everybody. The pocketbooks included. So we’ll see.”

As of early Wednesday afternoon, Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea had yet to hold his weekly call with a league rep, where he’d be discussing the hit.

But one thing O’Shea would like to see used more often as a deterrent: Players ejected from games.

“Where an ejection could be warranted, I’d like them to use that tool,” the coach said. “And I’d like them to use it at the first chance they get. And that will be the deterrent you need around the rest of the league. Because coaches will talk about it differently, players will see it differently.

“There are other plays where you could do that. I’m not sure everybody’s on the page to get that done.”

O’Shea, who sits on the CFL rules committee, says the resistance to ejections extends onto the field.

“I believe the officials don’t want to have that drastic effect on the outcome of a game,” he said.

Bombers president/CEO Wade Miller on Monday called for CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie to instruct the officials to bring down that hammer in cases like this latest one.

Former quarterback Buck Pierce, now Winnipeg’s offensive coordinator, says the more that can be done to protect quarterbacks, the better.

“I don’t like any hits like that on quarterbacks,” Pierce said. “Whether it’s ours or anybody else. We continue to educate our players on those things… as coaches we have to continue to teach the standard on what’s allowed and what’s not allowed.”

The Bombers and Riders square off again in the Banjo Bowl rematch on Saturday, a game that has also produced its share of nastiness over the years.

But Collaros downplayed the notion the heated rivalry is behind the cheap shots he’s experienced in the last three Labour Day Classics.

“It’s probably a coincidence,” he said.

Perhaps.

Or maybe he’s learned another thing over the years: not to stoke this rivalry.

That’s okay. It doesn’t need any stoking.

paul.friesen@kleinmedia.ca