Monday Morning Sentimonies: The Curious Case of Micah Awe

The Riders return from a bye and are busy prepping for a massive back to back set against the Elks in a battle of the top 2 teams in the West. Sadly this is under the dark cloud of the tragic passing of Jayden Dalke, a guy I always had a ton of respect for. I’ll have a full game preview later in the week but for today I want to talk about Micah Awe… something that should be one of the most talked about things in the CFL, but for reasons I still don’t understand no one seems to care. 

Simply put Awe is the dirtiest player in the CFL… and its not even close. But no one cares. The league does not seem to care. The media does not care. The fans don’t care. 

Here’s a quick summary of Awe’s dubious resume. Last week marks his 11^th time being fined. Since 2022 he has been fined 7 times. In 2023 he was fined 4 times in a 10 week period. This is Awe’s third max fine. For comparison, the previous unanimous dirtiest player in the game, Simoni Lawrence was fined 6 times. Awe will soon have that doubled. The only thing more laughable and illogical than the Blue Bomber’s insistence at calling Collaros’ ongoing concussion issues a “neck injury” is how Awe has avoided suspension. 

There is a pretty basic concept in the working world called progressive discipline. The intent is to deter bad behaviour. So you start with minor sanctions (i.e. written warnings) and if that does not correct the behaviour you progress to harsher and harsher sanctions like suspensions and ultimately potentially termination. The CFL’s approach to Awe is akin to a manager giving a serial sexual harasser 11 warnings but still letting him be in the workplace and continue harassing. Such a manager would be deemed incompetent and fired. 

I can only assume that Awe has some incriminating photos of someone at the league office. Or he provides some very good “personal services” (to be clear I am talking about fellatio). I understand that off the field Awe is actually a decent dude and active in the community. But that does not change the fact that on the field he is a danger to his opponents’ health. I don’t know why its tolerated. 

But I think what bothers me more than Awe’s repeated illegal hits is that no one cares. To be clear, if he played for the Riders he would have been run out of the league. Think I am being overly dramatic? 

Pete Roberson had a clean disciplinary record and was suspended for his one and only infraction. His was after the play as opposed to during a play but at least in Robertson’s case the league felt he was a danger to player safety and acted? One infraction got him suspended. Awe is on his 11^th strike. 

I’ll up the ante. We can all agree that Garrett Marino was a dirty player. His track includes one third of the infractions that Awe has racked up. I am not trying to argue that Marino didn’t deserve what he got, but a guy who has injured a fraction of the guys Awe has got attention from the league, media and fans all calling for his head. Why do we not care about the danger Awe poses to player safety? 

Mark my words, Awe will strike again and its likely he will injure a player. The CFL will have no one to blame but themselves when that happens. They can and should have taken harsher action a long time ago. 

Everyone in the media should also be embarrassed. I (some random dud with a blog) took the step of directly asking the League for a statement on the lack of suspensions for Awe. I will post that response if/when it is received. TSN and 3 Down Nation have not bothered to question the league on this. They were certainly vocal when it was Riders involved. I guess clicks matter more in this day an age than actual unbiased reporting.