The sports world has seen plenty of emphasis placed on vaccination status, with that status required for many media interviews with players and for many front office or coaching roles, and with players also being placed in different protocol levels based on their vaccination status. We’ve also even seen a few teams move on from players specifically because they chose not to get vaccinated. But Tuesday provided an interesting twist, with the CFL’s Edmonton Elks (in the middle of trying to come back from a massive COVID-19 outbreak that caused their game last week to be postponed) releasing offensive lineman Jacob Ruby, and with reports that the team made that move because Ruby misrepresented his vaccination status. TSN’s Dave Naylor has that report:
According to sources, the @elks release of OL Jacob Ruby for breach of Covid protocol involves him misrepresenting to his team that he was vaccinated.#CFL #Elks
— Dave Naylor (@TSNDaveNaylor) August 31, 2021
Here’s the Elks’ official statement on the move:
The Edmonton Elks have released national offensive lineman Jacob Ruby, due to a breach of COVID protocols.
Ruby’s release was announced Tuesday by the Elks, as the team’s Tier 1 players, coaches, and staff are in the final day of a 10-day isolation period.
The University of Richmond product signed with Edmonton in 2017 after breaking into the CFL with the Montreal Alouettes in 2015.
The move is part of the club’s ongoing commitment to strictly following the CFL’s COVID protocols, which are in place to ensure the health and safety of all Tier 1 members and anyone they come in contact with.
No further comment will be provided at this time.
The 28-year-old Ruby was selected by Montreal in the first round (eighth overall) of the 2015 CFL draft following a four-year NCAA career with the Richmond Spiders. He was born in and grew up in London, Ontario, making him a national (Canadian) player for CFL purposes. He played in three games with the Alouettes in 2015, then 17 with them in 2016, and then signed with Edmonton in 2017; he’s been there since, playing in eight games in 2017, 15 in 2018, 17 in 2019, and three so far this year after signing an extension through 2022 last December (the 2020 CFL season was canceled due to the pandemic). Ruby started for the Elks at left guard in their three games so far this season, but he’s now been released following this breach. And if this actually was about him misrepresenting vaccination status, other CFL teams may not be eager to pick him up.
[Dave Naylor on Twitter; Edmonton Elks photo, via 3 Down Nation]
