Courtesy Vancouver Sun:

On advice of Players Association legal counsel Ed Molstad, B.C. Lions offensive tackle Jason Jimenez chose not to give his side of the story to the media Monday.

Listening to his own counsel, Wally Buono also elected to punt.

Reaction to the one-game suspension of his starting right tackle? None. It doesn’t matter how he feels about it, he said. It doesn’t matter what he thinks of the incident that led to the suspension, he said.

If he had said “It is what it is,” no one would have been terribly surprised.

What the Lions’ head coach and GM did answer, kind of, was the one question that those of us who have known him a long, long time needed to ask.

“If you knew in your heart that Jimenez’s clip on Anthony Gargiulo was a despicable attack from behind, delivered with full intent to injure, would you defend him anyway, because he’s your player?”

Buono first chuckled. And then he sighed. “I guess what I would say is that there’s a precedent already on that,” he said.

He was harkening back to the suspension of guard Sherko Haji-Rasouli in September for ripping the helmet off the head of Saskatchewan lineman Scott Schultz and punching and kneeing other Roughrider players while B.C. quarterback Jarious Jackson was on the ground after recovering his own fumble.

“When Sherko was suspended, what was said? That his behavior in trying to protect the quarterback was understandable. His assault was not,” Buono said. “We preach to the players to protect each other, but we don’t preach to the players to use thuggery. So I think I’ve answered that.”

But that was September, and this is not. That was regular-season and this Sunday’s Western final — against those same Roughriders, at B.C. Place — is the game that either ends the Lions’ campaign or sends them to the Grey Cup. The stakes are a lot higher now, and at some point, Buono has to abandon principle and serve his masters.

The team comes first.

“No, no. The point is, what’s at stake is not the issue,” Buono said. “Your decision should never be based on what’s at stake, it should be based on what’s right and wrong. So therefore, to me, it was based on what I saw, and it was clear-cut what I saw.”

But what, really, did he or anyone else see?

Buono’s conscience may be spared because there is no video good enough to establish the intent behind Jimenez’s roll-block to the back of Gargiulo’s leg as the first half of both teams’ regular-season final was ending, Nov. 3 at B.C. Place.

Gargiulo, a Calgary Stampeders defensive lineman, was slowing down as a pass play to Lions slotback Geroy Simon was petering out along the sidelines. That’s when the hit occurred, shattering Gargiulo’s leg and quite possibly ending his career.

Beyond that understanding — because the CFL is still, in many ways, a mom-and-pop operation by comparison to the almighty NFL, where a player’s every twitch can be captured from three camera angles and cropped and blown up digitally — there is only a fleeting glimpse of Gargiulo falling, and the conflicting testimony of those involved, and the report of the umpire who threw the flag.

Based on that, the CFL suspended Jimenez on Monday for one game, and now the wrangling begins to see whether he will accept the sentence and hope the Lions advance to the Grey Cup, or appeal to an arbitrator, as Edmonton linebacker A.J. Gass did successfully in early September, when his suspension was reduced to a fine.

Meanwhile, Buono’s reputation is taking quite a beating around the league over the play of his offensive linemen — not only Haji-Rasouli and Jimenez, but left tackle Rob Murphy, who’s also been called one of the league’s sneaky-dirty players. And it’s not out of the question that, in the absence of quality footage, the suspension was a cumulative effect of their actions.

“I don’t want to make an assumption on why it came down. I was part of the hearing, and I thought the facts were well presented by everybody, and the commissioner made a decision on what he feels is best for the game, and I think you have to respect that,” said Buono.

He has been sniped at before, notably in Calgary when he had a frequently yappy team whose boasting often brought the best out in opponents. But this is more serious. Not merely poor sportsmanship this time, the allegation is that the Lions play dirty, and Buono looks the other way.

Remember Roughriders GM Eric Tillman, after Haji-Rasouli flipped out?

“To be blunt, it does speak to the real problem, and that’s lack of accountability at the highest level of that organization,” he said. “When an offensive lineman continues to cross the line of acceptable standards — which they have done over and over and over again in the past couple of years — it’s really pretty simple. Either the head coach encourages this type of excessive violence, or he condones it.”

Buono didn’t rise to the bait then, and he didn’t Monday.

“That’s part of the job, and I can handle that. Football is a physical game, an intense game, an intimidating game. If people are calling you out, it’s just a matter of being able to restrain yourself,” he said.

“It makes no difference to me. I know the kind of team we are, I know the kind of organization we are, I know what we hold valuable to us. And I have nothing in my mind to be ashamed of, and I don’t think our players do.

“How many [roughing] penalties has Jason taken this year? That was the third one, in 1,200 plays. So maybe last year he was a little zealous. But if he was that out of control, we’d be talking about 20-30 roughing calls. So either he’s not out of control and it was just an unfortunate thing, or you know, accidents do occur.”

Accidents do. But this wasn’t one of them.

A former Calgary player and broadcaster told me Sunday in Regina that he had watched the clip take place, and was so disgusted by the intent to injure, he thought Jimenez should be gone as long as Gargiulo.

Forever, he meant.