Courtesy Calgary Herald:

If Jason Jimenez had his way, nobody would ever again mention 2007, specifically a moment near the end of said year.

The B.C. Lions offensive tackle has had it with all attempts to revive the controversy of a Nov. 3 incident that left Stampeders defensive linemen Anthony Gargiulo with a severely broken leg.

A one-game suspension that would have kept Jimenez out of the West Division final was overturned when an arbitrator ruled the collision was accidental.

“New season brings on new challenges,” said Jimenez after Wednesday’s walk-through at McMahon Stadium in preparation for tonight’s Canadian Football League season-opener. “2007 is behind us. (Tonight) starts that new season.”

“There’s nothing to say. People are free to think what they want. If they have an opinion about it, that’s their prerogative and I’m just looking forward to 2008.”

Jimenez may be partially getting his wish because the Calgary defensive linemen say there hasn’t been any discussion about the Gargiulo incident in the locker-room.

“I really haven’t heard anything,” said first-year Stamp Howard Hodges, who spent 2007 with Hamilton. “The last pre-season game when we played them (a week ago in Vancouver) nobody did anything dirty or cut anybody at the knees that would (cause anyone) to bring up the incident. If it’s going around, I guess I’m not in the popular group because I haven’t heard anything.”

The matter won’t completely go away, however. B.C. Lions boss Wally Buono was ticked off by a line in the Stamps’ training camp guide that referred to Gargiulo’s potentially career-ending injury, mentioned Jimenez by name and described the play as a “late hit.”

“It was never a late hit,” insisted Buono. “Now it could have been an illegal block. It could have been unnecessary roughness. That’s all been discussed and the arbitrator threw it out, so that’s not the issue now. So now to say that a player has lost his career because of a late hit by a player and you name his name, that was inappropriate.

“Yeah, we were upset because the (information was) incorrect. If I was the player, I might seek my lawyer’s advice and ask him if there’s grounds here for defamation of character. If there was, maybe I can get some cheap money.”

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