Saskatchewan Roughriders' defensive back Deontai Williams was remorseful about his hit on Ottawa Redblacks' receiver Kalil Pimpleton.
"I regret my decision, I wish I could rewind everything. On that play right there, I wish I could use my body weight to lay on them and get them down instead of trying to pick them up and slam them," Williams said.
"I spoke with Deontai the day after the game. If he had to go back and do everything differently, I'm sure he would," head coach Corey Mace said.
The play in question happened during Week 17 when No. 24 slammed Pimpleton on his head and received a 25-yard unnecessary roughness penalty and an ejection. After that play, there was a brawl between both teams, Redblacks receiver Dominique Rhymes received his second 15-yard objectionable conduct penalty, which got him disqualified from the game.
"We addressed it as a team. It's physical enough as is. No one's ever intending to hurt anybody that's not within the rules of the game. Certainly in Deontai's situation with that tackle, I believe he could've gone about it a different way," Mace said.
"The melee and all that stuff that happened after, that's not what we talk about and it's exactly everything that we're trying to get away from. Another opportunity for us to learn in a situation like that, learning to win with a little bit more class."
After he was ejected, Williams was pumping up the crowd. However, he wanted to set the record straight because it was not about his tackle on Pimpleton.
"Pumping up the crowd was never my intent of me hurting, slamming him down," Williams said. "The pumping up the crowd, we got the win. I'm pumping out the crowd like, yes, we are two and zero."
Williams made sure to contact Pimpleton to let bygones be bygones and explain his view on the play.
"I apologized to Pimpleton. We emailed each other and started talking, I told him that I've never been that guy that tried to get in the way of you feeding your family," Williams explained. "I was trying to get under you, but I couldn't. So it ended up looking bad of me slamming you to the ground. And you ended up falling on your neck."
Williams appreciated his teammates being there for him in the aftermath following the incident with Pimpleton.
"They have my back," Williams said. "I'm glad I got a team like I do now that has my back in certain situations like this if I was right or wrong."
The six-foot-one, 225-pound defensive back is in his second year with the Riders. He has played 11 games this season and recorded 41 defensive tackles with two interceptions plus one forced fumble. Williams had a conversation with Mace about his dangerous tackle.
"He was telling me stay up, stay focused, go through the process," Williams said. "We got your back."
The Roughriders are on a two-game winning streak and hope to continue the momentum when Saskatchewan travels to Edmonton for a match up with the Elks. Countdown to Kickoff with Justin Dunk and Wes Cates starts at 2 p.m. Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder have the call at 5 p.m. You can listen to all the Riders game day coverage on 620 CKRM.
