If there was ever a Fight Club element to the CFL, the first rule would be: Don’t talk about hiding healthy players on the six-game injured list.

While it goes without saying, teams looking for a little relief from the salary cap have kept the odd player or two out a little longer than necessary, things can get pretty complicated real quick when trying to define healthy. After all, beyond opening day of training camp, when is a professional football player really at 100 per cent?

The salary cap, on the other hand, is a hard line at $5.7 million this past season with no wiggle room, which could end up costing a team fines and draft picks for going over.

So while teams want their best players playing as much as possible, if a cheaper replacement happens to be getting the job done in the meantime, why not stretch it out a little longer to save on some cap space?

Obviously, there is plenty of grey area here. If an injured player is deemed healthy enough to play but can’t fit back in under the cap, it could mean his release. And if that player can show he was still injured, it could result in a cap hit through arbitration. In the end, who is to say a team isn’t simply being cautious in not wanting a player to come back too early and risk re-aggravating an injury?

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Then there are other times when you can only wonder, like with former Eskimos receiver Kenny Stafford.

He was traded to the Saskatchewan Roughriders last season after putting up numbers over the first seven games that had him on pace for a career year. Only, he never saw the field again, spending the majority of his time on the long-term injured list after Jordan Williams-Lambert ended up making his way back to Regina following a failed NFL bid. It’s either that, or Stafford must have tripped and stumbled across the Straw Curtain, landing straight onto the trainers table.

Fans can decide that one for themselves, but for now it serves as an example of the creative cap management that has become commonplace throughout the league. To varying degrees, of course, with some clubs more notorious than others for tucking away salary in the form of injury.

What is altogether less common, however, is hearing such discussions reach the public realm.

But that is exactly the situation the Eskimos appear to be in after a former employee blew the whistle on their cap correctness.

Last week, CTV Edmonton reported the Eskimos are being sued by their former director of human performance for wrongful dismissal, accompanied by claims he had been directed to circumvent the salary cap.

Kyle Thorne was brought in to help with injury prevention and recovery in 2018, after the Eskimos’ body count the previous year made them the first team in CFL history to surpass the $1 million mark in injured salary.

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In a statement of claim filed in Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench on April 2, Thorne alleges he was fired unfairly over an $800 error in accounting, as well as for refusing what he called personal favours to general manager Brock Sunderland on multiple occasions to keep players on the six-game injured list and their salary off the cap.

“It was super uncomfortable. It felt like I was being set up to be a fall guy if anything ever happened,” read a statement from Thorne, who was paid an annual salary of around $100,000 by the club.

Part of the job involved giving injured players a clean bill of health to return to the field.

“I was the final step to clear players to go back into practice,” said Thorne, who previously held the same role with the Ottawa Redblacks and was a strength and conditioning coach for the NFL’s Jets and Chargers.

Thorne is seeking $615,550 in damages, including $250,000 in punitive damages, from the Eskimos.

“Their conduct was high-handed, harsh, reprehensible, abusive and contemptuous of Mr. Thorne’s rights, or otherwise offended ordinary standards of morality or decent conduct in the community such as to be deserving of sanction by way of an award of punitive damages,” the lawsuit reads.

Thorne’s duties also included meal planning and partially reimbursing players and coaches for meals. The administration of that program was called into question by team executives on Nov. 28, just four days following the Grey Cup and the end of the season.

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He said he was given his termination notice for what basically amounted to an $800 error in his own records, with the team claiming he had stolen money from the program.

“(The team) has conducted an investigation into your involvement in the misappropriation of (team) funds and has concluded that you did, in fact, indirectly divert funds from (the team) for your personal benefit,” read the letter, which is documented in the lawsuit.

While Thorne’s allegations have not been proven in a court of law, the Eskimos statement of defence denies he sustained any of the losses and damages alleged.

“(The club) denies that it acted in a high-handed or improper manner in conducting its investigation or in its dealings with Thorne, as alleged or at all,” the statement reads. “At all times, (the club) treated Thorne in a fair and proper manner, in good faith and with respect and dignity. (The club) has at all times complied with its obligations to Thorne as Thorne’s employer.”

The Eskimos’ statement of defence also disputes the money involved as more than a simple clerical error.

“Based on its investigation, (the club) determined that Thorne has misappropriated at least $1,000 in (club) funds by collecting meal payments from football operations staff for meals paid for by (the club) and depositing those meal payments into his personal bank account with the intention of retaining those funds for his own personal benefit.”

The statement of defence also denies any sort of wrongdoing in regards to administering the salary cap.

“The allegation that Thorne was ever asked to falsify athlete testing results is patently false,” reads the statement. “These allegations are unfounded, wholly inaccurate and defamatory and are intended to intentionally harm the reputation of Brock Sunderland and (the Eskimos). As such, (the club) seeks elevated costs of this action as against Thorne.”

Editor’s note: The above story has been amended to include the Eskimos’ statement of defence in this lawsuit.