After his stellar 2023 CFL season with the Toronto Argonauts, Chad Kelly’s off-season couldn’t be going worse.
According to Justin Dunk of 3DownNation, a former strength and conditioning coach filed an amended statement of claim against the Toronto Argonauts and Kelly with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice last week..
In the document, the female plaintiff claims Kelly is liable for sexual harassment in the workplace contrary to the Ontario Human Rights Code.
She stated that the quarterback engaged in a “campaign of harassment,” including constant dating offers despite refusing his advances.
“Chad is a high-profile athlete, won the Most Outstanding Player award of the CFL in 2023 and is a role model to Canadian Football fans,” the lawsuit reads. “Given his important profile, Chad’s conduct deserves special reprimand from the court to send out a message that women must be treated with respect and Canadian courts will not tolerate behaviour similar to Chad’s.”
Kelly’s agent addressed the filing only by saying that they would not be addressing it in the media.
“This amendment is merely a procedural matter, and while we will not be addressing the process through the media, we look forward to our statement of defence speaking for itself,” Chris Lambiris said in the statement.
According to the report, an addition titled ‘Bills Incident’ in the suit outlines an alleged occurrence from October 2022 in which Kelly offered NFL tickets to the employee while insisting that she stay the night with him in rented accommodations following the game, which she refused.
According to the statement of claim, after she told Argos executive Michael ‘Pinball’ Clemons about the incident, Kelly allegedly became “visibly aggravated” upon learning about their meeting, saying “Oh man, why would you tell Pinball? You shouldn’t have gone to Pinball. You shouldn’t have done that. Why the f*** would you go to Pinball?”
The plaintiff also stated Kelly became “very adamant” toward the end of the 2023 season about “hanging out,” outside work and when she refused, Kelly “visibly got mad and aggravated.”
In a since-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter), Kelly denied the allegations and said he would “vigorously defend” himself.
“I am shocked by the allegations which have been made against me. I absolutely deny these events and intend to vigorously defend myself and will be seeking the dismissal of the action,” Kelly wrote on March 1.
CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie has said that the league has hired an independent investigator to probe the allegations and that it will not be commenting until the investigation has been completed.