By Perry Lefko, Sportsnet.ca

The Calgary Stampeders have paid a price for free speech.

The Stampeders football club received a $10,000 fine on Tuesday for publicly making disparaging comments towards the Canadian Football League.

In a frank letter made available to the media, the Stamps called on all CFL teams and the CFL office to significantly increase efforts to create a higher level of consistency in the on-field product.

The letter came on the same day the Stamps announced quarterback Henry Burris will be sidelined a minimum of two weeks with dislocated shoulder.

Burris suffered the injury to his non-throwing shoulder late in a game last Friday against Hamilton, which won 24-20.

Burris will be evaluated on a week-to-week basis after the next two weeks. He had been one of the CFL's leading passers at the time of his injury and his loss impacts upon the Stamps' season.

The Stamps insist a penalty should have been called on the play. They believe Hamilton linebacker Zeke Moreno caused the injury with a hit out of bounds. The officials did not throw a flag and the League office reviewed the play and determined there was no unnecessary roughness and no added discipline warranted.

"This organization has been actively involved and supportive of all the major initiatives launched in the CFL over the last three years. These include the salary management system, its creation (and) enforcement, instant replay and significant television initiatives," the statement said. "The organization acknowledges the League office have given the incident in question due process and completed its review and issued a decision on the issue.

"The above notwithstanding, however, as an organization we do not agree with the decision rendered by our League office. Henry Burris as all quarterbacks within the CFL are critical to the success of our League. Our rules are written to go out of our way to protect whenever possible some of our most valuable assets.

"We have reviewed over 50 calls which have been made this year for roughing with respect to quarterbacks. It is our opinion that Henry had given himself up, was completely out of bounds, completely on the ground and the ball had both struck the ground and was actually out of his hand and the play completely dead, all this occurring before the hit took place.

"In comparison to the 50 or more plays that we have reviewed, in our opinion this play was clear-cut roughing and should have resulted in a penalty and the ball first-and-goal from the two-yard line. In our opinion had this occurred the result of the game would be entirely different and the Stampeders would be 7-4-1 and second place in the Western Conference. This record would have all but ensured us a playoff spot."

The Stamps are 6-5-1 and third in the West, one point back of second-place Saskatchewan.

"Henry is an extremely valued member of our football family and as an organization support his recovery and look forward to his return.

"As an organization we will continue to support the CFL and, in particular, our League office, however we believe it is of the highest priority that all membership ownership groups, and equally as important our League office, significantly increase our efforts to create a higher level of consistency in the product we offer all CFL fans.

"This is the only comment we will make on the issue as the team is now focusing on (playing) the B.C. Lions."