During a phone interview yesterday, Hudson said he'd have a better chance of making the playoffs wearing black, yellow and white in Hamilton, something he never did during four seasons in Ottawa.
"When you lose a lot and you're in the public like I and the rest of the team are and lose like the way we were losing, I really couldn't look at my neighbours anymore," said Hudson.
"I'd run into the house. I didn't want to go to the grocery store. I was tired of being in a shell."
Hudson also said the Renegades are an organization headed in the wrong direction, "where it doesn't seem like the priorities were in winning anymore."
That opinion disappointed Renegades president Lonie Glieberman.
"We're going to spend more on player salaries this year than in any of the five years of the football team," said Glieberman, tending to his ski resort business yesterday in northern Michigan.
Glieberman hastily revealed the reworking of receiver and kick returner Jason Armstead's deal.
5-YEAR DEAL FOR ARMSTEAD
Armstead was signed for next season and a 2007 option, but the new deal, to be formally announced as early as today, would keep the speedster in Ottawa for the next five years.
Late last month, Glieberman thought he had secured Hudson to a long-term contract.
The club had offered Hudson a princely sum of $275,000, including a signing bonus for the first of a five-year deal.
With bonuses and incentives, the deal nearly could have made Hudson a millionaire over its course, a staggering contract for a CFL offensive lineman.
"He agreed, and it looked like we had a deal done," Glieberman said, speaking of a phone conversation he had with Hudson last month.
But Hudson never formally signed.
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