You know the old saying, if you don’t learn from history, you will repeat it.
What the hell is going on in Montreal? They hire DM as gm, I can’t bring myself to say his name.
He had a LOSING record with the Esks (not withstanding the first year, that team was assembled when he arrived)
Look what happened once he made his moves, disaster stuck and it took the Esks years after he was fired to recover.
Didn’t they learn with the hiring of reed? A nother gm with a LOSING record. From Edmonton again!
What is wrong with hiring a GM with a winning record?
I get the team hired him for his French and university record but will not translate in to cfl wins.
The fans will take a winning team with no French GM than a losing team with DM.
Dam i thought the circus was over!
…too early to judge how DM will work out as the team is already more or less established and his footprint on the team (through draft or FA acquisitions and scout signings) won’t happen for a couple/few years…I’d hesitate tar-and-feathering him over his past accomplishments, everyone deserves a second chance, and good-or-bad this does bring a great level of stability to the Als (something they sorely needed right now)…
Very well said! Thanks!
Growth happens with execs too, so his first run as a COACH 10/15 years ago is not going to define his run as a GM now.
Hell, even Anthony Calvillo sucked his first years as a young QB, it took Tom Landry several years to establish the Cowboys as a power house, and before they were NFL royalty in New England and Seattle, both Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll were mediocre in their first jobs.
Wait and see
Maciocia had Ricky Ray in his prime and for FOUR years could not protect him…
I’m not sure putting Landry and Belichick in the same conversation as Maciocia is a wise thing :o
Maciocia’s teams in Edmonton and even at UM always had protection issue. UM was pretty much a run first team for his ten years and why Laval got the better of them most of the time.
Thanks for your input. But for the record DM was coach and director of Fort ball operations and GM during his tenure in Edmonton.
It took Edmonton years to recover from his tenure.
Yes people grow as time goes by but DM went from the above in a pro league to his duties in university ball. A step back. Out of the loop all these years.
My point is simple, better candidates with a current pro resume and less baggage are available.
Why start a new era with this guy?
Maybe he has learned something.
either way, based on what Stern has said, he wants to win and win very soon.
If DM doesn’t win soon he will be out.
However for a team trying to recapture fans, having two faces of the franchise that can speak French should be a bonus.
Hopefully things go well for them. Just not when they play the Riders.
The league needs as many stable teams as it can get. I hope this brings in the fans in Montreal.
I too hope they do well - just not against The Riders. 8) 8)
I’ll be the first to predict that DM will do just fine, and the Als will win a championship with him. Circumstances in Montréal today are very different from what the were in Edmonton 10 years ago.
I’ll be available for heaping helpings of crow if and when that becomes necessary.
I’m willing to give him a chance.
Anybody but Popp.
Not like fans have a choice in the matter. But if he does the job as he did in Edmonton. He will likely be the last one who gets a chance.
That’s the one thing I’m pinning my (very faint) hopes on. He HAS to be smarter and savvier after 10 years out of the league. And he must realize that if he tanks in Montreal, pretty much the best setup he could hope for (revitalized team led by dynamic young head coach, enthusiastic new owners with deep pockets, in his home city, where the media are predisposed to swoon over him and minimize mistakes), then it’s curtains for his CFL career. He wouldn’t be hired anywhere else in the league, so he’d better work damn hard to make sure his tenure in Montreal is successful.
Look, DM is already behind the 8 ball, Way behind many of the other teams
- has no scouting staff
- hasn’t signed a single Free agent off last seasons team yet
- if there was any cap space left over from 2019 it had long expired on DEC. 31
He has a ton of work to get done
If he succeeds immediately it will be a miracle!
Give him some time
Every other seasoned potential GM declined with thanks, I think MTL is lucky to have him
Danny Maciocia was givenmoney than the first set of candidates were offered. Probably the same goes for length since they had to “convince” him to leave the University of Montreal. Yes, there is a cap for football operations, and there are only 9 teams. Still, I suspect Maciocia salary is somewhere near or at the top for GM’s.
I am speculating here, but we could be talking about paying off at least some of an expensive 5 year? contract if things do not work out.
My gut feeling is that the public will say the Als foolishly overpaid when Justin Dunk eventually reveals Maciocia’s contract.
$10 per year … maybe a tiny bit high
Uh, no. The decline was because we had no ownership at the time. I’m sure we could have gone back to the shortlist pool and the candidate responses would have been very different. But we didn’t. We chose to hire Maciocia, whom we are in no way “lucky” to have. Whatever, it is what it is. I’m not going to complain if the first year dips. But this is Maciocia’s team now. He can play the “I was hired too late” card this year, and this year only. Next offseason, we’ll see.
It was way more than “no ownership”, Sure it was a big part of it, but,
The potential GM’s(McManus, Burke and Rigmaiden) all jumped on a jet to Vancouver to interview with Wally, Boivin and Khari Jones on Dec.10th long before ownership was done.
They would not have bothered if they didn’t want the job
Yes, they jumped on a plane. Then they likely found out that the team still had no owner, the deal with the Lenkovs had tanked, and the franchise was in debt. So they bailed. Fair play to them. No one wants to walk into a shaky ownership situation. But once we got new owners? Different ballgame. But our new owners didn’t even interview anyone else. They just went straight to Maciocia. And again, fine. I don’t like it but it’s a done deal. But we aren’t “lucky” to have him. If anything, he’s lucky to have us, sitting on what is likely a lucrative and long-term contract. Would any other CFL team have shelled out for him the way we did? Not. A. Chance.
D+P, I have to agree with this statement.
When I said “lucky to have him” I mean’t it as someone to take over so late into the off season
When he took over the team Stern said he had 2 President and 2 GM candidates to interview.
I’d be real curious to know who his 2nd GM candidate was.