Like many people I (mostly) took a little while off from the Board after the loss in the Cup. Now I see that several people are wondering if there were any interesting anonymous quotes from league front office people and coaches surrounding the game. Here are a few that piqued my interest with bold on some particular ones:
•They won’t have as many coaching changes as us, but we’re hearing Hamilton is going to lose two more coaches to the XFL.They already had three or four from June Jones’ staff go down there. Can’t blame them with what that league is paying.
• (Jim) Barker, (Spencer) Zimmerman and (Shawn) Burke will all start trying to get more power. We’ll just do our jobs up here and watch them come back to the pack.
• Winnipeg just won the Cup, and Danny McManus is the most important guy they have finding players.We reward players, and we get rewarded as coaches. Danny should get rewarded. Montreal should hire him as GM.
Hamilton is Buffalo of the CFL. They can’t win a championship game.
• Young people screw up. We should give them second chances. Andrew Harris got beat up pretty bad by the media, but he came back and played his ass off. He made me proud to be Canadian.
• We always worry about the players partying too much on the road or during Grey Cup week. The way Hamilton coached it looked the Ticats coaches were out partying. I know they weren’t, but what a crappy coaching job on both sides of the ball. When their tackles couldn’t handle (Willie) Jefferson and (Jackson) Jeffcoat, Tommy (Condell) didn’t do near enough to help protect his quarterback.
• Why isn’t Richie Hall getting head coach consideration?
• We get fired. (Ed) Hervey gets to stay. Torey (Hunter) gets to stay. Wally (Buono) is going to get Neil (McEvoy) and Geroy (Simon) hired in Montreal. All four of them—Ed, Tory, Neil and Geroy—will get paid good, and Wally will get paid to be a consultant for Montreal. This league doesn’t give a shit about us assistant coaches. We’re scrambling, but who cares if they’re getting paid.
• Thiadric Hansen was the first pick in the global draft and the best player by far. His tackle in the Grey Cup doesn’t mean CFL 2.0 is working. The global players have been a failure for the most part other than that. To add another to the roster in 2020 is ridiculous, as the majority just cashed cheques without contributing last season.
• The biggest question that has to be answered this off-season is the coaches cap (football operations salary cap). Apparently there will be some discussion around that subject again. Don’t know if it will change, but there will be discussion, spearheaded by Dave Dickenson on behalf of the coaches. There’s no coaches’ union, so we need influential guys in the business fighting on our behalf. Coaches are getting axed, and young coaches are not getting the chances to learn and groom.
• When we signed Justin Medlock he said he hated Jeff Reinebold more than any coach he had ever played for. Beating Reinebold Sunday had to be sweet for Justin.
• (Brendan) Taman and (Geroy) Simon with Khari (Jones) in Montreal. That works. They all get along good, and that matters. Some scouts or personnel people don’t listen. Those guys know how to communicate with each other.
• All of those people over there in the East, if you listen to them, they think Pinball is going to make the Argos a lot better. Not with any of the three quarterbacks they have. (McLeod) Bethel-Thompson is OK. (James) Franklin isn’t ever going to be good enough. And the young quarterback (Michael O’Connor) isn’t ready. Not close.