I believe Jones will take the Rider offer, if it has been made.
He moves around a lot, does not exhibit "loyalty" and his mentor is Bill Parcells who has done the exact same things during his career.
Only loyalty is to certain players. Patrick Watkins for example. I can’t think of a coach that has followed him from job to job that he’s been particularly loyal to.
I would not be surprised to see him take the job either. Rumors out there this morning suggest he and Hervey don’t get along very well which, if true, would seem to make it even more likely he jumps ship. And with about half the Esks starting defence, give or take a Dexter McCoil who could become a FA depending on how his contract dispute works out, Jones could take a number of guys over with him and speed up any Rider revival.
I’m not buying that media BS. If that was indeed the case, they would deny permission to the Riders and use the time to sign up their guys and let the Riders stew in their own mess.
This whole thing also proves why I think a SMS without a control on football operations is just taking money out of players and owners pockets and lining up the football ops people.
How the F*** is this their own creation. Show me one reference to the Riders offering Jones this money. Come on times up. Let’s see it. This is Gary Lawless creation and nothing but. As for Riders being lucky to keep O’Day around. Give your head a shake. They could have anyone they want and will get who they want, and again will own the Allouettes next year and for the next decade…
Doubling his salary and giving him full control in Regina will be tough to turn down . Edmonton may be able to match the money but not the full control piece .
Sure they can. EH will do whatever is best for the Eskimos and if that means him becoming VP and having the equivalent role Hugh Campbell had. I would be surprised if this was a problem for him. At this point, if ANY offer was made by Reynolds to Jones or his agent while he’s under contract without permission from the Eskimo organization, Orridge should impose a huge fine and draft pick penalty to the Riders organization.
Edmonton fans endured 10 years of seeing their organization struggle, mostly badly while the Riders went over the CAP FOUR TIMES and bought a cup which got them in SMS hell and now your going to let them come in and dismantle what they’ve built in Edmonton?! How is that good for the CFL ? crowds of 20 000 in Edmonton ok ?
Reporters can -- and should -- ask anything they want, when they want. Jones was under no obligation to answer the question, and guess what -- he didn't! That's life in a free society with a free press. No legitimate journalist is going to refrain from asking a legitimate question out of concern about offending the subject. If they did, no hard questions would ever get asked (or answered).
You guys complain when the CFL gets a lack of media attention, and then you’re mad about a reporter doing his job on what is a completely legitimate football story?
:roll:
The Riders shouldn’t be leaking this stuff to reporters, especially during Grey Cup week. That’s just stupid. It should be considered tampering and punished by the league, but we know tampering in the CFL carries little real consequence, and this commissioner in particular hasn’t shown a whole lot of willingness to push back against the teams.
The figures also demonstrate how out of control coach salaries are, and what HfxTC is true - teams are just going to spend the money they’re not spending on players elsewhere. So long as competition drives them to win, if they can get an edge by paying more for a better coach, that’s where the money will go. Then they’ll all be crying poor again.
I do agree with you pw13. The reporters can ask what they want/can bring rumours whenever they want. We are in a free country. The League Commissioner cannot censure what a reporter writes or says.
In every League there are rumours almost everyday and many of them never happen. Some fans pay to much attention to these rumours.
Will Chris Jones end up in Saskatchewan? I don't know. What I do know is that if he feels he has a better financial and working situation in Saskatchewan, he is free to go. He may prefer staying in Edmonton,even for less monies. If he does go to Saskatchewan, I expect that he will ask for at least a 5 year agreement.
You realize Chris Jones is under contract right ? This is a league that went to the courts to block Chris Williams breaking his contract to make more money but according to you, its fine that “executives” can break theirs at will.
Not to mention that guys like Jones, Barker… would be the first one to sue their employer if their contract was broken.
It’s a long standing tradition in the league that if a coach under contract is offered a promotion (and Coach/GM would be a promotion), they let the guy go. They don’t have to do that, but they usually do. So that part isn’t an insurmountable hurdle.
That said, if Saskatchewan didn’t get permission from Edmonton to speak to Jones, then telling a reporter that they plan to offer him this money knowing full well that he’ll report it would be tampering, if it was a player. I don’t know if coaches have similar rules. I do know that the CFL punishments for tampering are kind of a joke, so they probably don’t care anyway.
Sorry, but I don’t really understand your outrage. Jones is a big boy, he can take care of himself. And he’s always been about sticking it into people’s faces and being irreverent, so if that’s what’s he getting here then so be it. Besides, it’s been no secret that the Rider organization and, in truth, the entire Rider fan base (except maybe you) have been name-dropping and speculating before the playoffs ever started. I listen to Jamie Nye and Warren Woods and those guys on the Green Zone talk about it all the time. So, why not just come out and ask the man himself what the deal is?
Thumbs up to you Richard, I have considerable respect for you on how your posts are written/addressed with confidence. My view on this is an opportunity/promotion for Chris Jones to be the Riders GM/HC. Understandably so if Chris Jones wants the job it’s there for the taking. All in all Jones was well aware of the position well before the season ended - A decision he’ll make, I honestly feel Chris Jones takes the offer to become the Roughriders next GM.
Lawless is such a tool, he’s probably made this up in his own mind . Chris Jones is still under contract to the Eskimos, not sure if Hervey is the type to let him walk away from that.
I don’t think the Eskimos will just let Jones just walk away. He’s spent a lot of time building this team up to be Champions I doubt he’ll just walk without enjoying the rewards.
I’m sure Hervey will sweeten the pot to keep Jones around . Typical of the Riders to approach a CFL coach that’s still under contract.
Maybe the Riders went to Lawless and asked him to report on it . They can always say it wasn’t them that made it public .
Maybe the intention was to throw the Eskimos off their game, since the changing of the name “Eskimos” had no effect.