you understand that opportunities for promotions have essentially always been granted in this league…no matter the timing…right? 2 GMs just ushered in a new era of FU on that front.
…interesting times ahead then…I’ve often thought that the ease which the league seems to allow coaching staff to move around from team to team was contractually flippant…maybe with the new rules set in place for staff the GM attitude of ‘no, you’re mine, you’re under contract and I don’t care what opportunity is out there’ is going to be the new reality…
Walters will have to remind everyone of the first class operation the Bombers are running and how respected throughout the league they have become. 
No, they didn’t. They declined to risk losing an important member of the coaching staff two weeks before FA opens. In December, that wasn’t a problem and nobody got declined. Should they happily allow coaches to interview elsewhere in September, too?
Maybe the lack of strong replacement candidates is making teams play things a little tighter this year, or maybe the ol’ “aw, shucks, sure… go ahead” mentality has burned teams one too many times. I don’t pretend to know why. But, I’ll be verysurprised if this comes back to haunt WPG or OTT when it comes to hiring future coaches.
After all, SK handed the keys to a guy who had bailed on teams before because he was the right option at the time to improve the Riders, which goes to show that business requires a short memory.
Which is a shame. The NFL has pretty much always been the same when it comes to opportunity. Now in the CFL teams have been handicapped on having the next man up on staff and learning … and now teams restricting promotions after years of it not being an issue. The cap forces this stuff and thus inferior staffs…horrible
And yeah… the it’s too late to grant it is a load of crap. It’s never been an issue in the past. If they don’t want to they don’t want to…thats fair enough and something staff will remember. Someone like huf would never do this
You expect this to be taken seriously when you say it happened 2 weeks before free agency?
Never been an issue in the past…even almost a month prior to free agency. That is reality.
Sask knew full well this would happen in time…they knew Jones was good and would get a shot. Pretty much anyone is going to take that opportunity and the Riders knew it would happen at some point. Guess they didn’t count on decades of tradition of not holding a coach back from opportunity being bucked
I am not so sure about this. I think this is possibly a new “reality” of the cap on Operations spending and numbers. Unfortunately, this all happened in the first month of it becoming a reality and I think even the Stamps would have to consider what they do, should a member of their team have an opportunity like this.
Do I believe everyone should be given a chance to better themselves … Yes!
Do I believe the new cap gives every team that opportunity … Not too sure about that anymore.
What was done prior to the new Operations Caps and what is done now are two different things. I think it is unfortunate that this is happening to any team, but I think the new cap created this situation. I think Ops People will have to think long and hard about their contracts, going forward. I predict we are going to see a LOT of 1 year deals, so that they can “shop” their services in the off-season. Takes the ability to “refuse” an interview out of the teams hands.
Give it a few years and this situation may have been handled differently by ALL parties, but where this is new, I think there is a bit of uncertainty all around.
Just my humble opinion.
…a possible, dare I say even positive, side effect of this new reality though might be the search and acquisition of talent outside of the usual regulars that move from team to team…necessity is the mother of invention…it’s either that, or, I have Adam Rita’s phone number if you need it bro…
…I’m in agreement with Mr.Lucky, Huf might not want to but finds himself having to…many GMs could be in this spot…
I think the one obvious fact is that PLOP (Paul LaPolice) is a virtual goner for 2020.
The Bombers organization, a community-driven team often shrouded in deep secrecy (usually to cover up bad business deals, poor operational management, fudged ticket numbers, overpaid salaries, winky-wink deals, etc.) have tied their can to their latest mantra - - -
ie. LOYALTY REWARDS
Pretty much the entire organization is preaching from the same hymn book, excepting players cut to the bone in recent weeks cuz loyalty doesn’t have its rewards - ie. Leggatt, Randle, Wild, etc.
The one outlier in this fascinating loyalty-rewards scheme is Paul LaPolice. He’s an American first, probably far better schooled in football coaching fundamentals than greenies like Mik O’Shea, Ky Walters, Buck Pierce (ex-player), etc.
And he’s the one thats hurt the most - forced to pass up well over 1/2 a million in salaries and benefits over the next 4 or so years.
I think he’ll put in his normal service for 2019 but remember, he’s got an anchor around his neck - and the anchor’s name is Matt Nichols. If Plop can’t snap Nichols out of his lethargy and tendency to go long periods mired in depressive slumps he’ll be axed mid-season or somesuch. . . . but still under contract to the Bombers. Riders would have to pay out Lapo’s contract in order to pick him up mid-season.
The Bombers would force that card cuz they don’t want to lose his knowledge to a rabid rival.
In any event the bombers should work this entire season as if Plop is gone in 2020, try to groom and shine an OC with loyalty wax.
Prolly Buck Pierce.
Bombers have a stable coaching staff but in the scheme of things - its slightly sub-average, average at best in the CFL. Plop is the only real star in their coaching roster. O’Shea still seen as donkey-stubborn and decision-nervous while Richie Hall’s defense isn’t gonna cut it in today’s CFL.
The other coaches are basically rounders, NCAA failures, free agent camp jock-sniffers and the like.
It doesn’t bode well for 2020. Especially because O’Shea’s planned back-up successor is now planning his own exit.
Somewhere out there, prolly on a secluded beach in Hawaii a petty little vagrant named Jeff Reinbold, is applying tanning oil to his body, using the leftover product to shine up his board and waiting for a call from the Riders - his next potential stop in a lifetime of bindle-sticking!
Except the Ticats have already announced him as their special teams coordinator…
Yup…like I said in another post…the cap forces this…and that’s a shame
But therein lays the problem…search them out…great…but now you are limited on bringing them into the system to develop with it so you can promote within and generate continuity. That hurts the final product.
Question is…how much does he help Buck at this point? He may limit that as a slap back. Buck could be a solid OC…but Lapo may elect to show him little thus year
OK, THREE weeks. I thought it was Feb 5th. If that makes you, or anyone else, discount the rest of my point, then that’s your choice.
Man, I sure don’t get the weight that everyone is putting on this. If athletes and coaches really avoided teams that made relatively benign decisions like this, every team in every league would have trouble keeping a roster.
LaPo is an adult and didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. Winnipeg looks tough this year, and if they do well and there are potential playoff and GC bonuses on the table, I won’t be the least bit surprised to see him in the booth again in 2020 if there aren’t any right opportunities elsewhere.
Batter part of 4 weeks
You don’t get why decades of standard practice changing us a big deal? Odd
…If anyone thinks this refusal to interview by the Peg and Redblacks is anything else but timing, then you’re dead wrong…Both Elizondo and Lapolice were allowed to interview for head coaching jobs recently…That was acceptable to both clubs AT THAT TIME…Both managers believed that allowing one of their key staff go at ‘this particular time’ (there’s that word again) would definitely hurt their respective teams…That being the fact you just can’t pull an offensive coordinator out of your asshat at this particular juncture of the season…Plans have been laid out for free agency to no doubt pick players who would fit that particular coaches game plan…As well a new league has popped up putting a further strain on hiring quality coaches…Ottawa and Winnipeg did the best thing for their teams AT THIS PARTICULAR TIME…I’m sure the fans of both clubs are glad they did…As for the riders…they need to look no further than within for their next hire, and if they’re looking to attach blame for their predicament that is also ‘within’ not in the Peg or the Capitol
Such nonsense.
Nothing to stop them from promoting from within now.
The old tired approach is New Coach. Assistants get fired.
New HC. Hire new assistants
Then that HC gets canned. Repeat.
And that’s been the norm.
And by Lapolice publicly crying about this (if true) speaks to his own failings as true HC material.