Okay here's my question who do you guys think is the worst GM we ever had here in Riderville and why?
I have to say Al Ford was the worst simplely because when he was GM and a quality player became a free agent we as fans wanted him to make an offer to the player but he would always say oh no we can't afford him.
I know a lot of people don't like Roy Shivers but I give him his do when he became GM he at least went after quailty players to help the team.
And so the debate continues after all…
I would vote Bill Quinter …
I am thinking we are forgetting somebody though. Likely blocked from my memory intentionally…
I sense that you believe this for a specific reason. Did you know, you have your own mind, and you don’t have to agree with your dad about everything? It’s not a shot at you or your dad but really, I don’t see how Ford was any higher than 3rd worst ever behind Quinter, and the ever amicable Herrera. Everyone pre- Roy Shivers was in the same boat as far as resources.
Someone correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't Lancaster the coach and GM in 1979 and 1980? Then we had Herrara and Quinter. Al Ford was GM for quite a few years, at least from 1988 to 1999.
Al wasn’t the worst. But he certainly wasn’t good. Yes we won a Grey Cup, technically while he was GM. But that was Bill Baker’s team. We then began to spiral downwards for the next 10 years…
But the BoD need to take some of the heat as they tied one of Al’s hands behind his back for much of his era. Al should never have been in charge of player personal. He was terrific as the “money guy”, but couldn’t find a wide receiver to save his life…
I have bolded the “In my lifetime” part. Al Ford was the GM when I started cheering for the Riders in my younger years, my post in no way meant to say he was the worst all time.
Ford was definitely the most tumultuous GM we had as we experienced both times of high and low under him. We won the cup in 89 under him although it wasn't really his team as Baker basically handed him that cup when he handed over the keys to the office. We qualified for the cup in 97 but lost out to a ridiculously stacked Toronto team. But besides that, we had some terrible times under Al Ford and it was very difficult to be a fan of the Saskatchewan Roughriders when he was in control. I'm only 21 years old so I have only been around for Baker, Ford, Shivers, and Tillman. I think that in a way it's not really fair to compare Tillman with the rest of the gm's we've had due to the fact that he is working under the salary cap era which is much more friendly for a roughrider gm as this limits the amount of money big spending teams like Calgary, Toronto, Edmonton, and Montreal can spend on free agents as there is really no way the Roughriders could ever match their pocket books. Ford was especially terrible however, as he had absolutely brutal American contacts as the American players we recruited were absolute jokes compared to those recruited by other teams like Toronto and Calgary. Not only were they terrible but they were way overpaid in a lot of cases. The salaries of CFL players were reported up until 1995 and you can still locate a lot of that information via the internet. Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos. For example, playing Marquel Fleetwood who never took a snap as a Saskatchewan Roughrider, or a CFL player for that matter, a whopping $124,000. Meanwhile Narcisse wasn't even making 70k and Elgaard was making 110k. That is just one of the many reasons he nearly drove our franchise into the ground through bankruptcy. Thank god Shivers made us respectable although he avoided recruiting Canadian talent to the fullest extent. Some people considered Ford to be a penny pincher but after reading these reported salries it's obvious that he clearly spent his money in the wrong spots and screwed us over badly!
Nice info. He(Al) wasn’t the only man on staff responsible for scouting and recruiting. I believe it was Al that gave Brenden Taman his first job in the CFL. The Narco deal was mint as well, a real steal.
Ya it's crazy how cheap great players like Narco and Geno were back then. But I'm thinkin that Geno probably makes 6 figures now as he has been an all-star multiple times and has anchored our o-line for the past decade. But he's well worth it. Too bad he wasn't ageless and could play forever. That guy will be hard to replace when he's gone!