Looks like Bombers GM Joe Mack will get the heave-ho

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This article was published 09/08/2013 (4491 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With the Winnipeg Blue Bombers floundering and a deflated fan base demanding change, general manager Joe Mack’s job is teetering on the edge.

Earlier this week, Bombers CEO Garth Buchko advised the team’s board of directors to fire Mack, after just over three seasons at the helm. The board is scheduled to meet Wednesday and vote on the recommendation, a board member told the Free Press on Thursday, but they could convene an emergency meeting before then.

Mack has one season left on his contract, which pays him approximately $300,000 a year. If the board does vote to can the GM, they will likely vault current assistant GM Kyle Walters into the top spot on an interim basis.

Bombers spokesman Darren Cameron declined comment on the report Thursday afternoon. Mack, who is scouting NFL camps, could not be reached for comment.

The news is not so surprising, not after a tumultuous Mack tenure marked mostly by failures and a 21-39 record. Although the Bombers did make it to the Grey Cup game in 2011, under the guidance of then-coach Paul LaPolice, the team fell flat in 2012. When Mack canned LaPolice after the squad started that year 2-6, it was understood the GM himself would be next on the hot seat if the Bombers continued to flail.

“Joe… will be held accountable, and we’ll see where that goes,” Buchko said then, but he reiterated that Mack had his and the board’s support.

Indeed, the CEO opted to retain Mack at the end of last season — but appended the decision with a warning. “We are in the winning business,” Buchko said. “The expectation for Joe, Tim (Burke) and myself is to win… Next year we have to win. We could line up excuses for this year. But we’re not in the excuse business. We have to be responsible. There are no excuses next year. We have to be accountable to wins.”

But the Bombers haven’t been winning this season, with a frustrating loss to the B.C. Lions on Monday sliding them down to 1-5 on the year. While some other CFL clubs are rolling in an embarrassment of riches at pivot — Calgary, Toronto and Saskatchewan have all seen brilliant displays from backups — Mack has been unable to find a reliable solution at that position, despite pledging to Buchko last fall that he’d “fix it.”

Instead, Mack passed on veteran Kevin Glenn, now throwing well in Stampeders red, and on up-and-comer Mike Reilly, now with Edmonton. He elected instead to stick with talented but sometimes fragile starter Buck Pierce, who has now been bumped to third string in favour of untested Justin Goltz and first-year CFLer Max Hall. Goltz is now 0-2 in his first professional starts.

It wasn’t supposed to go this way. Mack was unveiled to the media in January 2010, while board member Joe Poplawski beamed that his unanimous appointment was “a very special day in our 80 years of Blue Bomber football.” The new GM, Poplawski pledged, was a man of leadership and football wisdom, not a silver bullet but a bearer of a “unique perspective” that would help shape up the chaotic football club.

Poplawski prefaced this bright list of qualities by saying, “In Joe Mack, we believe…”

That belief was built on Mack’s resume, one which included two championship rings: One from the 1984 Grey Cup champion Blue Bombers, one from the 1992 Washington Redskins. He was 55 when he was hired, and had worked 20 years in pro football, ever since joining the Bombers as player personnel director in 1984. That’s where he met and befriended then-Bombers GM Paul Robson, who would later champion him for the Bombers’ big gig.

In 1987, he left the Bombers to become a college scout with the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. In 1991, he landed a gig as personnel director for the Redskins, and from there he ascended through the big leagues, serving as assistant GM of the Carolina Panthers in 1994, when he helped lead them to the best first-year outing of any expansion team. He was chosen to help rebuild the Cleveland Browns in 1998, and he stayed there for three years.

But while Mack came with some accolades, he’d also been out of the pro game for almost a decade, ever since he walked away to spend more time with his family. He worked as a consultant to NFL teams instead, until the Bombers came calling in 2010. By then, Mack’s children were all but grown, and the CFL’s more relaxed quality of life appealed.

So did the chance to return to Winnipeg, and reunite with the friends he still had in the CFL.

Immediately, it didn’t turn out so well. The Bombers limped to a dismal 4-14 in Mack’s first year at the helm. The next year the squad did catch fire, capturing first place in the East Division and fighting their way to the Grey Cup game, though they lost to the Lions 34-23. The next year, it all fell apart, as the team rattled off four straight losses to start the 2012 season.

So it comes down to this, then: Mack’s time with the Bombers may come to an end this week. If he goes, he will leave a legacy marked by a few key talents, some acquired through the draft — such as Henoc Muamba and receiver Cory Watson — and some through free agency, including star defensive tackle Bryant Turner, sparkplug running back Chad Simpson and receiver Chris Matthews.

Otherwise, his legacy will be dominated mostly by lingering questions — questions at quarterback, questions around the offence and questions around a talent pool that often looked threadbare, especially when injuries piled up.

If he goes, who will replace him? While the Bombers cast their net for a GM search, they will likely hand the keys to current assistant Kyle Walters, for the interim. Walters is fresh to executive ranks, having been promoted from special teams co-ordinator to assistant GM and director of Canadian scouting in December 2012. The former Hamilton Tiger-Cats defensive back had been co-ordinating the Bombers’ Canadian draft since 2011.

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After Mack promoted Walters to his right-hand man, he pledged that the new gig would give Walters a chance to “focus on developing our Canadian talent,” an area in which the Bombers are particularly thin.

In fairness to Mack and crew, that shallow pool of Canadian talent was true before the current management regime came in. But somehow, whoever fills Mack’s shoes will be tasked with finding a way to fill it back up, silence the quarterback questions… and above all else, find some way to win.

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Could the departure of Joe Mack signal the start of a winning streak for the Bombers?
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Melissa Martin
Reporter-at-large

Melissa Martin reports and opines for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Every piece of reporting Melissa produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.