Dinwiddie decision made by those who know best

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/06/2009 (6208 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Have you ever seen 40-plus players hold their breath and live a precarious existence for an entire season? Come down to 1465 Maroons Rd. some time this season and you just might get the opportunity.

Fresh off the heels of the axe falling on another Bomber familiar, Ryan Dinwiddie, my immediate thoughts were that this coach and these player personnel directors are definitely not messing around when it comes to moulding the roster to their liking — probably a good three months after this same realization had dawned on a number of Bomber fans and supporters.

Of course, as one of the few remaining holdovers from the last decade of Bomber good, bad and ugly contingents, I was interviewed soon thereafter and asked how I felt about the departure of yet another teammate.

Well, truth be told, outside of the usual gamut of emotions of surprise, sorrow, and regret that you deal with after the waiving of any good player and teammate, an inkling of understanding towards the thought process tends to dawn on you.

There is no discounting the fact that Ryan Dinwiddie is a hell of a competitor.

Anytime you have a quarterback that breaks his ankle, as Ryan did last year, and tries to play through it hobbling around in the shotgun unwilling to take himself off the field, you know the game of football means a lot to him.

Ryan was not fazed starting his first-ever game in the CFL at the 2007 Grey Cup, and he was a pivot capable of beating the eventual 2008 Grey Cup champions — the Calgary Stampeders — by putting together an aerial performance with the kind of numbers that would make Ricky Ray blush.

But the thing is, when it comes to accurately commenting about a player’s release, well, I don’t evaluate quarterbacks for a living. At best, I can tell you which ones are softer than hospital cotton and can be made to quit during the course of a game, and which ones have my respect based on how they play the game. And that’s just it. Personnel directors and coaches that know a lot more than you and I about the quarterbacking position make these kinds of calls, usually for good reason.

And that is exactly what may be the silver lining behind this move, once we step outside of the personal biases we have had for any one of the familiar players the Bombers have had the past few years that are no longer with us.

People who are paid and have been trained to assess and evaluate talent did not figure Ryan into their plans, which, more than anything, speaks volumes about the calibre of the other four remaining pivots — now five, with the addition of Richie Williams.

Furthermore, in digesting any player personnel move, you have to think outside of the usual measurables and criterion that most of us evaluate from.

Some football players may be supremely talented but simply do not fit or have the appropriate skill set for the system they are trying to perform under. What better people to make that determination than those that have designed and are installing the system?

While there is little that can take away the sting of being released, if you polled veteran players about when they would pick their release date if given the choice, they would all tell you as early as possible in training camp. This gives the athlete the most opportunities and time to catch on with another team.

We wish Ryan Dinwiddie all the best in his future football endeavours.

Doug Brown, always a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears Tuesdays in the Free Press.