Joe Mack named Bombers’ new VP of operations

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This article was published 22/01/2010 (6057 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

 

WINNIPEG – Joe Mack is the new vice-president of football operations with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Mack was announced at a press conference at the club’s facility on Maroons Road early Friday morning and will immediately get to work as the club’s top football executive.

"This is a unique opportunity,” said Mack. “I had some great experiences in the National Football League, but to be quite frank some of the most enjoyable times I had professionally were in the CFL. The opportunity to do this again and to come back to Winnipeg where we had some success winning a Grey Cup… I just really, really enjoy the Canadian game.

“The chance to build forward with this club and maybe move this in another direction was just very exciting for me.”

Mack will be at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, AL beginning on Monday in an effort to get up to speed with the CFL game and personnel.

Mack last worked in the CFL as director of player personnel with the Blue Bombers in 1987. He then spent over a decade in the NFL but has been out of football since 2001, working primarily as a consultant but also an advisor to a new football league that may start up. Mack said a confidentiality agreement with that league prevented him from providing more details.

He said he stepped away from the game to spend more time with his family; his oldest daughter is in university while he has a son and daughter still in high school in North Carolina.

“In the National Football League it’s very, very exciting, but it’s also very demanding in regards to family lifestyle,” said Mack. “I was very conscious of how much time I was spending away from home and so I started to do some consulting.”

Mack said Friday that his top priority is hiring a head coach and he’d like to have that done within a window of two weeks. He’s also fired up a lot of his old contacts in both the NFL and CFL.

“I’ve stayed in close contact with a number of people in the CFL,” said Mack. “I have a number of friends up here still. I feel really comfortable about hitting the ground running. If you think about it, in the NFL there are 32 teams with much bigger rosters and I was responsible for all the players in the league and upcoming college players. In an eight-team league I feel fairly confident I can get up to speed quick.”

Mack was promoted for the position by search committee member Paul Robson, a former Bombers GM and current board member. There were rumours early in the search process that Robson himself was interested in the position.

Robson hired Mack in the 1980s as director of player personnel and the move paid dividends in the form of a Grey Cup victory in 1984.

Mack spent four years with the Bombers before leaving for the NFL where he held posts with the Atlanta Falcons, Washington Redskins (’89-94; including 1991 Super Bowl champions) Carolina Panthers (’94-97) and the Cleveland Browns as director of football operations (’98-01).

Mack has an extensive background in personnel as well as experience in building franchises from the ground up, working with the expansion Panthers and the second coming of the Browns.

There was some thought on Wednesday that the board might try to combine Mack and Calgary Stampeders vice-president of football operations Jim Barker — also a leading candidate — as an executive team, but that concept lost traction due to the expense; it’s believed both Mack and Barker would command salaries in the range of $300,000.

The next hiring to take place for the team is that of a head coach. The 11-person board has made no secret of its fondness of Hamilton Tiger-Cats defensive co-ordinator Greg Marshall, but it’s not known if Mack signed off on such a move prior to his acceptance of the board’s offer.

One CFL source told the Free Press Wednesday that Barker’s ties to Montreal Alouettes co-ordinator Scott Milanovich would eventually cost him any chance at the Bombers job.

Mack’s hire also puts into question the status of director of player personnel John Murphy and, to a lesser degree, that of director of football operations Ross Hodgkinson.

Murphy is said to have a clause in his contract that states no other person could be hired above him in the football operations chain of command.

Hodgkinson, who stepped forward and accepted the interim VP role following the firing of Mike Kelly and resignation of former CEO Lyle Bauer, was considered a candidate for the position and it would be difficult to imagine the club not showing loyalty to the longtime Bombers employee.