Two strikes for Bombers staff not an out

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/11/2015 (3619 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When you finish a two-year stint at 12-24 and miss the playoffs in consecutive CFL seasons, you don’t get to bathe and relax in warm fuzzy discussions of contract extensions and “lame duck” scenarios — or at least not from this perspective.

If anything, one should acknowledge and review how fortunate the top tier of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers coaching staff and management is to be getting a third opportunity to right the ship, and expect they should be counting their blessings on an almost daily basis.

Because, if we are being honest, the most compelling reason why head coach Mike O’Shea and company should be given a third chance to succeed has almost nothing to do with what has or hasn’t happened on the field of play. They are expected to go into the final year of their contracts even though they have regressed from one season to the next, have already fired a defensive co-ordinator (in 2014) and special teams co-ordinator (in 2015) — and soon an offensive co-ordinator — and had a veteran player publicly acknowledge on a post-game radio show Friday they have the wrong mix of players in the locker room.

No, the justification for keeping the magistrates in their current roles can be rationalized by two reasons:

First, and most importantly, with a $4.5-million, new-stadium cheque to write every year, this team cannot continue the trend of firing staff still under contract and paying both them and their replacements — especially after a year with the kind of reduced fan attendance the Bombers experienced. This team now lives in a reality where if you sign a coach or executive to a three-year deal with significant compensation, he no longer gets a paid holiday for underachieving while you woo his replacement and double-pay the position for a season or two.

Another reason for keeping the status quo on the top rungs of the team ladder is maybe, just maybe, this group of newbies has more to offer than what they showed in seasons 1 and 2.

When your franchise hasn’t hired a head coach with any head coaching experience since 1999, and has been firing rookie head coaches and their field marshals at the first sign of regression — without a sniff of the post-season since 2011 — then you might as well change the policy simply for the sake of changing the policy and try something different.

Yet, for there to be discussion as to whether any members of this group should be given contract extensions in order to lure attractive offensive co-ordinator candidates is nothing less than absurd and insulting to the fan base. It is the equivalent of giving a large gratuity to those being sued for the construction flaws the Winnipeg stadium is currently experiencing and fighting through. It is not deserved and it is counterintuitive.

A “lame duck” is a term to describe to a head coach entering the final year of his deal without an extension on the table. In some circles, it is being argued that, with no guarantees for your head coach outside of his existing term, it would be hard to attract a quality offensive co-ordinator to join a staff that has little security going forward.

It’s an interesting premise and theory, but not quite the reality of the situation.

It’s a fact offensive co-ordinators in or around the CFL would love to be head coaches one day, so what better environment to join than one full of positive scenarios for 2016?

If the team does not have an instant and immediate turnaround, it is highly likely the offensive co-ordinator is next in line to take over the job as interim head coach (and possibly the full-time one). And if a new co-ordinator is all that ails the Blue Bombers — as suggested by some — the next hire would be part of a positive and winning situation, where his contributions would be viewed as the drive that turned the team around.

Additionally, money talks loudest in Canadian football, and co-ordinators get multiyear, guaranteed deals paid out no matter what goes down.

While Ottawa celebrates a franchise that went from worst to first in its second year (and appears poised to give Winnipeg a close-up look at the blueprint of how it is done when the Grey Cup comes to town), it is already concession enough the Bombers fan base doesn’t mutiny when they are told to expect to tolerate a third year from a group that quite frankly, hasn’t earned it.

Suggesting extensions are in order at the end of a 5-13 season, for the sake of the calibre of a new hire, is not only unwarranted, but unnecessary. This franchise may be hoping to eradicate a long-standing policy of impulsive evaluations with inexperienced coaches and executives, but it should not turn into one that hands out free lunches either.

 

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

Twitter: @DougBrown97