Former Blue GM recalls day cut player went berserk

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/06/2015 (3764 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Even to this day, 16 years later, Brendan Taman can remember the exact details of arguably the most infamous cut-down day in Winnipeg Blue Bombers history. Yes, it’s the little things that have stuck in Taman’s memory banks, especially that awkward time a player was told he had been released, stormed off, and returned to rifle a jar of peanut butter at Taman’s head.

“It was Kraft Smooth,” recalled Taman, now the Saskatchewan Roughriders GM, but in 1999 the Bombers assistant GM. “And in all my years of doing this, that was easily the craziest, most bizarre cut-down experience I’ve ever had. Ever since I’m always reminded of that and I begin the day with ‘I wonder how this is going to go…’

“It’s not too often you cut a guy and he gets a police escort to the airport afterward.”

The Bombers released six players Sunday — imports Sammy Brown, Patrick Hall and Lavasier Tuinei and Canadians Quinn Everett, Ezra Millington and Dan West — and, according to staff, there were no incidents involving peanut butter, jams or any other sandwich spreads. Oh sure, there might have been some real anger, mixed with disbelief. And quite likely there were tears and curses — all part of what Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea calls one of the “necessary evils” that come with the gig.

But back to Taman and the Kraft Smooth…

“It was my first year in Winnipeg, ’99, and his name was Orlando Rogers, a defensive back from Southern Illinois,” said Taman, who became the Bombers GM for five years starting in 2004. “We were at the Victoria Inn and we were doing the cuts in this lounge with a bunch of tables set up with food, like bagels and peanut butter.

“It was a Saturday morning, our first set of cuts. Dave (Ritchie, then the Bomber coach) and I broke the news. He didn’t agree. He cussed at us and then left. We had finished and later he came back to ask me — Dave had gone back to practice by then — why he had been released. I’m sitting there thinking, ‘OK, this could be interesting…’ Well, he got real upset and started to chuck this stuff around and he flung a jar of peanut butter right at me. I ducked and the jar went right into the wall. I mean, it embedded right into the wall.

“Luckily there was an adjoining room that I could run into and lock, because if he had gotten to the cutlery I would have been worried. The peanut butter jar was bad enough. I knew if the knives and forks had started flying things would have been different.

“After that, he ripped the room apart and then went and pulled the fire alarm in the hotel. They called the police.

‘…He flung a jar of peanut butter right at me. I ducked and the jar went right into the wall. I mean, it embedded right into the wall’

— former Bombers assistant GM Brendan Taman, on Orlando Rogers’ reaction to being cut in 1999

“I guess,” deadpanned Taman, pausing for dramatic effect, “you could say he was upset.”

Taman and Saskatchewan assistant GM/director of football operations Jeremy O’Day delivered the news to their first round of cuts Sunday night. The next round will include Riders head coach Corey Chamblin, who will also do the sales pitch thing and ask some of those released to stick around on the practice roster.

Bombers GM Kyle Walters didn’t want to detail how they handle things here, but O’Shea did say he spoke to each of the six released. But after the cruelest words in the sport are uttered — ‘Coach wants to see you… and bring your playbook’ — whatever he says next is often lost on the victim.

“I try to figure out what they need to hear… they just want to be told the truth of why they’re not going to be on the team,” said O’Shea. “They really don’t want it sugar-coated. It’s one of those things… if you tell them how great they are but we’re releasing you, it’s kind of confusing. So, you just tell them the truth.

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“It’s not a personal message, it’s very short. It’s not a long, drawn-out thing. We’ve got some good players here who have been released. They’ll get some other opportunities, I’m sure. But it’s not fun. The only way to describe it is it’s a necessary evil.”

Among the Riders released Sunday was quarterback Tino Sunseri, who had been with the club for a couple of years. Those are the cuts that sting, for it’s one thing to release a player signed during the off-season, it’s another when it’s someone who has worn a club’s colours and been part of its success.

“That one was tough,” Taman said of the release of Sunseri. “He had his ups and downs with us, but he’s such a good guy. Everybody says it’s part of the business but, man, it’s not easy. You always dread the day. If you ever become used to it or not unhappy about having to do it, then I think you’ve become cold-hearted. Some of these guys, we’re ending their career, their livelihood. Some of them have never been cut before.

“I’m not good at it,” added Taman. “The one thing I always do is to make sure you thank the guy for his effort. That, and always remembering to be ready to duck.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait