Bauer has Kelly’s back

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/09/2009 (5859 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The fans with the "Fire Mike Kelly" signs during Sunday’s 55-10 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders may have gotten a few laughs but they won’t be getting their wish.

The chat boards and the comments on this newspaper’s website are screaming for Kelly to be canned but Winnipeg Blue Bombers CEO and president Lyle Bauer is sticking with his man.

"No," was the answer on Monday morning when Bauer, reached by phone, was asked if he was considering firing Kelly. "Our focus right now on the football side is to improve our football team. The last two weeks we turned the football over 14 times. You can’t have success doing that. It’s unacceptable."

The Bombers are now 3-7 on the season and losers of two straight and the owners of an offence that has failed to reach the low bar of 20 points in a game on all but three occasions this season. In the CFL, wins don’t come often with an offence that can’t even raise a stink and there is little evidence that this trend will soon be altered. Fans are howling for change but Bauer doesn’t see it in the cards and he says he believes in Kelly as a coach.

"I wouldn’t have hired him if I didn’t," said Bauer, who won three Grey Cups with the Bombers as a player and is in his 10th year as team president. "Mike has experience from a number of leagues and he’s had success, to a point, in other leagues. He relates to the players and I believe he has the ability to see a big picture."

Bauer inherited coach Dave Ritchie and GM Brendan Taman when he took the club over in 1999. Ritchie was let go during the 2004 season and replaced by Jim Daley.

Daley lasted to the end of the 2005 season before Bauer and Taman fired him and then hired Doug Berry.

Berry was fired following last season and replaced by Kelly. Shortly after Kelly was hired, Taman resigned citing stress and fatigue but it is no secret that he and Kelly rubbed each other the wrong way.

Bauer, who has had four coaches during his 10-year run atop the club, said in an email on Monday that the club was not in a position to discuss its agreement with Berry or anyone else but that the organization was financially viable with a strong balance sheet and not in any way forced to govern itself according to other commitments.

In other words, whether or not the team is still paying Doug Berry would not preclude it from firing Kelly, who has a three-year contact, and hiring another coach if that was the move they deemed best.

Bauer was also asked about his own job security and if he expected to be fired.

"That’s not in my control. We’ll continue to do what’s in the best interest of the organization on all the fronts I’m responsible (for) until I’m told otherwise. From the stadium, to relations with the CFL to the financial side of the business and all the other areas I look after," answered Bauer.

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The Blue Bombers are a community-sponsored not-for-profit organization and Bauer and his staff answer to a board of directors. Chairman Ken Hildahl says Bauer still has the backing of the board.

"Yes. On that one, very much so," said Hildahl, when asked if the board still had confidence in Bauer’s abilities. "As we move forward, we want to see some work and improvement where the on-field performance is concerned. They know it and they’re working on it. As a board, you’ve got to see a quality product on the field and we didn’t see that on Sunday."

Hildahl said any decisions on coaching changes would be made by the CEO and not the board.

"That comes under his purview."

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca