Sunday, November 19, 2006

Tom Wright’s final shift

CFL Commissioner Tom Wright will hand off his final Grey Cup sometime Sunday evening in the cold Winnipeg air. His last public function as guardian of the Canadian Football League, a four year journey that has seen him go from the highs to some of the lows of a rather eccentric fraternity.

Wright is being pushed out the door, though one wonders how a league with only eight team’s forces their figurehead to leave based on the word of two of the eight. But that’s a debate for another day, a debate that no doubt could make use of any number of psychologists to try and figure out the neurotic tendencies of Canada’s professional football owners.

Wright’s two main detractors ironically are the two owners competing for the Grey Cup, British Columbia Lions owner David Braley and Montreal Alouette’s owner Bob Wetenhall, neither it seems had been particularly in favor of Wright’s hiring in the first place and certainly never changed their opinions over the four years.

While he’s had his successes, Wright has seen a few failures as well, most noticeably the disappearance of the Ottawa Renegades from the CFL scene as this season was about to begin. It most likely is the one event that sealed his fate, he having let the situation deteriorate over the off season to the point of hopelessness.

As he leaves office, the situation is yet to be resolved, as the front runner to purchase the dormant franchise bowed out due to health concerns, another potential investor was turned down by the league, which leaves only the third option, that of an American group of investors as the only solid choice and they aren’t exacting moving at a fast pace.

Still, putting aside the Ottawa disappointment, for the most part Wright did a fairly good job with the CFL, the league hasn’t been this popular in years, for the most part the remaining eight teams are in the best financial shape they have been in for years and the television ratings on both the CBC and TSN continue to make the CFL a popular brand and strong presence on the television sets of the nation.

The solid salary cap is still a goal, but it seems to have been a floating option of late teams hiding salaries and padding the figures a tad.

A drug policy is still lacking in a league that seems to want to have a see no evil, hear no evil policy, though to be fair, for the most part CFL players don’t seem to be sufficiently reimbursed to be buying any large amounts of pharmaceuticals, whether legitimate or illegal.

When you consider the laundry list of those that have come before him, surviving four years in the cut throat executive office could be a badge of honour. There is always one or two owners unhappy with the direction of the league, wanting to push their agenda at the expense of the whole.

Wright’s problem was that the two most successful of the owners, are the two that felt he was going in the wrong direction. Success breeds power and as they say power is meant to be used from time to time.

The league is said to have a fairly healthy list of those looking to take on the challenge, apparently people of strong backbone and tough skin, for this is a job that seems to come with no shortage of landmines and little in the way of public thanks.

As he leaves the office, Wright can take with him the knowledge that the league is in a far better shape than it was as the nineties were coming to a close, his four years at the helm while not the reaching the accomplishments of a Jake Gaudaur, certainly didn’t resemble the gong show days of Donald Crump. To his credit, Wright never once complained about his lot, never pointed fingers and always acted with the highest of professionalism.

He learned a lot about his country over his four years, has been a tireless booster of the game and leaves office with the league in pretty good shape, even if some (well two anyways) suggest he had little to do with that achievement.

In the running of the CFL, it’s a good day when the news stories feature football and not financial statements, for the bulk of his four years at the helm; it’s been the football we remember, that in itself is something for him to take with him as he hands off that final Grey Cup on Sunday.

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