You have to wonder sometimes about the CFL, how many times it can flirt with professionalism only to dash away at the last moment. The latest little temper tantrum from the group of eight that really runs the league, took place over the last few months, as the group apparently decided that Tom Wright, the latest commissioner, just had to go!
Today he did, well kind of, sort of. Wright announced his own dismissal at what seems to have been a rather quickly arranged press conference, in his version; he stated that it was his decision to not have his contract renewed after this season, though one suspects that he probably had little choice in the matter.
Ever since he first took the job in the ham handed way it was offered, one suspected that his time would not be long at the helm of Canada’s football league. If you remember back then, Wright was kept waiting in an Edmonton hotel room during the festive occasion known as Grey Cup, cooling his heels while his soon to be bosses bickered over whether they really wanted him as the supreme commander of all things football with three downs.
At the time, it was rumoured that he had not found favour with David Braley, nor Robert Wettenhall, two of the more vocal and apparently more powerful owners in the circuit. It seems that over time, the hearts did not grow fonder, it’s generally accepted that over the last three seasons, both owners have continually expressed dissatisfaction with the job of Wright.
With today’s announcement that Wright will serve out the season (as a lame duck no doubt) the active job search is once again for a leader. One wonders who in his right mind would want the thing. A theme explored in full form on Prime Time Sports with Bob McCown today.
This is a league that hasn’t had stable guidance at the top since the days of Jake Gaudaur, and that’s back when Johnny Esaw was handling play by play for CTV. Since those golden days of Canadian football, the league has come perilously close to folding a number of times, seen Montreal disappear and return twice and recently seen the once flagship franchise in Ottawa sink once again. In between, there have been more commissioners than you can reasonably remember, Doug Mitchell, Donald Crump (he of the famous bullwhip picture), Larry Smith, , Michael Lysko, and then Wright. There were 11 commissioners in total since the league was formed, but really the head begins to swim after the Gaudaur years!
Wright brought some high profile advertisers into the CFL marketing fold, for which he should be commended, the television ratings have never been stronger for the league and for the most part it’s on much firmer ground than those desperate days of US expansion not so far ago.
But in the end it was on his watch that the Renegades once again disappointed football fans in the nation’s capital by folding just before this season began. Wright seemed to be asleep at the switch as that franchise tumbled into the abyss as the Glieberman road show claimed its second Ottawa franchise in a decade. He should have been on top of the chaos in Ottawa from the end of last year and ensured that Ottawa was in a solid place to return to the field this year. Instead, he let things fester and run out of control, to the point where the team folded and football suffered yet another black eye in the most hard done upon city in the circuit, give them a decent football team and one can see Ottawa returning to the glory days of yore, but right now football is treated with nothing but snickers in the country’s fourth largest metropolitan area, not a good thing for a professional league.
He also did not deliver on the much desired tenth franchise, a situation that seems to find far too much tire kicking and wheel spinning and not near enough concrete action. Most importantly for his own salvation, he could not bring on board the two key votes that never seemed to like his style, with Ottawa gone it seemed only a matter of time before the nays outweighed the yeas.
It will be interesting to watch how he handles his duties as the days dwindle and his term in office expires with the Grey Cup. He’ll turn over the keys to the executive offices as soon as he hands out the Grey Cup, the only question is does he hand them over to someone who is willing and able to do the job required, or just flips them to the governors and tells them to run it as they wish.
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