By Sean Millington,
CFL.ca
Accountability. It’s a funny word and one that has been tossed around the CFL a fair bit this season. Most recently it’s been used in Saskatchewan to explain the firing of their general manager Roy Shivers.
Now love him or hate him, there can be no disagreeing with Roy’s parting assertion that he is leaving the team in better shape than he found it. I think the higher ups and the fans in Riderville need to remember that prior to the arrival of Shivers and head coach Danny Barrett, the Roughriders were the laughing stock of the league. Teams circled a date with the Roughriders on the calendar as an opportunity to pad stats and book post-game party plans early, as your mind certainly didn’t need to be on the game.
The tandem of Shivers and Barrett changed all that, bringing competitive football back to Regina and in the process fans to the stands. So why the change?
I believe Roy was a victim of his success. By creating a team in Saskatchewan that made the playoffs most years, he raised expectations. All of a sudden it wasn’t good enough just to make the playoffs, something that once upon a time Rider fans could only dream of. Now there needed to be a home playoff game, or dare we even say a Grey Cup.
The firing of Roy Shivers isn’t about accountability; it’s about optics and expectations. The off-season acquisition of Kerry Joseph raised already high expectations to a new level. The Riders were not just expected to be contenders; they were going to be contenders.
When that level of dominance failed to emerge, and mediocrity was the order of the day, the sound you heard was that of Rider fans’ hearts all around the province breaking; to be followed shortly thereafter by the cries for change, any change. Plank meet Mr. Shivers, Mr. Shivers meet plank — and off he went.
Having spent a fair amount of time with his replacement Eric Tillman, I can’t help but feel, however, that the Roughriders have made an improvement. The position of GM calls for a certain amount of diplomacy, something that Shivers could never be accused of and something that Eric has in spades. Like it or not, as a GM, part of your job is politics and in politics it just doesn’t pay to make enemies or to be too outspoken.
Eric will be a great fit in Saskatchewan. Despite having worked mostly in large urban centres, Eric is a small town guy at heart and that will endear him to the local populace. As one of the most connected men in football he should have the pipeline required to keep the Riders supplied with quality talent, and his business acumen tested in the flames of Ottawa’s demise should also stand him in good stead.
Having first worked for him as a player and secondly with him as a colleague on our CFL on CBC show, I’ve been a witness first hand to the type of man Eric Tillman is and I can say this — the Riders had a good thing in Roy Shivers but their stock just went up.
Sean Millington played 13 years in the CFL with the Edmonton Eskimos, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, B.C. Lions and Toronto Argonauts and has been a panelist on the CFL on CBC since 2003.
(The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily of the Canadian Football League)
