By Sean Millington,
CFL.ca
When the Saskatchewan Roughriders signed Hakim Hill to a contract on Feb. 21, I scratched my head and wondered what they were thinking. Sure he had come to this league as a highly touted running back, but in my opinion, his short debut with the Argos was something of a wash.
I was even more puzzled, given the fact that Riders’ head coach Kent Austin was his offensive coordinator at the time, and observed him first hand as I did, from the vantage point of sharing a locker room with him. Nonetheless, I shrugged and cut the Riders’ management some slack figuring maybe they knew something that I didn’t.
A short 10 days after the initial announcement of his signing came the announcement of his release and it was clear, in my mind at least, that they didn’t know anything that I hadn’t, and in fact, might not have known as much.
I had occasion to deal with Hakim when we were both in Toronto and my impression of him was of someone who was self-centred and unjustifiably full of himself. If you are going to be conceited you had better be able to back it up and as far as I’m concerned he didn’t.
There are certain rules in football that, despite not being found in the official rule book, have just as much if not more force. One of them pertains to the behaviour of rookies and their place in the hierarchy of a team. Hakim had not only ever heard of this rule, he disregarded the manual altogether.
I bring all this up to demonstrate character, the heart of a man. Maybe being in the locker room, I was privy to a side of him that Coach Austin never saw, but it was clear to me that this was not a quality individual, certainly not one whom you would want to put yourself out for. The Roughriders put themselves out for him and that was a mistake.
In speaking with Saskatchewan GM Eric Tillman about their thought process around signing and releasing Hakim, Mr. Tillman stressed that the signing was about second chances. The release was about accountability. Mr. Tillman said “I don’t apologize for giving young people the chance to turn their lives around.”
Now I’m all for second chances having been the beneficiary of a few myself, but in some cases it’s a waste of time and resources. Mr. Tillman assured me that “…after hours of research with his parents and agent, we thought he was clean.” What else would you expect them to say? I know my mother always has my back no matter what; that is why she is my mother. As for an agent he only gets paid when his client gets paid so what else could he say?
Now don’t get me wrong. I believe Hakim is a troubled young man who needs help. In the words of Mr. Tillman, “many times players can be victims…you are dealing with young people.” All of which I completely agree with, however, given the history of the franchise with regards to its reputation and troubled players, I don’t believe the Riders could have afforded to take a chance on Mr. Hill.
In human terms, the story of Hakim Hill thus far is a truly tragic one. A young man with all sorts of opportunities, who is unable to overcome his demons to take advantage of them. In business terms the story for the Riders is that of a mistake. Upon signing Hakim, Eric Tillman made it clear to him that there would be zero tolerance for any future indiscretions. Unfortunately, given the Roughriders recent negative publicity (Trevis Smith and Kenton Keith come to mind) there wasn’t room for tolerance of past indiscretions either.
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 panellist on the CFL on CBC since 2003.
(The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily of the Canadian Football League)
