By Arash Madani,
The Score
Only the Stampeders could pull this magic off. Only the franchise that brought you the Feterik’s and Fred Fateri could now deliver on this beauty: dividing an organization at its core; having players roll their eyes in disgust by merely bringing up what is happening off the field; and turning proceedings at McMahon Stadium into an absolute zoo.
On the eve of the playoffs, don’t forget that part.
Ah, welcome to Calgary in November. The Flames can’t win a game, but that’s a sideshow to the sideshow.
The circus is in town, right in time for those who spent the weekend sharpening their knives, to stick it in the back of Tom Higgins, a good football man. The bus is ready so they can push the former Grey Cup winning head coach right underneath it.
Here are Stampeders players, getting set for their West Semi-Final in Regina this weekend, and awoke Wednesday on their first official preparation day for the Saskatchewan Roughriders with media reports splashing about Higgins’s ouster. Day 2 began with sunrise, a coffee and a beauty: the rival paper in the city reminding us all that not only would John Hufnagel become the next head coach -– regardless of how the incumbent performs, but a six-year deal worth $2.5 million.
Brilliant.
Calgary’s news station, the Stampeders radio rightsholder, had its sport show interrupted Wednesday night. By…? None other than team president, Ted Hellard, who was “100 per cent, categorically -– because I can’t think of a more decisive word -– denying all of these reports.”
It’s a zoo and a circus and a sideshow and brilliant and wonderful and only the Stampeders.
Only this team would do this to itself.
Only this franchise, heading into a very winnable road game in Regina, would sabotage itself.
Only this organization, with a chance to erase the evils of an underachieving season, would leak more than the Titanic. Only these guys would create dissention, upheaval and utter resignation, instead of a vote of confidence to a group that legitimately could have made a run in the dance -– if not for the continued self-inflected wounds.
“When it’s all over, we’ll tell you the real story, we’ll tell you everything,” sighed Higgins on Wednesday, remaining a gentleman, while the walls cave in around him. “But now, our focus should be on Saskatchewan.”
But… But, come on, coach. There’s more to it, right?
“It’s a distraction,” he admitted. “I am not sure why people would be talking about me at this point. It’s way to early to be talking about anything but this playoff game.”
Precisely.
But in the Stampeders world, why bother with this overrated matter called logic?
Why unite a team on its way to the playoffs, with as talented a quarterback as you’ll find in this league -– entering a contract year -– wanting nothing more than to silence those who once cheered him with a goal of sipping from the Cup?
Players are now using the adversity as a rallying cry. The us-against-the-world mantra. Ensuring to those who ask that this team is more united now than ever.
But, don’t think all the nonsense on the periphery hasn’t affected those directly involved in the outcome of the game.
Thought I’d head over to the stadium on Wednesday and see what was up. Inside the dressing room, offensive line coach Kris Sweet was losing it on a writer, offering a profanity-laced tirade, shouting as stunned onlookers -– players, media and staff -– watched him trip over a box and launch it before storming off.
The Stampeders upper brass has sadly done this to themselves. That this information -– be it speculation, as Hellard maintains -– has come out now, from a variety of mediums, suggests that the organization that wanted to distance itself from Feterik and Fateri has returned to just as dysfunctional a state.
I spent two years working in Ottawa, in its latest Renegades life, as the team’s last full-time director of media relations. Had the joy of witnessing first hand -– behind the scenes of lunacy -– an organization that did almost everything wrong, en route to being buried.
Dissention, distraction and turmoil created from within. Minus the mardi gras beads, the Stampeders present state now reminds you of Glieber-world in many respects, doesn’t it?
And we all know how that finished.
Arash Madani is the Calgary bureau reporter with The Score.
(The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily of the Canadian Football League)
