Jim Mullin
CFL.ca
In all of Wally Buono’s 20 years of being a general manger he has never encountered anything quite like this.
The on-again, off-again courtship of Courtice: The Toronto Argonauts signing of rush end Ricky Foley.
There has been plenty of opinion, with most of it speculative or malicious. Let’s go to the facts as we know them to sort through this mess.
Monday night at 6:15 pm Pacific, Foley’s agent Paul Sheehy contacted B.C. Lions director of player personnel Neil McEvoy. Sheehy informed McEvoy that the terms of a contract they had discussed were acceptable to him and his client and that the Lions were safe to put the word out on the street in the form of a release.
McEvoy contacted Buono, who then confirmed with Lions director of communications Jaime Cartmell, it was okay to issue a release at 7:30 pm local time. This is a process and common practice that has been done for years without a hitch. Until Monday, that is.
Later that evening, Sheehy tells “Canada to hold on” via his twitter account, a form of media which will no doubt reduce newspapers to publishing stories in emoticons within the next decade. The point is, that whatever deal was agreed to was now up for discussion. The ethical violation is out of the barn and no one is capable of riding it for any longer than eight seconds.
Buono called Foley later that night and established the plan to return to Vancouver, yet again. Foley tells the Vancouver Sun that night about how thrilled he is about returning to Vancouver.
Foley spends the night talking with his family and former teammate Aaron Hunt via telephone and text. He has misgivings again and has a very short sleep on it.
The next morning at 6 am Pacific, Buono confirmed details with Foley for his arrival in Vancouver. Foley was emotional and Buono gave him the option to take his time on a final decision if he so chose. However, Foley reaffirmed his commitment to the Lions.
Foley then gave an interview to TEAM 1040. He talked with great emotion about how he loved Vancouver and how hard the decision was on his family.
“I saw tears in my mom’s eyes when I told her I was going to B.C.,” he told 1040.
“It just came down to simply the decision is best to go to B.C. It was pretty clear once you get all the rubbish out of the way.”
But after the interview, Foley and his agent talked. For the reported difference of $30,000 per year and the ability to play in front of family and friends he wavered again. He decided to hop in the car and drive to the Argonauts’ training facility in Mississauga with his dad riding shotgun.
To the surprise of the Argos coaching staff, Foley’s name is up on the whiteboard just in time for the team’s defensive meetings.
Hours after the fact, the Lions and other media outlets – with the exception of CKNW and The Province – are still holding onto the belief that Foley was en route to Vancouver. It was hard to blame them with an interview which served as an emotional pledge to B.C. and a press release to back it up.
“He’s not a part of this organization. He’s with a new team. Good for him,” said Lions’ defensive back Dante Marsh after practice on Tuesday.
“He’s a guy who has had character flaws for a long time, anyway,” added Marsh. “I wish the best for Ricky Foley. I like him as a guy. Some of the things he does and some of his character flaws… man. Wow. That’s all I can say.”
The reason the Argos ended up with Foley is that they had more cap space.
Plain and simple.
Dual owner David Braley was not playing puppet master in any of this.
“That’s not the way that David does his business,” said Buono. “He doesn’t deal in the everyday operations. That’s never been his style. David’s got a tremendous amount of integrity and I think he has shown that over and over again.”
There was as much disappointment and consternation with people in the Lions organization I talked to after the events as there was celebration surrounding the Argos camp.
“Everybody wants to put it on the player,” said B.C. quarterback Casey Printers.
“It’s about the representation,” explained Printers. “It is the representation that is trying to do what is best for the players. They are, at the end of the day, our advisement and Ricky just did what any guy would do. He took the advice of the people that were around him and did what he did.”
For Buono, it would have been easy to sling mud in the direction of a former player – along with his agent – who made a decision that discredits the team, league and process. But the Lions GM chose not to.
“I’d rather not have a player here that’s not committed, whether it is Ricky or anybody else,” said Buono. “We would have liked to have Ricky here, but he made the choice and we’re fine with it.”
“The thing that I left with Ricky before is I said ‘don’t step on the plane unless you are 100 per cent committed’. Obviously he didn’t feel that way and that is why he went to Toronto.”
The Lions were at the mercy of one confused young man in the middle of all this and were left at the altar.
