Eskimos aim to build on ‘great chemistry’
CFL team opts to stay the course, locks up head coach, GM through 2020
One year ago at their annual general meeting, the Edmonton Eskimos might as well have been bailing out water.
Having hit the all-stop on football operations a month earlier with the sudden dismissal of Ed Hervey, his replacement, Brock Sunderland, was just two weeks into his rookie season as a Canadian Football League general manager when he first addressed the community-owned club’s shareholders.
Fast-forward to Tuesday’s 2018 edition of the annual shareholder gathering in the home lockerroom at Commonwealth Stadium and the collective response was to stay the course.
After the Eskimos finished with a 12-6 record with Sunderland at the helm and made a fourth straight trip to at least the divisional final, the 38-year-old’s contract has been extended through its option year to the end of the 2020 season.
In turn, Sunderland re-upped his head coach, keeping Jason Maas on board through 2020.
“There’s a lot of great chemistry. We have a lot of good people who we believe in and we know continuity’s important,” said Eskimos president and chief executive Len Rhodes.
“Jason and Brock are so dedicated to this club, and we all want to win and make people proud in this city.”
While the fans will have to keep their emotions in check until the season kicks off with the Eskimos in Winnipeg to face the Blue Bombers on June 14, the club’s bean counters had to have been pleased to see the bottom line written in black ink as the Eskimos announced a consolidated net profit of $431,638.
“Overall, we’re very pleased,” Rhodes said. “A key variable this year was the six-game injury (list) cost us $1.1 million compared to $410,000 last year. So that’s a net change of $700,000 in expenses.
“Quite frankly, near the end of the year, we were just hoping we would stay in the black. Mission accomplished, and we keep investing back into the product on the field, the game-day experience, and the community.”
In February, the Eskimos announced a record $840,000 donation to local amateur football through the 50/50 raffle program, which has contributed a total of $3.7 million since 2012.
But there is no discounting the sting felt by the CFL’s first injury salary to crest the seven-figure plateau.
“Brock deserves a medal in terms of managing it and not looking for excuses,” Rhodes said.
“You can’t control that part and unfortunately, there were a lot of injuries, and he came in under the salary cap.”
Of course, money paid to injured players doesn’t count toward the cap of $5.15-million imposed on CFL teams in 2017, but the host of replacements that constantly had to be signed on the fly led to plenty of moving parts for the rookie GM.
“But I think, most importantly, is that we stayed competitive,” Rhodes said. “Because it’s one thing to stay within the cap, it’s another to make sure our fans see a product that makes them proud. A 12-6 record, going to the Western final (is) mission accomplished.”
Sunderland refers to his first kick at the GM can as a bit of a baptism by fire.
“I kind of felt like Rain Man some nights,” he said. “There was more time spent balancing numbers and going over situations and roster movement and management than there was evaluating football.”
For all the co-ordinated efforts, it would be difficult to imagine things turning out much better during what was undoubtedly a transitional year for the Eskimos brass. (Unless, of course, they ended up much Grey-er).
“No, I think with the type of guy Brock is, the way he approached the situation last year was definitely what it took to make a bad situation turn into a positive,” Maas said.
“And I say ‘bad’ because the timing of it wasn’t great.
“But Brock made it work coming in, and being who he is, and obviously Len made a great hire figuring out which kind of guy would work in that situation. My personal relationship with Brock (in Ottawa) previous to him coming here helped, but in the end, it’s a relationship and there’s give and take with it, but I think the communication factor between Brock and I has always been very strong.
“We think like-minded about the direction of the club, and even when we disagree about things, we’re still able to communicate and make it a positive.”
Jason and Brock are so dedicated to this club, and we all want to win and make people proud in this city.