Dickenson’s B.C. decision changed course of CFL
It’s a story of what could have been …
For Dave Dickenson …
For the CFL …
And for football in Ottawa. Dickenson the quarterback was coming off a two-year stint in the NFL, returning to the three-down league as a highly sought-after commodity to run an offence.
His last CFL season, in 2000 — the year before he tried his hand south of the border — saw the 27-year-old hall-of-famer-to-be collect the league’s Most Outstanding Player honour after his best of four professional campaigns with the Calgary Stampeders.
The stakes were high with at least three teams in pursuit of his services.
Included were the fledgling Ottawa Renegades, the second of three incarnations of CFL football in the Nation’s Capital, coming off an inaugural season that saw them finish 4-14 and struggling to find consistency with QBs Dan Crowley, Chuck Clements and Oteman Sampson.
The second-year squad wanted Dickenson badly.
“We talked a lot on that,” said Dickenson, who was in the sights of then-Renegades GM Eric Tillman.
“I know Joe Paopao was their head guy — I liked Joe. I took a visit, and I met Kent Austin, the (quarterbacks) coach.
“What was fun about Ottawa was … yeah … you knew it might take awhile (for the franchise to establish success), but you felt like it was a sports town and it had a young feel to it.
“My wife and I went there — it was winter so it was a little chilly — and we went to an Ottawa Senators game. It was good times. The Sens were rolling. They had a good squad going.”
Ottawa was, indeed, enjoying sports success — at least on the ice — in 2003.
But the hope was to find it on the field, too.
And Dickenson, the Renegades believed, would help guide them to that success.
So the courting began, with the idea of being the cornerstone of a young franchise among the most attractive qualities about joining the ‘Gades.
“Like Rick (Campbell), when he took the job (with the Ottawa Redblacks), you can help build something and try to make yourself part of history,” said Dickenson, now in his third year as head coach of the Stampeders. “It’s actually harder what I’m doing now to try and maintain things to stay on top. It’s easier to build. It’s harder to keep it where you want it. With the successful seasons, your players want pay raises and your coaches are moving on. I think sometimes it’s harder to stay on top than getting there.”
The task to bring Dickenson to Ottawa for the 2003 CFL season was met by a few other attractive suitors.
The Toronto Argonauts, with a talented roster, came knocking on Dickenson’s door.
As did the B.C. Lions, who had aging Damon Allen, then 39, as its quarterback.
In the end, it was the Lions coming down with Dickenson, with an offer he couldn’t refuse — mostly because his old sideline boss from his Stampeders days signed on with the team in Vancouver to be coach and GM.
Wally Buono made the jump to the Lions, reuniting the coachQB combo that had proven successful in Calgary.
“I did want to win, and I didn’t want to wait a long time,” said Dickenson, who won the CFL championship with Buono and the Lions in 2006.
“Money and salary weren’t the most important thing to me at that time. I didn’t know how it was going to work out. I like the city, and since I’ve been there more, I really believe Ottawa would’ve been one of the great places to live in Canada.
“Unfortunately, the numbers were best in B.C. And when Wally went there, that was the nail in the coffin and sealed the deal for me.”
With Dickenson aboard, the Lions would later trade away Allen to the Argonauts, who would win the Grey Cup a year later in The Big Smoke over Buono, Dickenson and the B.C. side.
Meanwhile, the Renegades eventually turned to Kerry Joseph, a future Grey Cup champion himself with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, to be their quarterback.
But the unfortunate eventuality was that the Ottawa franchise suspended operations in 2006.
Perhaps the acquisition of Dickenson might have kept that from happening.
And who knows? Dickenson might still be there today with a CFL club from Ottawa opposite the Stampeders in the 106th Grey Cup on Sunday at Commonwealth Stadium (4 p.m., TSN/770 CHQR).
But his good friend and mentor Buono helped Dickenson head to the Left Coast in 2003.
“(Longtime Lions GM/president) Bob Ackles, who I met the year before, was telling me a lot of things about B.C.,” said Dickenson, a native of Great Falls, Mont., and an NCAA Division 1-AA record-holder with the Montana Grizzlies.
“At times, I feel I’m a west, mountain type of guy. Not that I was against going east, but I felt like being closer to Montana and that area, so it was easier to stay on the West Coast.
“Toronto was enticing to me because I thought they had a good roster, and they proved that by winning the 2004 Grey Cup. But I do feel that the Wally situation really tipped the scales.
“If it wasn’t Calgary — which was still my first choice, but they didn’t have a contract offer for me — then my second choice was to try and be around coaches that I trusted, and Wally was that guy.”