GM DESERVES CHANCE TO DO THINGS HIS WAY
Critics are calling for Sunderland’s head, but his predecessor paved path to failure
OK, everyone who would like to be Brock Sunderland these days, raise your right hand.
About as many people would volunteer to swim in sharkinfested waters, right? And in truth, it’s practically the same thing.
Talk about being tossed into the deep end.
On April 7, 2017, Edmonton Eskimos president and CEO Len Rhodes stunned the football world by firing popular and successful general manager Ed Hervey. Many of us who dealt with Hervey regularly saw the mood swings, constant conflict and defiant attitude. But even the media setting up shop regularly at Commonwealth Stadium, who knew how difficult dealing with Hervey could be on a bad day, were still floored by his surprise dismissal.
He was, after all, a two-time Grey Cup champion player in green and gold, and less than two years removed from a Grey Cup championship as GM of the team he loved.
Our reaction, however, was nothing compared to the outrage expressed by the majority of the fan base.
Seventeen days later, Rhodes’ hand-picked successor, Sunderland, stepped up to the podium. From that moment on, Hervey’s supporters have had a bull’s-eye on the youthful son of a longtime National Football League scout. Public relations-wise, Sunderland had two chances: slim and none. Fast-forward 18 months and slim has turned even slimmer.
But is it fair?
To find that answer, it’s prudent to look back upon recent regimes. Before Hervey, there was Eric Tillman, who in 2010 took over an Eskimos team with a 2-8 mid-season record. They had enjoyed just one winning season in the previous four years under a combination of GM Danny Maciocia and head coach Richie Hall.
The Eskimos turned that into a winning record, 23-21, during Tillman’s tenure, but the day he traded Ricky Ray was the day he became a dead man walking.
The popular Hervey took over a 7-11 team that literally lost four games on the final play in Tillman’s last season, three of them to the archrival Calgary Stampeders.
What followed was a 4-14 dumpster fire in Year 1 of the Hervey era with Kavis Reed as head coach. Depending on whom you believe, Hervey was either told or encouraged to keep Reed. But either way, Hervey deserved and got a pass for that disaster of a season.
And when Hervey made Chris Jones his first real hire, the decision proved to be a great one, as the Eskimos’ ascendance was rapid. In two seasons, the Tennessean with a country twang turned the Eskimos into Grey Cup champions.
Then, just as quickly, he was off to Saskatchewan, where once again, he’s winning at a high level.
Hervey’s big challenge was to find the right successor for Jones. He picked Jason Maas, his former signal caller from his playing days.
Now, three years later, many are loudly saying anything less than a playoff win next month — if the Eskimos’ playoff hopes even make it past Friday — means it’s time to turn the page and hire a new coach.
If that’s true, shouldn’t Sunderland be given the same chance his predecessor was given? An opportunity to win with his own man?
After all, if Reed took most of the blame for going 4-14 during Hervey’s first season, shouldn’t the same be applied to Maas, who wasn’t hired by Sunderland? Let’s look back again. Along with winning the 2015 Grey Cup, Hervey’s legacy will be the gold star trade he made for quarterback Mike Reilly. But while much of the Eskimos’ success in that time is directly linked to that trade, there were some stinkers, too, and their impact is also very real in this 2018 Eskimos season.
Hervey traded Jerome Messam to Montreal for a seventhround draft pick, Matt Nichols to Winnipeg for a sixth-round draft pick and Jeremiah Masoli, Simoni Lawrence and Greg Wojt to Hamilton for no-hit-wonders Carson Rockhill and Nathan Kanya.
The bottom line? When Sunderland took over, the Eskimos didn’t have one player to show from the combined trades of Nichols, Masoli, Lawrence and Messam. With much better value from those deals, and from the Ricky Ray trade of seven years ago, too, Sunderland would have the benefit of a stronger roster.
Like Hervey, who went 4-14 his first year, Sunderland deserves a fair chance to do it his way, and with his own coach. If he opts to keep Maas, then the bar for the survival of both their jobs in 2019 should be set high. Very high.
If he makes a change, though, expect two years minimum with a new head coach.
Fair is fair. The current hang ’em mindset aside, Sunderland deserves as much.
No one can argue that Hervey is off to a solid start in his first year with the B.C. Lions. But whether it’s with nine, 10 or 11 regular-season wins in 2018, no one can deny the obvious benefit of having Wally Buono, the CFL’s all-time most-winning coach, on the sideline.
Soon, Hervey will be hiring his own coach. That decision will go a long way toward determining his long-term success in Vancouver. The same opportunity should be given to Sunderland here in Edmonton.