Dickenson can handle that head coach pressure

Stop right here, Dave Dickenson. Flip t he page. Scroll d o wn to the NASCAR schedule. Swipe over to the movie listings. Whatever you want. But do not finish this or any other Calgary Stampeders- related material ever again.

This strong recommendation is courtesy of the winningest gentleman in Canadian Football League history.

The coaching racket’s elder statesmen — who marshalled you through your playing heyday, who twice tried to hire you away from the Stamps — wants to help. Honestly. Hence the guidance. “If I was to give him friendly (advice), ‘ Limit what you read, what you hear, what you see,’ ” Wally Buono is saying from his bunker at B.C. Lions headquarters. “My point is, it doesn’t matter what you write. If I keep reading what you’re writing, if I keep reading all the tweets and that stuff, it’s going to affect me.”

A pause, then a quick aside to the reporter: “Does it matter what you say?” Not to Dickenson. “And it shouldn’t,” Buono continues. “The Bible talks about whatever you inhale, you exhale. Therefore, if you’re always inhaling negative things … it’s going to have an effect.”

Coaches cannot change what appears in print.

They cannot change the opinions of outsiders.

“But I can prevent you from influencing me, by not reading it,” says the Lions boss. “It’s not easy. But if you can discipline yourself and stay out of that realm, you help yourself because you insulate yourself and you have to insulate yourself. ( Otherwise) it’s too much wear and tear on you.”

This warning is by way of a welcome into the headcoaching fraternity. It is a limited-time offer. Any compassion concludes in Week 1 when the Stamps visit the Leos, when Buono guns for his 255th victory.

The Stamps’ outcome that night — win or lose, like it or not — is on Dickenson’s shoulders.

“The buck stops at Dave, OK?” says Buono. “Now he is the guy sitting in the chair. He’s not listening to somebody in the chair, he’s sitting in the chair.”

Back on the throne himself after a four-year absence i s Buono, regally silvertopped.

Dickenson’s head remains free of grey — and free of doubt. So far. He shrugs off the inevitable heat.

“Listen, if you worry too much about what’s getting said,” says Dickenson, “you’re probably going to be on the wrong end of it.”

Besides, months away is the daily give- and- take with press and patrons.

Right now, he is busy behind the scenes.

Already, Dickenson has moved into the office of his high- profile predecessor, John Hufnagel. “Instead of coming upstairs and taking a right, I take a left.” Glancing at the bare walls, he adds, “Obviously, I haven’t decorated it up too much.”

The 43-year-old, following a morning meeting with his offensive coaches, acknowledges that his days, even now in the off- season, are crammed. Contemplating the draft. Generating the playbook. Crafting the camp schedule.

Scrutinizing defensive schemes.

Studying rivals “to see if we can steal ideas.”

And, to properly assess last year’s club — its long suits and shortfalls — he squinted at game footage for nearly a month. That tidbit might draw guffaws from the men who never found Dickenson to be particularly enthralled by video sessions.

He set records in university, despite limited physical attributes. Shy of six feet, shy of 200 pounds.

“But very gifted mentally,” says Jack Johnson, who coached Dickenson at Charles M. Russell High School in Great Falls, Mont. “I don’t think he ever had a B in his life — straight As, and I doubt he had to work very hard at it. He was that way as a football player. Nobody could do the things that he could do. He had a knack. He processed things so fast. He knew the coverage. He could see who was going to be open, when to get rid of the ball, when to get it out of his hand.”

Buono, who brought Dickenson to Calgary after nabbing his rights from the Toronto Argonauts, soon discovered the same thing. Modest arm, big brain. “He does have great ability,” says Buono, “but I would think that’s been heightened by his approach, his preparation, his understanding. When you look at becoming a coach, these are all things that are critical — you’ve seen what needs to be seen. Dave’s probably been preparing himself for this (step) all his life.”