Lions’ future is dependent on a new vision
Derparting coaching great Buono suggests fresh ideas needed to save CFL franchise
After a depressing weekend in Hamilton, here’s a little ray of sunshine to brighten your day, my musings and meditations on the world of sports.
If you spend any time around Wally Buono, you quickly realize everything he says has a purpose.
Thus, when he says it’s time for David Braley to sell the Lions to local ownership, you have to assume he isn’t expressing an idle thought.
According to sources, this market’s never-ending story will be revived in the near future, meaning the ‘for sale’ sign is going up on the B.C. Lions. This is as it should be. Braley is 77. He was responsible for saving the Lions in the mid-1990s but, as things stand, the franchise is perilously close to returning to the state in which he bought them.
There are differences, of course. The TSN TV contract being principal among them. But the Lions are also fighting the same level of apathy they encountered when they went bankrupt. Something has to be done to engage the fan base and Buono knows this to be true.
It’s time for new owners and a new vision for this team before any further damage is done to the Lions’ brand.
Still, the trip to Hamilton wasn’t a complete waste. On Saturday night, your agent ran into Ric Flair in the bar at the downtown Sheraton and you need to know we’re now besties.
I told the Nature Boy that Buono had cut The Rock when he was trying out for the Calgary Stampeders. This led to a discussion about the football players who tried to make it in professional wrestling and Flair offered up this gem.
Otis Sistrunk, the former Oakland Raiders’ defensive tackle, was trying to break in and he was placed on a card with Mad Dog Vachon. Vachon went into his act, screaming ‘I’m going to kill you. I’m going to break your legs.’ Except Sistrunk didn’t know it was an act.
“Scared the (poop) out of him,” Flair said of Sistrunk. “We didn’t see him after that.” Was going through some old files on the way back from Hamilton and came across a game column from the 2016 West Division semifinal at B.C. Place. In that game, Jonathon Jennings brought the Lions back from a 31-19 fourth-quarter deficit to a 32-31 win over Winnipeg. Along the way he passed for 329 yards and two touchdowns while running for 43 yards, including an electrifying nine-yard scamper in the final minute for the winning points.
I’ll never know what happened to that quarterback. He’s still only 26, four years younger than Hamilton’s Jeremiah Masoli, and he’ll almost certainly sign elsewhere next season. But his fall will remain one of the great mysteries in Lions history.
Still with Masoli, that was a masters class in quarterbacking he put on display in the semifinal. The last two years, Ottawa and Toronto have come out of the East to win the Grey Cup. The bet here is Hamilton makes it three in a row.
And finally, when I think of Willie Mays, I don’t think of his final days with the Mets. When I think of Johnny Unitas I don’t think of his final days with the Chargers. And, in my memory, Bobby Orr was never a Blackhawk.
Which leads us to Buono. Like other greats, Buono has left behind a body of work which transcends the final inglorious act of his career.
Yes, the fairy tale ending would have been nice and, yes, you can make the case that Buono stayed too long at the dance.
But let’s look at the totality of his career. In 12 seasons as the Lions’ coach he won 129 games. Over 11 seasons in Calgary he won 153 games.
His 282 career wins are the most in CFL history and would place him third on the NFL’s alltime list behind Don Shula and George Halas, and ahead of Bill Belichick, Curly Lambeau and Paul Brown.
Read that sentence again slowly.
As for his impact on the Canadian game, we can talk about the Wally coaching tree that stretches across both sides of the border, and his innovations — he was instrumental in developing the spread offence that changed the pro passing game.
But here’s the real thing. Since 1972, he’s been a part of the CFL and the CFL has been a part of him. When I was 20 we used to drive from Ottawa to Montreal to watch the great Rough Riders-Alouettes tilts at the Big O. He was part of those Alouettes teams. I’m now 63 and the past 18 years of my professional life have been spent in close proximity to Buono.
I’m also teeing it up on the 17th hole of my career and don’t know how much longer it will run. But when I look back, I’ll think of the extraordinary people I’ve encountered, people I would have never met in a different line of work, and know how lucky I’ve been. Buono will be on that list. “I’ll go home, wrap things up and start a new life,” he said after the loss in Hamilton.
“I’ve been doing this a lot of years. I’ve talked to a number of people who’ve retired and they’re doing OK. I’m not that different. Hopefully I’ll be OK.”
Don’t doubt that for a minute.