Pinball faces tough task as Argos GM
CFL legend facing greatest challenge since playing days
Three years ago, the Argos were all smiles as they introduced the Dream Team in their locker-room in mid-winter.
There was legendary general manager Jim Popp, coming to Toronto alongside coach Marc Trestman, who was sporting an incomparable won-loss record in Montreal. What could be better than that?
Then came a Grey Cup in Year 1 and a parade and momentary excitement for a team that now struggles to find anyone outside its core that actually cares about the Argos.
Last season was a disaster, ending with the classless firing of Trestman during an early morning cellphone call, while he was still seated on the team bus.
This season has been worse — arguably the worst in franchise history.
The Argos have been terrible many times before. Just not this terrible. They lost 64-14 in their home opener. They lost 55-8 on Saturday in Vancouver, scoring a late touchdown to avoid being shut out. The crowds at BMO Field have been the smallest ever seen.
The firing of Popp on Monday was a football mercy killing. It was overdue. The magic he had in Montreal — maybe a lot of that was connected to superstar quarterback Anthony Calvillo — never materialized with the Argos. The Grey Cup won in the snow in Ottawa now seems more fluke than reality.
Now what? It’s back to the future with the wondrous Pinball Clemons as general manager, a man unlike any I’ve met before. He can turn the world on with his smile, to steal a line from Mary Tyler Moore, and no matter how lousy you’re feeling on the worst day you can remember, a hug from Pinball, a greeting, a hello, the eye contact, changes your day.
He has that kind of power. He had it as a player. He had it as a head coach. Now comes perhaps the greatest challenge of his post-playing career.
Turning the Argos into winners is one thing. Making them relevant is something entirely different. You can do one and not the other in Toronto.
Doug Flutie won back-to-back Grey Cups with Don Matthews coaching and barely moved the needle on attendance. Ricky Ray won two Grey Cups with the Argos on teams that weren’t in any way great and it didn’t sell another ticket to anyone.
Pinball is being asked to fix the football team. That’s doable. Getting more people to care, that’s a Rubik’s Cube times 10. The move outside to a great stadium didn’t get people excited the way the move to Mcgill got people excited in Montreal. Now the stadium is empty and the team is disastrous and Bill Manning, the president in charge, wouldn’t know Mike O’shea from Mike Reilly.
But because it’s Pinball, you have to believe. Just a little. I remember the news conference held at Erindale College in Mississauga when he was named head coach in 2000. One game he was a player, the next day a coach. It didn’t seem proper or logical. That’s not how football works, or any sport, for that matter.
But Pinball he found a way to succeed. He got better as the years went on. He won a Grey Cup as head coach in 2004. The three years that followed, he went 32-22 with two first-place seasons.
He had become a terrific coach. Over his final five years on the job, he averaged 10 wins a season.
Now this. With this dreadful team and a coach in Corey Chamblin who may be in over his head.
Pinball talks about creating an ethos of excellence, building bridges not fences, the kind of fire and brimstone stuff he brings to his after-dinner speaking, which pays him well. If you haven’t heard Pinball speak live, you’ve missed something. He makes you laugh and cry and the night is an experience you’ll never forgot.
Manning was certain he wanted Pinball running his football team. He asked and asked again and Pinball kept saying no.
But after the game Saturday in Vancouver, Pinball realized his calling. It was time to come home.
He’s been around Toronto and the Argos for 31 years, played for three Grey Cup winners, coached a Grey Cup winner, and been around for two others. Six titles in all.
Now they’re asking for the impossible.
But impossible is what Pinball does best.