It’s not quite Howdy Doody replacing Darth Vader, but the change over from Roy Shivers to Eric Tillman, will certainly send a message that the focus will be on community and football again in Saskatchewan.
David Naylor nails it correctly in his Globe and Mail column today, in which he calls Tillman and the Riders a natural fit. In fact with Tillman now in charge there will be a comprehensive image change in Regina.
A team that was becoming known more for its off field legal troubles than for its on field statistics, will possibly be able to return the focus onto football and the long held dream of a playoff game in Regina. In an eight team and occasionally nine team league, you wouldn’t think that would be too much to deliver on, but for far too many years it has been one disappointment after another.
Shivers is not a bad football man, in fact his contacts and football savvy helped to build not only the Riders, but the Stamps and Lions before them. However, he had his chances to deliver in Saskatchewan and they came up short each time. His experiments in football engineering provided some entertaining teams, but troubled ones as well; in a small province with a big football following everyone takes note.
Last year perhaps was the most disappointing of the lot of them, as the Riders came close but failed to take that final step. Fearing that the Riders may not even make the playoffs, let alone claim a playoff spot, the board made their decision.
It was a choice made that was possibly more for the longer term benefit of the team than for a short term hope for that playoff date. The expectations have been high in Saskatchewan for a couple of years, this year suggested steps backward were being taken. So it’s not surprising that a change of direction has come, even if it is in the most unusual period of time of being in the middle of a season.
Tillman has had some pretty good success in the CFL on his own, he very well may be just what is needed in a football mad province, a leveling force to steer the team back on track.
The Riders have always been about community and football, the last few years they came close in the football but seemed to become more distant in the community. That works if you have a Grey Cup to show for it, Shivers didn’t and now someone else takes the lead in finding the Promised Land.
Tillman, 'Riders a natural fit
CFL team about to sign new GM, DAVID NAYLOR reports
DAVID NAYLOR
Globe and Mail
August 23, 2006
No doubt there will be a warm welcome in Regina this week when Eric Tillman is introduced as the new general manager of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, the Canadian Football League's most beloved team.
Tillman's hiring was a virtual certainty yesterday, less than 24 hours after the team fired Roy Shivers. Tillman will receive a four-year, $1-million contract.
The timing suggests Tillman had been in Saskatchewan's sights for some time, which is no surprise since this marriage is of two parties that need each other.
Besides a résumé that includes two Grey Cup championships, Tillman brings Saskatchewan something it could really use -- an image change.
Shivers, whose teams failed to win as many games as they lost during his six-plus seasons in Regina, had to deal with players who regularly made headlines for what they did off the field. The most significant of these was Trevis Smith, the linebacker whose CFL career was cut short last season when he was charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault. He was charged under a section of the Criminal Code that is used to prosecute people who have unprotected sex without informing their partners of their HIV status.
Shivers may not have condoned the behaviour of his players, but he rarely, if ever, condemned it, instead often blaming it on their profile in the community. That kind of thing never plays well with fans, but it runs especially hollow in a place that likes to think of its players as the kind of people who could be your neighbours, just like George Reed and Ronnie Lancaster used to be. Enter Tillman, who has cultivated a squeaky clean image during his years in the CFL as an executive and a television personality.
Anyone who has followed his previous CFL stops is aware of his strong stand against hiring players who may present a risk to the community or put the football club in a bad light.
That may sound old-fashioned and it probably cost Tillman's teams a few wins over the years, but it's something from which he's never deviated. And it will play big in Saskatchewan, given the franchise's recent history.
While the Roughriders may need Tillman, he also needs them. The fact his last two jobs ended on sour notes has been more than a little unsettling to him.
The first of those, in Toronto, didn't reflect badly on him because of what followed his dismissal from the Argonauts before the 1998 season. New owner Sherwood Schwarz replaced him with J.I. Albrecht, whose stint with the Argos lasted less than half a disastrous season.
In Ottawa, however, Tillman's exit was considerably murkier and harder to interpret. The first football employee secured by the expansion Renegades, Tillman hired his good friend, Joe Paopao, as head coach and they embarked on building a team that they expected to be playoff bound by the third year.
All that went awry after their second season when, with financial losses mounting, ownership pulled back significantly on the flow of money to the football side of the business, leaving Tillman enraged that his project was being undermined. A management scuffle ensued, and when the dust had settled, Tillman was on the outside looking in while Paopao emerged with virtually full control over football matters before the 2004 season.
That year and the next turned out to be disastrous for the Renegades, which in some eyes vindicated Tillman. But he was never comfortable with how things played out in Ottawa and what it did to his reputation and job prospects.
In Saskatchewan, Tillman will be a large personality in a small community, which should suit him well. He'll bring in his own staff after this season, perhaps with close friend Kent Austin walking the sidelines as head coach, and make the Roughriders the model of good behaviour in the CFL.
And he'll get a chance to try to prove that what happened in Toronto and Ottawa was a mistake, that had they stuck with his plan, everything would have played out just fine. For both the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Tillman, this week is about fresh starts.
The above item first appeared on my Twelve Men on the Field blog, a look at Canadian football, check it out for more coverage of the CFL.
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