DARRYL DYCK
Danny Maciocia offered two words of advice for his successor with the Edmonton Eskimos: "Good luck."
He said it as plainly as he could Sunday but there was a hint of bitterness in his voice, a warning, too. Finding the right man to fix all that ails the once-prized CFL franchise is going to be tougher than a two-game win streak for the once mighty Eskimos.
The new general manager has to rebuild public confidence, improve the talent base, draft better and he has to succeed since this is a pivotal moment for the Eskimos, a time of correction or further decline depending on who takes control.
Team president Rick LeLacheur made it clear Saturday part of the reason for dismissing Maciocia had to do with the fans' rank displeasure. They saw Maciocia as "Little Napoleon," a guy who never admitted his mistakes (and there were a few). That perception was bad for business. Without the Grey Cup game slated for Commonwealth Stadium, there were suspicions the Eskimos' season-ticket count would have taken a significant hit this season and next, too, had Maciocia stayed aboard.
But here's the real kicker for the 1-4 Eskimos: Where do they look for the next great GM? It's not as if they're springing up in bunches. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats went through three - Ron Lancaster, Rob Katz, Marcel Desjardins - before settling on Bob O'Billovich, who recently turned 70. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers hired Joe Mack this year. He'd only been out of the CFL for two decades. The Toronto Argonauts continue to stay with Adam Rita, and if anyone can explain that, please do.
The other GMs in the league (Montreal's Jim Popp, Saskatchewan's Brendan Taman, Calgary's John Hufnagel and B.C.'s Wally Buono) aren't going anywhere and aren't likely to allow one of their underlings to jump to Edmonton in midseason, even for a promotion.
Does that open the door for Eric Tillman, the Roughriders' former GM? It does, but don't expect Tillman to be invited in. While he comes with sparkling football credentials, having won three Grey Cups with three different teams, he also carries the stigma of pleading guilty to a summary charge of sexual assault involving a 16-year-old girl. That plea came eight months ago. It's still too fresh, especially for a hostile marketplace that used to give Maciocia and his wife the finger when they drove their Pathfinder with Quebec licence plates still on it.
What is most likely to happen in Edmonton is that LeLacheur waits to see who applies for the job. Maybe there's someone in the NFL who is interested, someone the Eskimos never would have suspected. And maybe, just maybe, the answer is already in-house.
Dan McKinnon is in his fifth season as the Eskimos' manager of football administration. He's been involved in scouting and paperwork and has coached at the collegiate and professional levels. He worked for the Arena League's New Jersey Red Dogs when Hufnagel was there, and also with the Alouettes, which means he knows the intricacies of the three-down game and what it takes to succeed.
With Maciocia out, McKinnon is being allowed to run the Eskimos in partnership with head scout Ed Hervey and Paul Jones, the Louisiana-based assistant GM/personnel director. What LeLacheur and the team's board of directors might discover in the months ahead is that McKinnon is the best man for the job, a quiet back-room organizer who has yet to earn the wrath of the Eskimos' fan base. It's a possibility not lost on Maciocia.
"Maybe they should hire someone local," he said while waiting for a flight to take him and his father to Montreal.
What bothered Maciocia was not so much being fired but the open contempt for him. He said he moved his family to Edmonton, bought a house in St. Albert and that he and his wife did much charitable work there.
"I don't go out to bars," he said. "I'm not a womanizer. I've never embarrassed the organization. Then this dislike? I don't understand it."
What the Eskimos need to understand is the magnitude of what they do next. Hire the wrong guy and they could stumble harder and take years to get up. Maciocia may have wished his successor good luck, but his former team could use the same. A lot of the same.