Cliff Fletcher, a Good Choice or a "Puppet" for Upper Management?

Hey there!

Let me first start off by saying that I appreciate everything that Mr. Fletcher has done for the Leafs organization in the past and what he has done so far for the future (Rome was not built in a day...).

The big question is "Does Mr. Fletcher have all the say?" or are the "puppet strings" in place that we witnessed when Mr. Peddie "unveiled" the savior? We all remember Mr. Peddie mouthing Cliff's speech while he was reciting it from a lined piece of paper.

This creates the question “Do we actually have 100 percent Cliff Fletcher in place rebuilding?" or just a puppet of Mr Peddie?

I personally think that although Mr. Fletcher is a great General Manager that he may have been either a last resort or the one who didn't read the fine print on the bottom of his contract...I believe that the generic contract may have read like this:

1.) Although you will assume the facade of General Manager of the Teacher's Union owned and Mr. Peddie / Board of Directors run Toronto Maple Leafs, you will have no authority in any contract or trade. Those have to be run by us first and we'll take too long to approve some 90 percent will fall through.

2.) Any and all ideas that are yours become ours and ultimately the property of MLSE Management.

3.) In the event that one of the Teacher's Union / Mr. Peddie's decisions that you were not any part of gets bad press / media attention you will be terminated. This is to protect the hockey integrity of the Teacher's Union and Mr. Peddie, in regards to their supreme hockey sense and General Managing skills.

And the last one...

4.) Any and all speeches and or media interviews are to be scripted by MLSE prior to actual event. These will be altered to benefit the T. Union and the board of governors. These will tread lightly on Hockey and heavily on the "great job" that the Union and Board are doing and how you have "complete control" over your position.

The perks are:

Annual Salary: almost nothing for the stress you have to put up with from the puppeteers and media.

Office: yes, you'll have one, but by the end of the first full season (if you're still employed), you'll want to crawl under a rock to get away from the scrutiny.

Car: Chevette as we cannot afford anything else even though we are one of the highest grossing sports teams in professional sports

Plus all the B/S you can choke down as you are now our puppet and will act as such until the end of your term here...

I hope you're up for a rocky ride Mr. Fletcher, and for what it's worth I believe that you're doing the best job that one person can when they're give a pile of s$$# and asked to sculpt a masterpiece.

Stay tuned Leaf fans,

M