"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana
With great fanfare, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers recently announced the return of former offensive coordinator Mike Kelly as the club’s new head coach.
While I’m fairly certain Mr. Santayana was not referring to this hiring when making the above quote, I am sure the Winnipeg Football Club would have been well served to heed its warning.
As a huge fan of the club, I am fearful that by not acknowledging past hiring errors, the Bombers are doomed to suffer mediocrity once again in the face of their most recent hiring.
The reason for this fear might simply be the natural skepticism and pessimism that arises from supporting a team in the midst of an 18-year championship drought in an eight-team league, or it might be that I can’t shake the feeling that we’ve seen this all before.
My mind takes me to a previous season much like the one recently experienced. For your examination, I’d like to offer a comparison of the 2008 and 1996 CFL seasons. You’ll see that there are some ominous parallels that seem to have been ignored (some rightfully so) by Lyle "Tower of Power" Bauer when searching for his new coach.
In both years, the Grey Cup was won by a team led by a former Chicago Bear Quarterback (Burris 2008, Flutie 1996). Bomberland was in mourning following a playoff defeat to the hated Eskimos and the firing of the crusty coach who had led them to that loss (Berry 2008, Cal Murphy 1996).
To add to the gloomy outlook following both seasons, a legendary Bomber icon was considering retirement (Stegall 2008, Walby 1996). In response to these situations, the club offered two unconventional hires as their new head coaches.
Both were assistant coaches (though neither an offensive or defensive coordinator at the time) from rival Western Division opponents (2008 Kelly arrives from the Eskimos, 1996 Jeff Reinebold arrived from the Lions).
These new coaches both had experience as a head coach at a small American college, both had assistant coaching experience in other pro leagues, and both had assistant coached in the CFL.
Both were chosen because it was felt that they demonstrated enthusiasm and energy, though not necessarily experience, and were seen as implements to restoring the tradition of the Bombers.
Known as player’s coaches, the appointment of these new kingpins (both were rookies) was heartily endorsed by players around the league as a great move for deserving candidates.
Now these parallel circumstances can easily be chalked up to coincidence, but to be able to compare any aspect of a new hiring to that of the Reinebold era should give any Bomber fan the willies.
It's like eating a piece of Grandma’s fruitcake at Christmas. You didn’t like it last year, but somehow you think that maybe this time around it will taste good and not give you the runs. Here's hoping the Kelly era spares us the runs the Reinebold era gave us.
What bothers me the most is not necessarily the fact that there are similarities between the two hirings. It's that the most glaring of those similarities is found in the thin nature of their head coaching resumes.
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