Riders Show Ineptitude is not Limited to On the Field Action
You could blame Gary Lawless. You could blame the poor crisis communication plan of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. You could blame the long weekend. But the circus that was the TSN story of the Riders getting rid of Head Coach Cory Chamblin was one of the biggest clown acts of the 2015 season to date.
The story came out Saturday after the Riders got stomped 30-5 by the Edmonton Eskimos in a game notable for rookie quarterback Brent Smith not getting taken off the field in an ambulance. Gary Lawless, a TSN reporter based in Winnipeg, the city that God forgot, said Rider GM Brendan Taman was meeting with the Rider executive to discuss getting rid of Chamblin and having a new coach in place after the bye week, which is coming up after this weekend.
Lawless quoted a high level Rider source, which sounded like either Taman or a board member. Then the silence from the Rider camp was deafening. Add to the story that the meeting between Taman and president Jeff Reynolds was now on Saturday rather than Sunday, and you expected a flash notice that Taman was out and Paul La Police was in with Mike Benevedes coming in to take over the defense.
Saturday night came and went with no response from the Riders. Then Sunday came and went and nothing was said and people started to comment that if the story was full of crap, the Riders should have gotten in front of it to keep public confidence in Chamblin, especially in the locker room. It was also not fair to Chamblin, because who wants to hear in the media they are out of a job?