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But you can’t look to the Eskimos’ immediate future without glancing back at the recent past to see why a meet-the-new-GM event was needed in the first place.

Standing at a podium in the same locker-room that has been so off limits to the public eye during the last three years under the Eskimos’ last regime, Sunderland was asked about taking over the role of GM on a club where it’s been made abundantly clear that winning, alone, and a sole focus on football isn’t enough.

“What it means, first and foremost, my job as general manager is to win,” he said. “And then above and beyond that is to do anything I can do to aid (Eskimos president) Len (Rhodes) in whatever he wants. I’m going to follow his lead on that.

“I’ve been a part of organizations that have been on both sides of that, some where it’s been very, very open. In 2010 with the New York Jets, we were on Hard Knocks, and went to the AFC Championship. You can’t be any more open than that, so I’m open to it. Len and I are aligned in or philosophies on that and I think we’ll agree moving forward.”

While he’s aspired to become a GM previously, interviewing for the Montreal Alouettes job that ended up going to former Eskimos coach Kavis Reed in December, Sunderland’s latest bid to become the youngest among the current crop of CFL GMs was realized in a matter of days, if not hours.

“A complete whirlwind. Beyond that,” said Sunderland, who interviewed on Thursday and accepted terms to his contract Friday. “When I found out I was granted permission to interview, I was in Austria on vacation, so I flew back to Amsterdam, packed up, flew to Ottawa the next day then I flew here for the interview.