Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 17/4/2017 (1249 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to secure the next appointment as the commissioner of the Canadian Football League. As always, should you or any of your Impossible Mission force be fired or fail to fulfil any of the largely unattainable responsibilities of the commissioner, the CFL and it’s membership will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This job offering will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck.

Good luck indeed. With commissioner Jeffrey Orridge and the CFL board of governors mutually agreeing to part ways just over two years into the job, what has to be one of Canada’s most difficult employment offerings is once again up for grabs.

Since the start of the 21st century, there have been only two commissioners that have held the job longer than three years: Tom Wright — who barely made it past the three-year mark — and Mark Cohon, God bless his soul, who made it more than seven. In contrast, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is entering his 12th year, and his two predecessors — Paul Tagliabue and Pete Rozelle — were at the helm for 18 and 30 years, respectively.

Of course it never hurts to be the frontman of a monolithic juggernaut such as the NFL — one that is as successful as it is wealthy, that compensates its CEO exponentially more than the CFL — but this is a striking comparison nonetheless. While the National Football League is undoubtedly easier to run, its commissioners still own a number of ill-fated disasters and fumbles, which never seem to result in their dismissals. The CFL position seems to have about the same life expectancy and tenure as a player who enters the league out of university, and if that player’s career manages to beat the odds and exceed the averages, they are most likely going to see several league bosses come and go.

So how does one job equate to decades of tenure (NFL), and the other virtually no job security at all (CFL)? Most likely it is the near-licence to print money, and the number of applicants clamouring for ownership of one of the 32 teams in the NFL, and the fact that the CFL needs it’s existing stakeholders much more than the NFL does. When everyone is getting rich, not only are the voices quieter, but they are much more co-operative. There is simply too much money to be made, and too many waiting in line, for continuity to not reign supreme in the NFL, and for any single individual to be too disruptive to the common good.

In the CFL, where each owner or community representative makes up more than 10 per cent of the league, the first problem is that they don’t all wield the same clout and position at the bargaining table.

Speaking with numerous sources with experience at the highest levels in the Canadian football environment, there was near-consensus in agreement with the suggestion that many of the governors have invested — and on occasion lost — significant money into their businesses, whereas the community-team governors haven’t.

And the community teams change representatives as their boards change, so there’s no continuity and no real ability to develop meaningful long-term relationships.

Another source reinforced the immense scope and challenges inherent to the position. "The commissioner’s role is unique, as he or she must endure and manage nine (or 27, if you include all the governors) personalities. Six teams have money invested and perhaps greater expectations of their hired gun. In addition, the commissioner manages relationships with the media, sponsors, fans, players, officiating, the broadcast, CFL cities, and other TV markets and CFL staff."

That’s quite the extensive job description and detail of responsibilities for a single entity.

Another source touched on a fundamental issue that could explain the short reign of so many of these commissioners: "The problem with the CFL is the controlling governors don’t want someone to run the league... they want to run it and have someone that will fall in line and see it their way. That is why you don’t see any commissioner have a long tenure."

So is there a solution? How does one succeed at this position? It looks like the next applicant would have to insist on terms that set them up to be successful instead of spinning their wheels for a season or two before it starts all over again.

"Anyone taking the job would need a long-term iron-clad contract with a clear mandate and ability to set direction, and more importantly, implement the strategy," a source said.

Well then, that said, all we need is for the Impossible Mission force to headline the search committee and implement those guidelines, and the league and it’s next commissioner will be well on their way.

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Doug Brown, once a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears weekly in the Free Press.

Twitter: @DougBrown97