Article content continued

Postscript: In October, during a reunion of the 1984 Oilers Stanley Cup team, fans gave Pocklington an ovation. “I wasn’t sure what was going to happen,” he said. “As you can imagine.”

3. Bernie Glieberman

Team: Ottawa Rough Riders (CFL: 1991-1994), Ottawa Renegades (CFL, 2005)

A businessman from Michigan, Bernie installed his son, Lonie, with the team. In the first go-round, that led to the signing of defensive lineman Dexter Manley, who was in exile from the NFL for substance abuse. He was not the star he once was, in Ottawa. As they began their second attempt, in 2005, Lonie was the subject of a Q&A in the Ottawa Sun, an interview in which he was asked of his biggest personal regret. “When I lived here, there was this chick I liked for a long time … we always kinda flirted and talked,” he told the paper. “This one time, she put her hands in my pockets and I didn’t pursue it. I regretted it the very next day, and I still do.” The next question: What is wrong with the owner or president of a team dating its cheerleaders? “I don’t know,” he answered. “What is wrong with that?”

Postscript: There are still football fans in Ottawa, remarkably.

2. Jeffrey Loria

Team: Montreal Expos (1999-2002)

They were not marketed very well, nor were they easy to find on television and radio for English-speaking fans. The Expos withered on the vine under Loria, who became one of the most unpopular figures in the history of Montreal sports. The Expos — or what was left of them — moved to Washington in 2005, and many blame Loria, who got into the team as a minority stakeholder, but quickly increased his hold. “I was fooled,” former co-owner Mark Routtenberg told a reporter four years ago. “He said all the right things, how Montreal was close to New York for him, how he speaks French because of his art dealings in France, how he loved the game of baseball. I really thought he had the intention of making baseball work in Montreal.”