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The Eskimos won’t find a more competent evaluator of talent on the open market. Whoever they hire will not be as good in the GM role, and luckily for him he won’t have to because Hervey left the Eskimos in a good position. They have a franchise quarterback in Reilly, a deep O-line, a solid D-line and quality players at other positions. The secondary has some question marks, but the team is significantly better today than it was in 2013 when Hervey was hired.

Hervey wasn’t fired because of his football success. Rhodes explained there were two main reasons for letting Hervey go.

“First, both parties could not agree to contract extension terms, said Rhodes. “Secondly, there are differences in philosophy over the way we do business. During the course of recent negotiations for a possible contract extension, it became clear that we would be unable to meet Ed’s expectations.”

Money was an issue. It always is in any negotiation, but the main reason was Hervey’s unwillingness to be more open to marketing changes. Time will tell if that was a valid reason to fire a winning GM.

I never agreed with Hervey’s decision to close the dressing room to media on practice days. It wasn’t good for the players or the media, but let’s be clear, it is also not a reason to fire the GM.

The easy solution would have been for CFL commissioner Jeffrey Orridge to send out a league mandated media policy, like the NHL, NFL and MLB have. This isn’t difficult. Make it mandatory and if a team violates it, the GM gets fined. Rhodes works directly with Orridge, so why not encourage him to implement a standard, which most professional leagues already have.