Brendan Taman Gets An Extension

Over the weekend the Riders announced that they had signed GM Brendan Taman to a 1 year contract extension. Now anyone who has followed me for any length of time knows that I am one of Taman’s biggest detractors. I didn’t like him in Winnipeg and I have hated him ever since he showed up here as Tillman’s errand boy while he was on house arrest.

In light of my overtly anti-Taman views, it should come as no surprise that I absolutely hated this news. However, what was more concerning was how this news was received by the general public… People loved it, thought it was a great move, thought Taman deserved this. Mrs. Prophet can attest to how rattled I was by this. I realize that some of you like Taman (and that’s your right… at least until I assume absolute power and become overlord of the future kingdom of Prophetoria and remove such rights) but even people who like him should be able to see how this move lacks any shred of logic.

And when the masses are so misguided that I can scarcely fathom how they managed not to drown in their morning cereal let alone log onto the interweb and post their thoughts, its time for another edition of Addressing Uninformed Opinions aka Everyone Is Stupid But Me

Everyone Is Stupid But Me: Brendan Taman Edition

Uninformed Opinion #1: This move makes sense

This move makes zero sense! Back in November when the Riders were deciding a GM to replace Ken Miller I wrote these words:

So if we are really that certain that Taman is qualified to do this job why not lock him up for 3 years?

Thing is they didn’t. They decided to make him prove himself during the final year of his contract rather than commit to him and his plan. Suddenly 7 months later we decide he should get one more year despite the fact that he has proven absolutely nothing. We either should have committed to him for 3 years back in November (a move I would have hated but at least would have seen the logic in) or waited until August to at least see if any of the moves Taman made actually resulted in a competitive football team. Instead we did neither and just randomly extended him by one year a move that neither shows full confidence in Taman or makes him prove anything to earn it.

Also, why just 1 year? Coach Chamblain is locked up for 3 so if Hopson is really confident in everything Taman is doing then why not lock up Taman for the same length? Either Taman is the right man and we should commit 100% to him (again a move I would hate but would at least see the logic in) or we still doubt him and should maybe wait until we play a freaking game with our rookie coach and team that is 50% new guys before making a decision. Stupidly Hopson ended up somewhere in the middle where he shows neither full confidence nor concern with Taman. Pick one!

Zero sense!

Uninformed Opinion #2: Taman Deserves This

BASED ON WHAT?!?!?!?! How well we practice? How many big name former NFLers we have brought in? The fact that Taman clearly can’t afford such luxuries as personal grooming and obviously needed the money?

There is zero evidence to show that this team is any better than we were in the depths of last year.  There is potential, there is hope, there is excitement but forgive me for wanting to see a bit more than that before I start extolling the greatness of Taman.  If potential, hope and excitement all ensured performance, Man in the Bush would likely not have endured as much mockery from the ladies over his love making abilities.

Some of the more ridiculous statements I have heard are that the hiring of Chamblain was enough to earn Taman the extension or the signing of Picard and Labatte were reason enough. Do you people even think before you speak?!? So because Taman hired a rookie coach with no previous experience (and who last season was the defensive coordinator of the 3^rd worst defense in the CFL) that is a definite sign that he is the best GM ever? And everyone knows that the odds of winning a Grey Cup increase proportional to your free agent spending right?

Look I’m as excited about the upcoming season as anybody. I like what I have seen from Chamblain and, other than depth concerns at a couple positions, I like the players we have brought into camp BUT the fact remains that we have no clue how this team will do this season. We may be good or we may suck. So I think it’s a bit ridiculous to just blindly assume that Taman has assembled nothing but allstars and our spot in the 100^th Grey Cup is all but assured when we haven’t even played a snap of preseason ball let alone the real thing.

For anyone saying this extension was well deserved by Taman give your head a shake! 

Had this been done in July or August it would have made sense. Obviously this decision couldn’t wait until the end of the season as the GM needs to be thinking about scouting and extensions for next year. And by then we would have had some actual evidence to support such an extension.