Montreal Alouettes general manager Danny Maciocia briefly considered leaving the nest before the team was placed under conservatorship for the second time in four years by the Canadian Football League (CFL).
” I’ve considered [la possibilité] give up, but you absolutely have to be careful when you find yourself in such a state of mind,” Maciocia said during a meeting with the media in the Alouettes’ locker room at Olympic Stadium on Wednesday morning.
“I experienced it spending three weeks on the road in the United States watching NCAA games. Going through all this, while you’re working, and you’re wondering where we’re going… Is it worth continuing? Should we start looking elsewhere? I have a family, too. It’s a question I asked myself, but I would say it lasted 30 seconds in total. I would say it was because of frustration,” he said.
This frustration was partly due to the fact that the estate of Sid Spiegel, one of the club’s co-owners, who died in July 2021, refused to untie the purse strings. Maciocia was therefore unable to offer signing bonuses to the players he coveted as the CFL free agent market opened on Tuesday.
“I can’t hide that I was frustrated for a while,” admitted the 55-year-old Montrealer. And I had other things going around between my ears at that time. I can only think of what our supporters were going through during that time. […] I strongly believe in the existence of a professional team here, in Montreal, in the Canadian Football League, especially when you look at the pool of players that is available and all those who earn their living in this sport. »
“There is a place for us. And that’s what gave me a little more juice to keep fighting,” he continued.
Despite all of Maciocia’s good will, he and the Alouettes suffered several notorious roster losses for the upcoming season. So their quarter noh 1 Trevor Harris has deserted (Saskatchewan Roughriders), as have star wide ends Jake Wieneke (Roughriders) and Eugene Lewis (Edmonton Elks).
Then, when all seemed lost, the league announced that it was putting the Alouettes under conservatorship on Tuesday morning. A real breath of fresh air for Maciocia, since it meant that he could then resume the hunt for free agents.
“It was a little crazy,” Maciocia said. We found ourselves in a real whirlwind yesterday [mardi]. You know, you arrive at the office and everything is dark and dreary, you don’t know what you can or can’t do. […] Then suddenly, shortly before 9 a.m., we get the green light [de la ligue] to go hunting for autonomous players. »
“All I was trying to do was do damage control. I contacted agents, tried to present counter-offers, convince them by presenting our plan for the future, etc. Overall, we managed to get along with a few players, and for the others, well, we were late to the dance, ”imaged the main interested party.
The Quebecer was nevertheless able to redeem himself by agreeing with quarterback Cody Fajardo and star wide receiver Greg Ellingson, in particular. Aging players, who have been injured in the past, but who will have a new chance to shine in the CFL.
Maciocia has referred to his current team as “blue collar” because, he said, “they may not have the same level of talent as others, but you know they will deliver an interesting fight every game.”
Maciocia, however, has not finished shopping. In this sense, he indicated that he would like to add a fourth quarter, some wide ends and defensive backs to his formation by the start of the campaign.
Be on the same wavelength
The announcement of the supervision of the Birds coincided with the return of Mario Cecchini within the Montreal organization.
The Quebecer, who was fired in December, was named interim team president two months later, a position he holds while waiting for the Ambrosie circuit to find new owners. Maciocia seemed surprised to hear the news of his return to the job on Tuesday.
“I learned about it around 8:15-8:30 a.m.,” he said. He [Cecchini] said to me: “See you at the office later?” I thought he was talking about his office at home, but he made it clear to me that he was coming to the Olympic Stadium office. […] That’s when I understood that he was coming on an interim basis. »
Maciocia added that he was unaware of the timelines for the arrival of a new group of owners, but he indicated that only one thing seemed essential to him.
” If they [les propriétaires] want Mario Cecchini to be the president, that’s fine, and if they want to put their man in place, that’s fine, but the most important thing in this is that everyone is on the same page. It hasn’t been the case for a few weeks, for various reasons, but I hope everyone will be aligned, from the next group of owners to the employees in the field, ”he summarized.