Ugly loss leaves Leos with long offseason
11/5/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
If the B.C. Lions season can conveniently be wrapped up as the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the last two games of the season fit nicely as the Ugly.
Everyone wants to win the championship, of course. But failing that they want to go down guns a-blazing, not the way the Lions limped into the offseason. First, they lost at home to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in a game where a win meant second place and home-field advantage in the semifinal. Instead, they had to go to the East as the fourth-place crossover team. Quarterback Dave Dickenson goes down in a heap in practice and the Toronto Argonauts take advantage of the inexperienced Spergon Wynn. Game, set and match that doesn't come much uglier.
"It happened 11 of 14 times before," said Wally Buono, the architect of the Good, who was speaking of his years in Calgary running the Stampeders. Instead of semifinal losses, though, Buono was speaking mostly of Grey Cup game losses or at worst Western final losses. In 14 years, the Stamps played a home playoff game 11 times and got to the championship game six times. "But it's a nauseating, empty feeling every time you lose. I guess that's why the offseason is six months."
Through all the success of three Grey Cup wins in six trips with the Stampeders, Buono has known, understands and has dealt with hardship and belt tightening. In fact, the year he coached Calgary to its first Grey Cup win in 20 years, he found out he was going to have to cut salaries.
In 1992, the day after directing the Stamps to a 24-10 Grey Cup win over Winnipeg Blue Bombers, he found out at a board of governors meeting he was going to have to cut $500,000 from the budget.
"That was when a salary cap was implemented," said Buono yesterday. "Here was a team that was ecstatic with winning the Grey Cup after so long. It took me about three months to get the stomach to do it. It was the worst months of my life, because you really don't know how to do it."
The Bad is represented by the injuries the Lions endured all season. They had three starters go down in the secondary as well as several changes on the offensive line, beginning with Steve Hardin, whose loss came early and began a revolving door that culminated with Dickenson going down with an ACL knee injury that will require surgery.
"To tell you the truth," Dickenson said at the Surrey facility Monday, "this was my most enjoyable year of football. It was just a bad way to end a good year."
Everyone wants to win the championship, of course. But failing that they want to go down guns a-blazing, not the way the Lions limped into the offseason. First, they lost at home to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in a game where a win meant second place and home-field advantage in the semifinal. Instead, they had to go to the East as the fourth-place crossover team. Quarterback Dave Dickenson goes down in a heap in practice and the Toronto Argonauts take advantage of the inexperienced Spergon Wynn. Game, set and match that doesn't come much uglier.
"It happened 11 of 14 times before," said Wally Buono, the architect of the Good, who was speaking of his years in Calgary running the Stampeders. Instead of semifinal losses, though, Buono was speaking mostly of Grey Cup game losses or at worst Western final losses. In 14 years, the Stamps played a home playoff game 11 times and got to the championship game six times. "But it's a nauseating, empty feeling every time you lose. I guess that's why the offseason is six months."
Through all the success of three Grey Cup wins in six trips with the Stampeders, Buono has known, understands and has dealt with hardship and belt tightening. In fact, the year he coached Calgary to its first Grey Cup win in 20 years, he found out he was going to have to cut salaries.
In 1992, the day after directing the Stamps to a 24-10 Grey Cup win over Winnipeg Blue Bombers, he found out at a board of governors meeting he was going to have to cut $500,000 from the budget.
"That was when a salary cap was implemented," said Buono yesterday. "Here was a team that was ecstatic with winning the Grey Cup after so long. It took me about three months to get the stomach to do it. It was the worst months of my life, because you really don't know how to do it."
The Bad is represented by the injuries the Lions endured all season. They had three starters go down in the secondary as well as several changes on the offensive line, beginning with Steve Hardin, whose loss came early and began a revolving door that culminated with Dickenson going down with an ACL knee injury that will require surgery.
"To tell you the truth," Dickenson said at the Surrey facility Monday, "this was my most enjoyable year of football. It was just a bad way to end a good year."
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