Shultz latest article : Why is it so difficult to repeat?
Why is it so difficult to repeat?
TSN.ca Staff
10/5/2004
In our pre-game meeting in preparation for Wendy's Friday Night Football, our fearless and demanding leader, Dave Randorf kept wanting a clear answer to the question, What is wrong with the Edmonton Eskimos?
Presently, Edmonton is 7-8 but if they can win its last three games (vs. MTL, at SSK and vs. WPG), they can finish at 10-6 and will make the playoffs for a 33rd straight year, a record in all of sports.
But why is Edmonton 7-8 right now? This is the defending Grey Cup champions with maybe the best receivers in the league and stability at all levels of management, coaches and players. Again, they won the Grey Cup last year!
Hey, wait a minute, maybe that's the problem.
If you go back in the history books, way back to the first Grey Cup held in 1909, when the University of Toronto defeated Toronto Parkdale 26-6, and then add up the number of repeat Grey Cup winner, you come up with an impressive number. Thirteen times since 1909, a team has won the Grey Cup at least twice in a row.
But then when you look from 1960 on to the present day, that number drops from 13 to 4. Only Winnipeg, Ottawa, Edmonton and Toronto have repeated as Grey Cup winners. Then when you look at the last 20 years, only one team has repeated, the Toronto Argonauts in 1996-97.
This is also of interest when you consider that this is only a 9-team league now and just a 4 or 5-team league in its very early years. If there was ever an opportunity for consistent dynasties, the CFL is it.
So why no dynasties? Why is it that teams that come off Grey Cup wins so often do not live up to expectations the next year as Edmonton has done this year?
The first and most obvious answer is free agency and coaching movement. Whenever you reach the top of your chosen occupation, your competition either tries to copy you or acquire the people that work with you.
Teams do lose players, coaches and management types to the inevitable bigger and better deal. But it has to be more than that because we are not talking about a lot of players. We are talking about two or three that move on.
Back in 1991, I was a part of the Toronto Argonauts team that beat Calgary 36-21 and won a Grey Cup. That was the Candy-Gretzky-McNall years, a high-profile enjoyable season of which I have nothing but fond memories.
That year, we finished 13-5 and led the league in points scored with 647, averaging about 35 points per game. The very next year, we were dead last in the East at 6-12 and scored 469 points for an average of 26 points per game. Only B.C. was more pathetic at 3-15.
In 1991, we had no stars. Yes Rocket Ismail made his CFL debut but he was part of a team. Our humility was high, our ego was low and we had a toughness about us that went from the personalities to the field. I have high respect for a lot of guys on that team.
The next year, individualism set in. In one of the most difficult moments I have yet to comprehend, three of our key starters expressed concern that there were not enough diamonds in our Grey Cup rings. Think about that one for a moment! You're so wrapped up in the way the ring looks that you forget the team effort that went into it to earn it.
Now, I would never equate what happened from 1991 to 1992 to Edmonton this year because I have too much respect for the Eskimos organization to come to a conclusive statement about something I have not experienced.
And to be 100% truthful, I do not have a clear idea as to why only one team has repeated as Grey Cup winners in the last 20 years.
But obtaining football success and maintaining football success are two different accomplishments. Sometimes the edges and attention to detail are not as intense the second time around. Sometimes the desire to be the guy who makes the play is substituted as the desire to avoid criticism and, at the risk of being a little too cerebral, it is a sub-conscious thought process.
Because you were successful before, you expect to be successful right now. Rather than taking success on the football field, you wait for it. And when you wait for it, 'it' never happens.
The Edmonton Eskimos are a well-run, solid football team, of which the city should be very proud.
Hey, if Sean Fleming had added six inches to his crossbar-hitting field goal try in the B.C. game three weeks ago, maybe I wouldn't be bringing up these post-Grey Cup season assessment ideas. But he didn't.
I really don't know why Edmonton is not having a better year this year. And I don't believe in voodoo or magic but I do wish I could find out what it is. Then I could bottle it and avoid it because winning a Grey Cup one year does not guarantee anything the following year.
TSN.ca Staff
10/5/2004
In our pre-game meeting in preparation for Wendy's Friday Night Football, our fearless and demanding leader, Dave Randorf kept wanting a clear answer to the question, What is wrong with the Edmonton Eskimos?
Presently, Edmonton is 7-8 but if they can win its last three games (vs. MTL, at SSK and vs. WPG), they can finish at 10-6 and will make the playoffs for a 33rd straight year, a record in all of sports.
But why is Edmonton 7-8 right now? This is the defending Grey Cup champions with maybe the best receivers in the league and stability at all levels of management, coaches and players. Again, they won the Grey Cup last year!
Hey, wait a minute, maybe that's the problem.
If you go back in the history books, way back to the first Grey Cup held in 1909, when the University of Toronto defeated Toronto Parkdale 26-6, and then add up the number of repeat Grey Cup winner, you come up with an impressive number. Thirteen times since 1909, a team has won the Grey Cup at least twice in a row.
But then when you look from 1960 on to the present day, that number drops from 13 to 4. Only Winnipeg, Ottawa, Edmonton and Toronto have repeated as Grey Cup winners. Then when you look at the last 20 years, only one team has repeated, the Toronto Argonauts in 1996-97.
This is also of interest when you consider that this is only a 9-team league now and just a 4 or 5-team league in its very early years. If there was ever an opportunity for consistent dynasties, the CFL is it.
So why no dynasties? Why is it that teams that come off Grey Cup wins so often do not live up to expectations the next year as Edmonton has done this year?
The first and most obvious answer is free agency and coaching movement. Whenever you reach the top of your chosen occupation, your competition either tries to copy you or acquire the people that work with you.
Teams do lose players, coaches and management types to the inevitable bigger and better deal. But it has to be more than that because we are not talking about a lot of players. We are talking about two or three that move on.
Back in 1991, I was a part of the Toronto Argonauts team that beat Calgary 36-21 and won a Grey Cup. That was the Candy-Gretzky-McNall years, a high-profile enjoyable season of which I have nothing but fond memories.
That year, we finished 13-5 and led the league in points scored with 647, averaging about 35 points per game. The very next year, we were dead last in the East at 6-12 and scored 469 points for an average of 26 points per game. Only B.C. was more pathetic at 3-15.
In 1991, we had no stars. Yes Rocket Ismail made his CFL debut but he was part of a team. Our humility was high, our ego was low and we had a toughness about us that went from the personalities to the field. I have high respect for a lot of guys on that team.
The next year, individualism set in. In one of the most difficult moments I have yet to comprehend, three of our key starters expressed concern that there were not enough diamonds in our Grey Cup rings. Think about that one for a moment! You're so wrapped up in the way the ring looks that you forget the team effort that went into it to earn it.
Now, I would never equate what happened from 1991 to 1992 to Edmonton this year because I have too much respect for the Eskimos organization to come to a conclusive statement about something I have not experienced.
And to be 100% truthful, I do not have a clear idea as to why only one team has repeated as Grey Cup winners in the last 20 years.
But obtaining football success and maintaining football success are two different accomplishments. Sometimes the edges and attention to detail are not as intense the second time around. Sometimes the desire to be the guy who makes the play is substituted as the desire to avoid criticism and, at the risk of being a little too cerebral, it is a sub-conscious thought process.
Because you were successful before, you expect to be successful right now. Rather than taking success on the football field, you wait for it. And when you wait for it, 'it' never happens.
The Edmonton Eskimos are a well-run, solid football team, of which the city should be very proud.
Hey, if Sean Fleming had added six inches to his crossbar-hitting field goal try in the B.C. game three weeks ago, maybe I wouldn't be bringing up these post-Grey Cup season assessment ideas. But he didn't.
I really don't know why Edmonton is not having a better year this year. And I don't believe in voodoo or magic but I do wish I could find out what it is. Then I could bottle it and avoid it because winning a Grey Cup one year does not guarantee anything the following year.
Comment