It feels like déjà vu all over again.
Last year around this time I wrote a piece about people not jumping to conclusions about the Ticats denying defensive coordinator Orlondo Steinauer a chance to interview for the head coaching vacancy in BC. People killed the Ticats, and especially Kent Austin, for what they perceived was halting a coach from advancing his career.
But as Drew Edwards found out at the time, Steinauer signed a contract extension with the Ticats that contained a no-movement clause. That was the informational basis for my piece last year.
Now, I understand that I am not the most-read Ticats writer on the planet. So maybe my little piece last year didn’t attract the biggest audience, but Drew Edwards is the most-read Ticats writer on the planet, so imagine my surprise when I saw comments last night about how Hamilton denying the Edmonton Eskimos’ request to interview Steinauer was “bad news for the Ticats reputation,” was an example of Kent Austin “holding a guy back,” and that it was a “disrespectful move by the Ticats” to deny such a request.
Really!?
We just went through all of this stuff last year!
This is not news, people. We knew all season that Steinauer was going nowhere after the season. Heck, Steinauer even said it himself when the team emptied their lockers after their loss to Ottawa in this year’s East Final that he would be back in 2016.
And yet, here were are, almost a year to the day, and people are once again ripping into the Ticats, and Kent Austin in particular, for a slight that just isn’t there.
Look, I get it, Kent Austin ruffles feathers. He is the type of guy that if he is on your side, you love him. If he is not, you don’t. But if you are going to attack someone, do so from a position of fact. Don’t create reasons to dislike a guy just because you dislike a guy.
Orlondo Steinauer is not being denied anything. He signed his deal knowing full well what it entailed. If he did not like the idea of waiting to move up, he could have rejected the contract. He didn’t, so clearly he is fine with the arrangement.
But it wouldn’t be the CFL if Kent Austin wasn’t getting ripped for something, I just wish it would be something that we didn’t already put to bed a year ago.
