Sammy Gahagan is excited for what lies ahead following a two-year stint as the director of U.S. scouting with the Edmonton Elks.
The 46-year-old recently announced he wasn’t returning to the team in 2024 despite being offered an extension to remain on. He’s hoping the gamble pays off as he’s looking to continue developing his skills with the long-term goal of garnering the top personnel job with a CFL team.
“Being in the building (in Edmonton), I realized there’s things that I want to learn that I don’t know,” Gahagan told 3DownNation via telephone. “I want to learn the cap and I want to get better at that. I want to progress, I want to move forward. My goal is to be a GM at some point. Based on conversations that I’ve had with some other people in the league, they think I have a good name and everybody knows what I do and that I work extremely hard. I just want to move forward and continue to grow.”
Gahagan first broke into the league with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2016 when Chris Jones was hired as the club’s head coach and general manager and has since worked for the B.C. Lions, Montreal Alouettes, and Elks. Some of the players he’s scouted include Kyran Moore, Tobi Antigha, Jarret Doege, Deontez Alexander, Brian Cole, Maurice Ffrench, Noah Curtis, and Darrius Bratton.
Before joining Edmonton, Gahagan had only ever worked remotely from his home in Florida. Now that he’s had the chance to visit and work in Canada for a few months at a time, he’s longing to spend more time north of the border.
“I’d like to be in Canada more, I’d like to be in the building more. I’d like to have a little more responsibility in regard to the rosters with how it’s built and the Canadian draft,” he said. “I know it probably sounds like a pipedream to be able to accomplish all these things at once but I’ve kind of gone through the sport of football in all aspects and I just want to continue to grow. I feel like there might be an opportunity elsewhere.”
The native of Daytona Beach, Fla. spent a decade working as an agent prior to entering personnel and became familiar with the league representing players such as E.J. Kuale, Jasper Simmons, and Marcus Ball. He identifies his most influential mentor as fellow Florida resident Danny McManus, who has served as an assistant general manager with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for the past decade.
Multiple teams have contacted Gahagan since he announced his departure from the Elks and indicated he has several meetings lined up for the next few weeks. Florida is a hot spot for bowl games, which means plenty of CFL teams will be making the trip near his home.
Though he plans to pursue all possible avenues, Gahagan also isn’t ruling out a possible return to Edmonton.
“I enjoyed Edmonton, it was great. The city’s really beautiful, the people are extremely nice. I got to sit in the meetings and learn, which I thought was invaluable. I had a great learning experience. There was no ill will or any bad feelings there,” he said.
“I talked to Chris and (assistant GM) Geroy (Simon) and they know where I’m at and they were completely OK with me progressing myself. One of Chris’ attributes is that he always wants the guys that work for him to be successful and move forward in their field and this is an opportunity I thought for me to do that and he was OK with it.”
“I’m putting myself into free agency, for lack of a better term, just to kind of see what’s available.”
