Shreveport Pirates QB Mike Johnson doesn’t envy Ottawa Redblacks for CFL record-breaking poor start

Screenshot courtesy: TSN

The expansion Shreveport Pirates got off to the worst start in CFL history until their futility was recently surpassed by the Ottawa Redblacks, who fell to 0-15 with a loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats this past week.

The Pirates were owned by Michigan real estate mogul Bernie Glieberman, who installed his son, Lonie, as the team’s president. Glieberman had previously owned the Ottawa Rough Riders for a brief stint and bought the Ottawa Renegades in 2005, who folded the next year.

Given the connections between Shreveport and the Rough Riders and Renegades, it seems only fitting that the Pirates now have a tie to the Redblacks, too.

The Pirates played at Independence Stadium, a 50,000-seat venue that still stands today in the west end of Shreveport, now over a century old. The stadium still hosts high school games as well as the annual Independence Bowl, which most recently saw Louisiana Tech defeat Coastal Carolina by a score of 23-14 in front of 30,298 fans in 2025.

Shreveport is located in the northwest corner of Louisiana, not far from the Texas border. Dallas is less than a three-hour drive due west, while New Orleans is a five-hour trip southeast. The metropolitan area population, which includes nearby Bossier City, was around 365,000 in the mid-1990s. It is now closer to 385,000.

The Pirates had the inexplicable colour scheme of purple, orange, silver, black, and white. The logo appeared to depict a pirate being launched from a sideways pyramid.

John Huard was initially hired as the team’s head coach by general manager J.I. Albrecht, though he was fired by Lonie Glieberman during training camp. Huard was replaced with Pro Football Hall of Fame player and longtime NFL head coach Forrest Gregg.

Mike Johnson joined the Pirates partway through their inaugural season in 1994 and was one of six quarterbacks to attempt a regular-season pass for the team, alongside Terrence Jones, Robert Cobb, Tom Muecke, Robert Hall, and Eros Sanchez.

The left-handed passer was 25 at the time, having already been a member of the San Antonio Riders of the World League of American Football, B.C. Lions, Saskatchewan Roughriders, and Orlando Predators of the Arena Football League.

Johnson was chosen to start against the Sacramento Gold Miners on October 16, 1994. The game doesn’t appear to have been televised.

Sacramento had throttled Shreveport by a score of 56-3 only one month prior, with the loss dropping the Pirates to 0-11. Shreveport was now 0-14, which was the worst start to a season by any team in CFL history. The mark stood until 2026.

“I wasn’t there the entire season, so I wasn’t there for all the losses, but I was there for some. That’s not a record that you should ever be proud of, so I mean I wouldn’t wish that on anybody, but that’s still something that is a big deal when you lose 14 straight,” Johnson told 3DownNation by telephone on Tuesday.

“When you lose that many games, there’s not a lot of positivity. I’ve always been a positive guy, and I’ve always felt like I could effect change, so I didn’t go into that situation looking that I was going to be a part of that losing process. I got to play, and then things turned around.”

12,465 fans attended the fateful game at Independence Stadium, which was played in rainy conditions. According to the official game sheet, it was 69 degrees Fahrenheit. Evidently, American statisticians could be taught the rules of Canadian football, but not the metric system.

The Gold Miners were quarterbacked by former University of Florida star Kerwin Bell. The pocket passer ended up having a solid CFL career that lasted almost a decade, and is best remembered for spiking a football into his groin during a misguided touchdown celebration with the Toronto Argonauts in 2000.

Sacramento opened the scoring when Tony Burse ran for a six-yard touchdown, giving the visitors a 7-0 lead. From there, Shreveport dominated the rest of the first half.

Johnson threw touchdown passes to David Lucas and Wayne Walker in quick succession near the end of the first quarter, the latter of which went for 59 yards. The team missed two-points converts after both scores, though Aaron Kanner, the team’s punter, added a 68-yard rouge in the second quarter.

The Gold Miners scored four points in the second quarter, courtesy of an 11-yard field goal and a rouge from Roman Anderson, who was named All-CFL as a member of the San Antonio Texans the following year.

Seconds before halftime, the Pirates opened a two-score lead when Johnson threw his third touchdown pass of the day with a five-yard strike to Lloyd Hill. It was 20-11 at the break.

After a relatively action-packed first half, the second half was dreadfully boring.

Swedish-born kicker Björn Nittmo — eat your heart out, Randy Ambrosie — made one of two 27-yard field goal attempts for the Pirates in the third quarter, resulting in four points. Sacramento punter Peter Gardere accounted for the only score in the fourth quarter, a 70-yard rouge.

The final score was 24-12.

The Shreveport Pirates had finally won a game.

Johnson finished the game 11-of-28 for 173 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions. It was far from an elite performance, but it was enough to end a 14-game losing skid.

Shreveport’s defence played its best game of the season, recording four sacks, three takeaways, and holding the Gold Miners to 249 net yards. Bell finished the game 14-of-39 for 217 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions.

“It was a big celebration,” said Johnson. “Forrest Gregg was the coach, and he was an energetic guy. He was older, but he was still energetic. He was one of those guys that wasn’t used to (losing) because he had come from a winning pedigree, and so he didn’t really understand that, but we got through it, and we won that game, and then the season turned around.”

The Pirates followed their inaugural win with a 52-8 loss to the Calgary Stampeders at McMahon Stadium. The Red and White were amid a 15-3 season and led by star quarterback Doug Flutie, who won his fourth-straight Most Outstanding Player award the following month.

Despite suffering yet another one-sided defeat, Shreveport closed out the season with back-to-back wins to finish 3-15. The first victory came in a 29-27 win over the Toronto Argonauts at SkyDome, and the second occurred back in Shreveport where the Pirates beat Ottawa by a score of 28-24. Johnson started each of Shreveport’s last five games, making him 3-2 on the year.

Miraculously, the Pirates finished only two points out of a playoff spot, as the East Division rival Hamilton Tiger-Cats (4-14) and Rough Riders (4-14) also had miserable seasons. There was no crossover rule at the time, so the fifth-place Gold Miners missed the playoffs in the West Division despite finishing 9-8-1.

Johnson remained with the Pirates for 1995 but after finishing the previous year on a high, things turned sour before the regular-season got underway.

“This was one of my big contentions. I was part of the turnaround at the end of the (1994) season. We won three out of the last four, and I thought I was going to get a big contract from Lonie Glieberman,” said Johnson.

“We had talked about it, but nothing had ever happened. Then two weeks before the season, we signed Billy Joe Tolliver to a big contract, and I was the backup.”

Tolliver, who was born and raised near Dallas, had been a collegiate star at Texas Tech. He was taken in the second round of the 1989 NFL Draft and spent six seasons with the San Diego Chargers, Atlanta Falcons, and Houston Oilers, going 13-22 as a starter.

Like many quarterbacks before him, Tolliver struggled to make the transition to the CFL. He started Shreveport’s first four games, and lost them all.

Johnson was given the start the following week against the Argonauts and led the Pirates to an 11-10 win. He remained in the starting lineup against the Stampeders the following week when disaster struck.

“I started playing,” said Johnson. “We won (against Toronto), and we were winning in Calgary at the time, and then I broke my tibia-fibula. That was my last play.”

Johnson considered trying to make a comeback in 1996 but chose instead to go into coaching.

Mike Riley, who won two Grey Cups as the head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, had been Johnson’s coach with the San Antonio Riders, and offered him a position on staff at Oregon State University. Johnson took it and never looked back.

The six-foot-three, 195-pound passer finished his CFL career 4-5 as a starter, having completed 43.0 percent of his passes for 2,615 yards, 13 touchdowns, and 20 interceptions.

The Pirates didn’t return for 1996 either, as they folded alongside the rest of the CFL’s U.S. teams, save for the Baltimore Stallions, who moved to Montreal to become the new iteration of the Alouettes.

Johnson has spent the past 30 years coaching at the high school, collegiate, and professional levels, including a stint as the interim head coach at UCLA in 2011.

The native of Los Angeles, Calif. was the quarterbacks coach with the San Diego Chargers for two seasons at the turn of the century. Among the passers he coached were current Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh, infamous NFL draft bust Ryan Leaf, CFL legends Doug Flutie and Dave Dickenson, and future Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Drew Brees.

Johnson indicated that he and Flutie, who was on the opposing sideline when he suffered his career-ending leg fracture in 1995, talked about their CFL days “all the time.” He’s also kept tabs on Dickenson, who recently surpassed John Hufnagel for second in career wins as the head coach of the Calgary Stampeders.

“(Flutie) was a great guy,” said Johnson. “It was great to coach him in San Diego. He was a competitor, and he was just such a great athlete.”

“I’ve kept up with (Dickenson), and we’ve talked a number of times. I haven’t talked to him lately, but he’s always been a good friend of mine. He’s a good guy, and I’m glad he’s doing well up there in the CFL.”

Johnson later coached Michael Vick for three seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, and Alex Smith for two seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, both of whom were first overall NFL draft picks.

The 57-year-old is now in his fifth season at Syracuse University, where he currently serves as the co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach. Two of his former players, Damien Alford and Maximilian Mang, are now in the CFL as members of the Stampeders and Tiger-Cats, respectively. They have scored a combined four touchdowns in 2026.

Despite a slew of losses, a contract dispute, and a broken leg, it doesn’t appear Johnson regrets his time with the Pirates. If anything, the memories remain fond.

“Those were the good old days.”