During his time as General Manager of the Montreal Alouettes, Jim Popp has been considered to be one of the best of his profession. He took huge risks by signing an unproven player at the time, Anthony Calvillo, and hired a coach who had no past CFL experience in Marc Trestman. While these high risk decisions paid off for Popp and the Alouettes, there is also the unfortunate mistakes he has made during his tenure.
The first mistake he made was shortly before the start of the 2010 season. After Larry Taylor accepted a contract with the New York Jets of the NFL it was either Tim Maypray or Chad Owens who would take his old job in Montreal. Popp decided to keep Maypray and trade Owens to Toronto. Apart from returning a couple of punt returns and missed field goals for touchdowns, Maypray is no longer with the Als while Owens is not only one of the best returners in the CFL but also one of the best receivers and was Most Valuable Player in 2012. If Popp had known, do you think he would consider keeping Owens on his roster? Of course.
The second mistake he made came was with his coaching hire. After seeing Trestman become the new coach of the Chicago Bears, Popp decided to hire Dan Hawkins for the 2013 season hoping to bring new ideas to the Canadian game. Well after a 2-3 record with a struggling offense and having a hard time understanding Canadian football, he decided to fire him and take over the reins as coach. If Popp had known this would not have worked out, wouldn’t he have considered hiring a coach who had CFL experience? Makes sense, right?
Every General Manager in Pro Sports will unfortunately make decisions that will not necessarily work out for them. This is the case with Popp with these two past situations.
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Main Photo Credit, CFL.ca
