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Naylor's Sideline View

Globe and Mail reporter Dave Naylor writes about the world of football both on and off the field.
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Friday, November 20, 2009 2:55 PM

From Buffalo to the CFL and back

David Naylor

A couple of developments in Buffalo this week could have rather significant implications in the CFL.

Start with the firing of Bills head coach Dick Jauron on Tuesday, nine games into his fourth season with the team. Within 24 hours, one of the names being reported on the short list of candidates to coach the Bills next season was Montreal Alouettes Marc Trestman.

As I wrote on this blog roughly three weeks ago, Trestman would be an interesting fit in Buffalo where they desperately need a head coach who can breathe life into their offence and do a better job developong quarterbacks. Trestman has the experience from his days as an offensive co-ordinator in the NFL (San Francisco, Oakland, Miami) and now a proven track record as a head coach in Montreal. There is also a bit of karma there because the last time the Bills found a head coach who worked out, they got him from Montreal.

That, of course, would be Marv Levy who was working in the Als front office when the Bills came calling. And the rest, as they say, is history.

The other news out of Buffalo that could affect things in the CFL has to do with the Bills releasing third-string quarterback Gibran Hamden. Hamden never got a shot to play meaningful minutes in Buffalo but in 2006 he was the MVP of NFL Europe under then-Amsterdam Admirals head coach Bart Andrus.

That explains why Hamden was placed on Toronto's neg list just days after Andrus was introduced as the Argos' new coach last January.

The two spoke about Hamden coming north last offseason but that went nowhere because the Argos were committed to Kerry Joseph and Hamden was offered a new contract by the Bills. Of course, Hamden's chances of landing in Toronto are directly tied to Andrus returning for a second season after guiding the Argos to 13 losses in 14 games from the end of July onward.

Can Hamden play in the CFL? Tough to say because we haven't really seen much of him, although I heard ESPN's John Clayton speak positively about him this week. It doesn't make much sense why the Bills chose to re-sign him if they were never going to put him on the field and then release him at mid-season? But that's just another symptom of an organization that seems to have no clear direction.

Kind of like the Argos.

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David Naylor

David Naylor

David Naylor has been a Globe and Mail sportswriter since 2000. A graduate of Carleton University’s journalism program, he interned at The Globe in 1991 before spending the next eight years covering news and sports in print, radio and television for various media outlets, including the CBC, The Score, NPR, The Village Voice and The Globe and Mail.

He has covered CFL football in Toronto, Ottawa and Saskatchewan and has reported on 12 Grey Cup Games. He has also covered eight Super Bowls, 12 years of Stanley Cup playoffs, an NCAA basketball tournament, the Olympics and Paralympic Games.

In addition to his duties with The Globe, David is a regular contributor on TSN, appearing as a panelist on The Reporters with Dave Hodge and as TSN’s CFL Insider on Sportscentre and game-day broadcasts. He is also frequently heard as a commentator on sports for CBC Radio.

David is the co-author of the best-selling book, McCown’s Law, The 100 Greatest Hockey Arguments.