The Canadian Football League is entering a new era as it welcomes its new commissioner.
But the question fans, players and owners are all asking is: Will the new boss of the CFL lead the nine-team league to new heights?
Randy Ambrosie has been appointed the 14th commissioner of the CFL and takes over from Jeffrey Orridge who stepped down last month after just over two years on the job.
Orridge’s tenure at the top of the league will go down in history as one of the most underwhelming stints in office.
Under his reign, the U.S.-born marketing executive refused to admit that there was a link between playing football and the degenerative brain disease CTE, despite scientific evidence to the contrary, and the Argonauts changed hands, and stadiums, and seem to be even worse off than before.
Ambrosie will have instant respect from both players and owners, not to say Orridge didn’t.
But the 54-year-old Ambrosie, a Winnipeg native, played the game for nine seasons as an offensive lineman with Calgary, Toronto and Edmonton from 1985 to ’93, retiring as a Grey Cup champion.
And after playing in the CFL trenches, Ambrosie has tackled boardrooms from HSBC Securities to Raymond James.
Needless to say, Ambrosie is a smart cookie and has a tremendous business acumen, but can he address the elephant in the room and improve the fortunes of the sad sacked Argos?
I think we’re all hoping he can.
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