“Stampeders complete trade with Tiger-Cats.”
Just like that, an era comes to an end.
The trade? Charleston Hughes to Hamilton. The return? Two fourth-round draft picks.
This is a clear-cut case of the way it oughta be, and the way it is. In a perfect world, after one more year, maybe two, Hughes hangs ’em up as a career Stampeder – hopefully as a Grey Cup champion.
He thanks the organization and its fans for a great career and rides off into the sunset, selling some product or service for an oil patch company.
In a salary cap world, John Hufnagel has to take a cold, hard look at who he has to sign, how much money he has left, and makes a business call.
It’s not a huge surprise, and it doesn’t make Huf a bad guy. Remember, Hufnagel apprenticed under Wally Buono.
Wally seemed to have a knack for moving players while they still had football in them, just not enough of it in his eyes to justify the price he had to pay. Sentiment dies hard in the Canadian Football League (CFL).
It’ll be strange seeing Hughes in a uniform not coloured red and white for the remainder of his career. But no stranger than watching Nik Lewis in the colours of the Montreal Alouettes.
It flat out sucks to have to watch a player that’s given heart and soul to a team and a community for a decade finish it out somewhere else.
There’s the way it oughta be, and there’s the way it is.
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