On Monday Jan. 25, incoming EE Football head coach Jaime Elizondo was having a difficult day.
He was in San Diego Calif., working in the real world, a spot he had found himself after the XFL folded and he had lost his job on the coaching staff of the Tampa Bay Vipers.
As usual, he was up early to FaceTime with his wife and daughter who were still living on Ottawa where he last coached in the CFL
“I remember waking up that Monday morning” Elizondo said.
He has been on the coaching staffs of the Ottawa Redblacks, Toronto Argonauts and Montreal Alouettes in his time in the CFL and he was beginning to wonder if another chance to coach was going to come his way. He had no idea how this day was going to change his career path.
“I just had the hardest time getting going, it just didn’t feel right. So I called my sister on the way to work”
Elizondo got a pep talk from his sister about staying positive, about getting back into football and to be ready when the phone rang.
The phone rang twice that day.
The first call came from his friend Scott Milanovich who was tired of waiting out COVID-19 after a year on the sidelines and was leaving Edmonton to take a job in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts.
“Scott calls me and says I just wanted you to know, I just resigned from the Edmonton Football Team and I wouldn’t be surprised if you got a phone call.”
He did.
“Brock (EE GM Brock Sunderland) called later that afternoon and it all happened so fast,” said the native of Aguascalientes, Mexico. “Getting the call from Brock was great because you get your hopes hopes up when you get that phone call from Scott, but you don’t know if its going to happen and what Brock’s thought process is, but Brock made it seamless. It was awesome.”
One week later Jaime Elizondo was named the 23rd head coach of the Edmonton football Team.
Elizondo tells this story and more from his football journey on the latest episode of The E-Pod available at curiouscast.ca or where every you get your podcasts.
LISTEN: The E-Pod with Morley Scott and Jaime Elizondo