Eric Tillman’s CFL resurrection - Cam Cole

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Lionheart
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There is only ONE and only one way to alienate the sports fans, and that is by losing. All other attempts, and there have been some doozies have failed.
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Rammer
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Lionheart wrote:Rammer - :roar:

Tillman is a very good GM. He would be able to turn that sunken ship around.. and this my Lion friends is not what I want... enjoy the glory of empire destruction here a little longer; makes me feel kinda giddy. :popcorn:
That is exactly the way I read your post, I know your love of the Eskimos/Riders/Stamps, much the same as mine. :)
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Toppy Vann
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Lionheart wrote:I sure hope they don't hire him. Just my views.
I agree. He has gotten better each time around and he'd rebuild those Esks like he did the Riders not by destroying the organization but by making a few good moves first then bringing in players that fit what they want to do.

I quite frankly think that case if it had been Joe Ordinary would never have gone to the prosecutor let alone a charge. Quite frankly from what I read the whole thing was rubbish from the get go.

There is no way I agree with touching youth of any sort but this was not in character for him and the evidence from the Riders staff that day was that he was out of touch on the meds. The "touching" charge is pretty dodgy. With that low level of threshold to charge yikes, half of us in our youth would all be in jail. Don't get me wrong, I think there should be higher standards but this Tillman charge was just plain bizarre.

To suggest that hiring him taints anybody is ridiculous. He is a good football man and will help the CFL although not help the Lions. He is not working with youth like a school teacher.

This case ranked right up there in idiocy with the grade 5 school boy getting the cops called on him for kissing the female class mate.
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Sir Purrcival
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Don't completely agree with all that you say there Toppy. I agree it was out of character and think that in terms of scale it was relatively modest but lets face it, it was very poor behaviour whatever reasons you choose to attribute it too. Tillman was a person of standing in the community, if it has been swept under a carpet, then there would have been all sorts of charges of favoritism. He didn't help his cause by dragging things out the way he did either by talking about the "whole story" and all the rest while in the end basically fessing up that it happened. That strategy was entirely on him and his lawyers. If he had just fessed up from the get go, this might have been dealt with quickly and fairly quietly. In the end, his punishment fit the offense (no jail time, no fine) however in the court of public opinion, he has opened himself up to those who believe he needed to do better (both before and after the fact). As for out of character, does that really matter? Would it make a difference if someone drinks and drives one time and kills someone as opposed to the chronic alcoholic that does the same thing. Will this incident carry with the girl any differently even though this was the only time that he behaved inappropriately? He should not be demonized to be sure but will he have detractors from now on, I would think so and depending on the way and the reasoning of it, I don't disagree with that.
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WestCoastJoe
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Landmines. There are many landmines out there in our "sexually correct" society.

Tillman was in the safety and comfort of his own home. Drowsy with medications, apparently. And he sees what for some/many/most men is like a sexual red flag, pushing a primitive button. In a minute of lunacy, he steps beyond the bounds of accepted behaviour, and his career is in tatters.

For the girl and her family, a tragedy. For Tillman, a tragedy. For the Riders, a tragedy.

With the forgiveness of the girl and her family, the healing starts.

But for Tillman, the unknown is how long does he have to wait before a community forgives him? Before a community, and a football team, deem him not a detriment to their organization.

Some teams will never reach the point where they could have him represent them. He has been tarnished badly, for his minute of lunacy. It's almost as if, if you have to consider whether it is OK, then it is not OK.

He might have to content himself with football work behind the scenes, not representing a team in the community, as a GM does. And he might have to separate himself from the CFL, at least for a time. And he might have better prospects in the Southern U.S. Until, and unless, a lot more time and forgiveness happen, I cannot see a CFL team risking damage to their own franchise.

What percentage of Eskimo fans would be outraged at his hiring? How many outraged fans do you need before it becomes a public relations disaster for the team? One thousand? One hundred? Ten? Even one?

Just IMO ...
ziggy
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I don't buy his excuse, never did, never will. I can perhaps see if you did, where it might be different, but I don't, so I wouldn't want him in my organization. While people say perhaps he suffered more than the average guy would have, I say so what? If you are a CEO in business, a Commander in the military or indeed anyone in a position of trust or authority, get used to it, you are held to a higher standard. Tillman was running a high profile, community organization, he was paid well and with that came expectations of appropriate behaviour.
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B.C.FAN
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Tillman has always been the master of spin. I don't believe his excuses about pain medication and don't trust him as a person.
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Tighthead
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B.C.FAN wrote:Tillman has always been the master of spin. I don't believe his excuses about pain medication and don't trust him as a person.
His whole story never had the ring of truth, to my ear. He was always pretty sanctimonious, and the excuse seemed highly contrived.
Solar Max
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He never was the second coming in Ottawa, imo, and inherited a team in Regina that Roy Shivers had built.

He bailed on the BC Lions in 1995 after the Leos (let's face it) fluked out a GC win, and then later Toronto.

Infer godlike powers if one must, but Ottawa fans know better.
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KnowItAll
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I wonder how many people really know what it is to be truamatized. This girl would have to have been very fragile to be truamatized by this, and if she was, its not likely the family would be so quick to forgive, specially without demand for some kind of retribution.

People overuse and misuse the word truamatized. For one thing, Trauma has a deep effect on a person and lasts a long time. One doesnt get over it in a day, or a week.

It is most likely this girl was surprised, annoyed, dismayed, angered, etc. None of this is close to being truamatized.
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Rammer
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B.C.FAN wrote:Tillman has always been the master of spin. I don't believe his excuses about pain medication and don't trust him as a person.
He did leave work early by the insistence of others in the Rider office, so the meds may have had an affect on his decision making and I can believe that he did take them at least.
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ziggy
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Rammer wrote:
B.C.FAN wrote:Tillman has always been the master of spin. I don't believe his excuses about pain medication and don't trust him as a person.
He did leave work early by the insistence of others in the Rider office, so the meds may have had an affect on his decision making and I can believe that he did take them at least.
Got to wonder though why no one thought to drive him home and check in on him if he was that bad?
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KnowItAll
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ziggy wrote:
Rammer wrote:
B.C.FAN wrote:Tillman has always been the master of spin. I don't believe his excuses about pain medication and don't trust him as a person.
He did leave work early by the insistence of others in the Rider office, so the meds may have had an affect on his decision making and I can believe that he did take them at least.
Got to wonder though why no one thought to drive him home and check in on him if he was that bad?
could be someone did drop him off.

and then there is the taxi possibility.
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ziggy
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Yeah, I guess we'll never know KIA, being as how eric can't remember a thing and no evidence was ever heard. But I don't recall any word of him being sent home by cab or anyone driving him home or even anyone contacting his wife. I found it odd his co-workers sent him home to the care of his children and a teen age baby sitter if they were so concerned, but thats just me.
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Sir Purrcival
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KnowItAll wrote:I wonder how many people really know what it is to be truamatized. This girl would have to have been very fragile to be truamatized by this, and if she was, its not likely the family would be so quick to forgive, specially without demand for some kind of retribution.

People overuse and misuse the word truamatized. For one thing, Trauma has a deep effect on a person and lasts a long time. One doesnt get over it in a day, or a week.

It is most likely this girl was surprised, annoyed, dismayed, angered, etc. None of this is close to being truamatized.
In your opinion. Everybody is different and reacts differently to things.

Hard to speak for someone else. Sometimes, the impact of things is slow to come and especially for a young person, the full implications of a situation may only be realized over a longer period of time. How many people have experienced a life changing event in their teens and not come to fully appreciate it until much later. What we do know is that regardless of the severity of the incident, she is now another to be counted in the statistics of women who have been treated sexually inappropriately and that is not anything to be diminished or accepted even with mitigating circumstances. Regret, remorse and even forgiveness will not undo it and unless you can be that victim, don't get the idea that you can judge how they ought to feel.
Tell me how long must a fan be strong? Ans. Always.
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