Earlier this week, Ryan Wilson passed along the information that former New York Giants head coach, Jim Fassel, was in such dire need to get back into coaching that he would be willing to take on the task of leading the Oakland Raiders. He even, reportedly, wrote Al Davis a hand-written letter expressing his desire to coach the silver and black.
Frankly, if there's any truth to that report, Davis should probably strike while the iron is hot and hire somebody, anybody, that is willing to work for him. If he doesn't, Fassel has another potential option, one that's familiar to guys who can't find work in the National Football League.
Canada.
Perry Lefko of Ontario Sportsnet reported today that the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League might be considering Fassel to be their next head coach. Apparently, the Argonauts think Fassel can do for them what Marc Trestman did for the Montreal Allouettes this season.
The Argos view Fassel as someone who fits the profile of Montreal Alouettes' head coach Marc Trestman, a veteran position coach in the NFL and with experience working with high-profile quarterbacks. Trestman had virtually no CFL experience except for working three days as a guest coach with Montreal last year in training camp. Similar to Trestman, he played quarterback.
Aside from learning about Trestman's impact on Montreal football, I've also learned, just now, that the CFL no longer has two teams named the Rough Riders. Seriously? When did this happen? Honestly, that's enough to ruin my day. I always loved it that an eight-team league would have two franchises with the same name, and that it would be something like "Rough Riders." I imagine the trash-talk among fans in the stadium when those two teams met would be hilarious, if not completely confusing.
Anyway, If both of these reports are true -- Fassel being interested in the Raiders, the Argonauts being interested in him -- would anybody really blame Fassel if he ended up choosing Toronto over Oakland? I've been to Toronto, nice city, and it's about 4,000 miles away from Al Davis. I can't think of a better selling point.
Former NFL players currently on the Argonauts roster: Reggie McNeal, Willie Middlebrooks, Claude Harriot, Cody Pickett, P.K. Sam, Jamal Robertson, Will Poole, and, of course, Peyton Manning's favorite liquored up kicker, Mike Vanderjagt.
If Jim Fassel Can't Convince Al Davis to Hire Him, He Could Always Go to Toronto originally appeared on NFL FanHouse on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:10:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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