The Pillar of the Rough House

A familiar face appeared when the REDBLACKS' announced their 2022 operations staff on January 3rd.  

(Brendan) Taman is a Grey Cup-winning executive who has worked in the CFL since 1987, including as Manager of Football Operations for the Ottawa Rough Riders in the early 1990s. Most recently, Taman, who won a Grey Cup as GM of the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2013, spent two years as a Senior Player Personnel Executive with the Montreal Alouettes. Taman was also GM of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers from 2004-2008. 

He joined the Rough Riders in 1989. For glimpse of how he was perceived in the organization and league, we turn to Ottawa Citizen veteran writer Wayne Scanlan and his article from the October 13th, 1991, edition.

Taman's entry in the 1992 media guide confirmed that the dark hair on the upper lip reached at least Movember-week-three levels. 

Note: I believe the picture above was used for at least three years in the team's media guides so it may pre-date that article by quite some time.

I found the mention of Dan Rambo in the 1991 article is interesting. The Ottawa Sun reported that Rambo assisted the team in its search for a general manager so perhaps we're seeing his influence at play in Taman's addition to the staff. He (Rambo) helped improve the 1992 Rough Riders club and may now have a hand in improving the REDBLACKS 30 years later.

July 9th, 1992: Toronto Argonauts 42 @ Ottawa Rough Riders 53 (OT)

Hearing new REDBLACKS GM Shawn Burke make mention of former Rough Riders GM Dan Rambo, along with copying the summary of the highest-scoring game in Riders history a few days ago, brought back fond memories of the contest below. It remains one of the best games I've ever seen, in person or on television.

Rambo had been named general manager at the end of 1991. It resulted in controversy immediately.

The head coach at the time, Joe Faragalli, was convinced that he would be retained for the 1992 season. Faragalli had been hired following an 0-4 start to the 1991 season and turned the team's fortunes around somewhat, winning seven of its remaining 14 games to reach a 7-11 record.

Rambo, instead, publicly stated that he would seek to interview candidates for the position, drawing Faragalli's ire. He would later hire Ron Smeltzer to replace Faragalli. 

Rambo also made it clear that salaries would need to be cut. Several popular veterans were released or asked to take reductions in pay.

It was all quite chaotic, but arguably less so than when the Riders finally took the field against the defending Grey Cup champion Toronto Argonauts.

The final score might seem unusual by today's set of rules. How does a team win by 11 points in overtime?

At the time, teams played two five-minute mini-halves to settle a tie game. It was a great system, in my opinion, that didn't put so much emphasis on winning a coin toss as the current one does. 

This team would go on to post a 9-9 record. For a while there, it looked like after many years of ineptitude, the Rough Riders might become a solid franchise again, but it was not to be.

The Gliebermans fired Dan Rambo at the end of May of 1993, a few days before the start of training camp, and the club reverted to their laughingstock status in short order. They could only manage a 4-14 record in 1993 and Lonie Glieberman has since admitted that firing Rambo on little more than rumours was the biggest mistake he made while in charge of the Rough Riders.