Return To Ottawa
In May of 2005, Glieberman resurfaced in the CFL, purchasing the Ottawa Renegades after a season in which the league had financed the team. Lonie was once again installed as team president. The Renegades had struggled both financially and in the standings almost since their inception, and owner Bill Smith was sinking in red ink. He sold majority interest to Glieberman while remaining as a minority owner. The first move made by the Gliebermans was typically controversial: bringing 71-year old Forrest Gregg as head of football operations after the latter had been out of professional football for ten years since his failed tenure as head coach of Glieberman's Shreveport Pirates. Lonie's Mardi Gras promotion of trying to lure women to Renegades games by offering them beads (a reward traditionally given in the celebration for the baring of breasts) was also criticized. Before the Renegades' final game of the 2005 season, Lonie announced the firing of popular head coach Joe Paopao and his staff, leaving them to coach the final game knowing that it would be their last. The Renegades missed the playoffs.
Claiming $4 million in losses, Glieberman sought a $2 million loan after Smith pulled out. The league, however, was not willing to agree to this, and put the Renegades up for sale on March 22. Unable to find a buyer, the league suspended the Renegades' operations on April 9.
Read more about this topic: Bernard Glieberman, Football Involvement
Famous quotes containing the words return to and/or return:
“To save the theatre, the theatre must be destroyed, the actors and actresses must all die of the plague. They poison the air, they make art impossible. It is not drama that they play, but pieces for the theatre. We should return to the Greeks, play in the open air; the drama dies of stalls and boxes and evening dress, and people who come to digest their dinner.”
—Eleonora Duse (1859–1924)
“I have often wondered how they manage to get return envelopes which miss, by one-quarter of an inch, fitting the blank you are supposed to return. They say, “Please fill out and return the enclosed envelope,” and the enclosed envelope is always one-quarter of an inch too small.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)