Saskatchewan Roughriders legend Darian Durant explains the dynamic with his former teammate Jeremy O’Day and what it was like negotiating a contract with him from 2012 to 2016.
"You have to be mentally strong, that's first and foremost. When you're teammates, you're at his house, you have dinners, you're interacting more so as friends and teammates and business partners, so to speak, it's a different type of reaction. But then once you make that transition over to the front office, now you have to put those friendships aside. You have to focus on the business part, make sure you're building a team in the right way," Durant told Dave Thomas on the SportsCage.
"I think he's so mentally strong that he was able to separate himself from teammates because it's not only me he had to deal with. It was myself, [Weston] Dressler, [Chris] Getzlaf, it was the whole crew of guys that had played with him previously."
After O’Day retired as a player in 2010, he became the Riders' football operations coordinator in 2011 prior ti transitioning to the assistant general manager position from 2012 to 2014. There was a period of time in 2015 when he was initially the assistant general manager before getting the interim position of general manager. His next gig was the assistant vice president of football operations and administration from 2016 to 2018, before becoming general manager from 2019 to present.
"He takes his feelings out of it and does what's best for the team. That's the only way you can have success as a GM is if you take those personal feelings out, how you feel about a player, whatever relationship you've built with the guys," Durant said. "You have to let that go, you have to do what's best for the team, and he's always done that."
The CFL recognized O’Day and his football operations staff with the inaugural Ted Goveia award. The other award Saskatchewan collected was Corey Mace earning CFL Coach of the Year.
"100 percent, no-brainer. I think what he's done since he's been the head coach of the Riders has been phenomenal. Last year, dealing with injuries, so many injuries, especially to the defensive backfield,” Durant said.
"Then Trevor [Harris] was a little banged up halfway through the season. For Mace to manage to go through that, keep the team playing at a high level, and then build enough cushion throughout the season to secure a home playoff game, to make sure that you can raise the percentage of you getting to it, because if you can get to those games at home, you definitely give yourself a better chance to get to the Grey Cup."
Mace and the Riders finished first in the West Division with a 12-6 record, which gave them the right to host the West Final at home. Saskatchewan's opponent in the West Final was the B.C. Lions, the Green and White defeated them 24-21, which allowed them to go to the Grey Cup and beat the Montreal Alouettes 25-17.
