paulwoods13 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 17, 2026 3:45 pm
In the 3DN piece, he appears to suggest either that any alleged tampering occurred at the presidential level, or perhaps that whatever sanctions were imposed happened above his pay grade. Either way, perhaps not a wise thing to say publicly. Pinball clearly wants a reduced role. I don't know if I'd be negotiating in public if I were in his shoes.
The amount of goodwill and success Pinball has brought the Argonauts simply cannot be measured.
Pinball has s very full life outside of the Argos and the CFL, I think the team needs him more than he needs them at this point in his life.
I interpreted Pinball's comment re the league investigation of tampering, that the matter was broached by the league at the president level of the team, not that the tampering occurred at the president level. But who knows--don't expect we will ever know the whole story.
I agree with Argo57, that the team needs him more than he needs it. Now that his family includes grandchildren as well as children, he may feel he needs to spend more time with family and his other outside commitments.
I don't think that answering questions about controversial issues is Pinball's strength. Keith Pelley did hang him out to dry on the disastrous media questioning that happened about Chad Kelly in May, 2024.
In this particular case, the two minute video is painful to watch. On the tampering issue, Pinball would have been better off saying, "no comment," rather than whatever it was that he said. On the John Murphy question, he should have just said, "We thank John for all of his contributions, but we decided to go in a different direction for 2026." It makes no sense to say that he will tell any Argos fan who comes up to him personally and asks about Murphy what happened, but he won't just tell all Argos fans at once what occurred when he had a golden opportunity to do so. If he had just stuck to the one sentence I have suggested, the issue would be closed.
paulwoods13 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 17, 2026 3:45 pm
In the 3DN piece, he appears to suggest either that any alleged tampering occurred at the presidential level, or perhaps that whatever sanctions were imposed happened above his pay grade. Either way, perhaps not a wise thing to say publicly. Pinball clearly wants a reduced role. I don't know if I'd be negotiating in public if I were in his shoes.
Pinball doesn't look the best coming out of this interview. I certainly hope whatever discipline that the CFL enacted didn't involve the loss of draft picks. You'd think you'd want your GM to know that.
I think his response re: Murphy, is a smartass comment given the source of the question.
It would obviously be too strong to say this is a ticking time bomb, but how long can Pelley maintain the status quo operationally when the GM has publicly stated he wants a reduced role? Let's get on with this change, whatever it ends up being. It's been obvious for years that Pinball is not a GM in any traditional sense of the word; now he's moved this out into the open. The org looks foolish having a GM who is practically begging not to be GM.
Pinball no longer wants to be GM. The team must deal with that and start the search for a new GM. I expect Pinball will continue to fulfil his duties professionally until then.
Will wrote: ↑Sun Jan 18, 2026 11:15 am
Pinball no longer wants to be GM. The team must deal with that and start the search for a new GM. I expect Pinball will continue to fulfil his duties professionally until then.
The Argos now have a couple of experienced guys in Hufnagel and Barker who could perform the GM duties on an interim basis while they search for a permanent solution which may need to be the case.
No need for panic IMO.
Last edited by ARGO57 on Sun Jan 18, 2026 1:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I think we are all missing the point. Pinball has indicated that he would like to transition out of GM the role but will continue in the role, until Pelly looks at how this would be worked out. Pinball will stay connected to the team after the transition but in a reduced capacity. This will allow him to spend more time with his family and his other commitments.
For the time being nothing changes but it gives Pelly the time to decide how and when the transition will occur and who might be the new GM. This is typical Pinball thinking. He is giving the organization the time to reorganize while still continuing in his role.
Pinball is doing the team a favour. His salary counts toward the op mgmt cap even though he does not do traditional GM duties. He is more business executive or President caretaker. By forcing the issue a proper alignment and best use of limited resources will occur. I don't believe that he does not want to stay involved as a Caretaker role and guiding light for the organization for as long as he is able.
shatto wrote: ↑Sun Jan 18, 2026 1:00 pm
I think we are all missing the point. Pinball has indicated that he would like to transition out of GM the role but will continue in the role, until Pelly looks at how this would be worked out. Pinball will stay connected to the team after the transition but in a reduced capacity. This will allow him to spend more time with his family and his other commitments.
For the time being nothing changes but it gives Pelly the time to decide how and when the transition will occur and who might be the new GM. This is typical Pinball thinking. He is giving the organization the time to reorganize while still continuing in his role.
That's one interpretation, and might well be correct. But another interpretation is that he's growing impatient and has decided to put some heat on KP by speaking about it publicly. "I’ve requested sort of a concept of a transition at some point. Keith has promised me a look at what that would be, but we’ll stay in this seat I guess as long as — well, it’s indefinite, let’s say it that way.” Personally, I detect impatience and maybe even frustration that this hasn't been sorted out. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. But regardless of how Pinball feels, the org currently has a GM who is not really a GM in any traditional sense. This unconventional approach worked great from 2021 to 2024, but the wheels fell off in 2025. I personally can't wait until every dime of the ops cap is being spent on building a successful football op. We all want Pinball to remain with the org, and clearly he will. But wouldn't it be great if his compensation came out of some other budget?
The problem is that Pelley has been pretty clear -- he's not building a structure with team presidents. So at minimum Pinball would need some other title.
