Ed Hervey appears not to know about trade window, blasts Chris O’Leary, but says he’ll be “media-friendly” going forward

Those who feel Edmonton general manager Ed Hervey's job should be in jeopardyfollowing the team's disastrous 4-14 season received substantial ammunition this week—from the man himself. Hervey went on Jason Gregor's show on TSN 1260 Tuesday and used his appearance to personally trash Edmonton Journal writer Chris O'Leary, interesting behaviour from a man who's often promised "not to kick dirt on anyone." Plus, he offered various odd defences of his actions during the season and seemed not to know about the post-Grey Cup trade window. The interview can be found on Gregor's website, with one particularly interesting part on the trade window coming at 10:39. Here's a transcription of that:

That is just flat-out wrong. As CFL director of communications Jamie Dykstra outlined back in October, trades will be allowed from after the Grey Cup (Nov. 24) until Dec. 9 before a roster freeze kicks in ahead of the expansion draft. Here's Dykstra's tweet on the subject (via @CFL_News):

It's not like the specifics of that were highly known (it took some searching to dig them up), but it's been public knowledge for a while that there will be trades allowed between the Grey Cup and the expansion draft, so it's bizarre that Hervey would say the complete opposite. His comments on the subject then led to an interesting Twitter debate between the CFL_News account, O'Leary, Gregor and others, with Gregor saying Hervey clarified his comments off-air, but said he had to be vague on-air to prevent a tampering charge. Here are the highlights of that conversation:

Hervey's excuse of avoiding tampering is ridiculous, as it's nowhere near tampering to mention what the CFL rules are without referring to a specific player (and that's all Gregor asked him). Instead, he said the opposite of the truth, referencing only the October trade window and indicating that Ottawa would get the first shot at a player like Collaros; as mentioned before, Winnipeg's likely to swoop in and try and trade for either Collaros or one of Calgary's quarterbacks before the expansion draft. Either this didn't click in Hervey's brain right away (which is understandable; we all make mistakes) and he made up the tampering story to try and make himself look better (less understandable), or he doesn't know the tampering rules and outright lied on air. Neither scenario makes him look particularly good.

That's not the only thing that's curious in this interview, though. Hervey talks about how little he's spoken to the media this year, and he doesn't really offer a good defence there, saying (27:30) "All I spend my time doing is trying to get more film in front of me, more film in front of our staff." While film study and scouting have their merits, they're far from the entirety of a general manager's job; dealing with the media's part of the job description, and it's an area Hervey has singularly failed at this year, disappearing for weeks on end before returning with ridiculous rants against his own players that violated the CBA and got him in trouble with the CFLPA.

That rant comes up later in the discussion at 28:58, with Hervey saying Rottier didn't really mind being called out publicly. Be that as it may, blasting any particular player publicly the way Hervey did is a clear CBA violation and extremely unprofessional; he doesn't offer a good defence here. That's before this interview gets really personal, though. At 29:55, Gregor brings up a O'Leary article that initially said the CFLPA forced Hervey to put Rottier back in the lineup (it's since been corrected). Hervey reacts in rather interesting fashion:

"Listen, the CFLPA cannot make us play anyone. That is completely false. I don't know where he made that up or where he got that from, but that's comical. You know what we should do, you and I next year, I'll come on your show and we'll do a show called 'Fact or Fiction' and we'll talk about the season. Because I think there's a misconception that I don't like the media or that I don't want to be near the media or anything. This year, I promised Coach Reed that I would not be in the way vocally like it was prior to this season, where things were getting leaked out, stuff was being said. I didn't want to cross messages. I felt that the head coach, and I still feel that the head coach should have the say during the season.

Did I go to the extreme with it? Yes. I went to the extreme with it to the point where many feel that I don't like them. But you and I talk all the time. But I didn't want to come on your show all the time because I didn't want to jeopardize or ruin what I had said. But in 2014 I'm just going to be more open to the shows, I'm going to speak more to the media guys, because it's about our organization, it's about the image of the club. I care more about the club than I care about things that are being said in the paper that are completely untrue. I want our fans to understand that I care about the Eskimos just as much as they do and I'm on a mission to rebuild what we're doing, to put a product on the field that fans can be proud of."

After that, he gets really personal in an attempt to throw O'Leary and the Journal under the bus and buddy up to Gregor:

"I don't even talk to Chris O'Leary, to be honest with you. I don't talk to either one of those guys, the other guy from the Journal, I haven't talked to him in months. I get informed of stuff being written and I can tell you a lot of the stuff is made up or completely false. That's why I've chosen to do radio, that's why I come to your show, because you've been the only, one of the few people I should say to just ask it and let it ride. I don't really worry about the opinions of people, but I feel like the club is taking a hit, which is why I'm going to spend more time speaking and being honest and shooting from the hip."

That's completely unprofessional from Hervey, first to admit that he's locked out a certain paper's writers for months, and second, to accuse them of making stories up. It also shows that he doesn't understand how to deal with the media; while a general manager may like some outlets more than others and may give them scoops, saying you're only going to talk to certain outlets is an extremely poor way to run a franchise. The Journal's writers have actually been very fair to Hervey despite his freeze-out (it's notable that they didn't call for his head in the wake of the Reed firing, despite Hervey being the one who secretly extended Reed's contract earlier in the year and the rest of the excellent case for his dismissal as well), so the way he's tossing them under the bus here isn't particularly fair. Hervey did finally speak to O'Leary for the first time in months later this week, with a piece published Friday suggesting that he does see the need for improved media relations, so perhaps there's hope for him yet. His on-air blunders about the trade deadline and his lack of knowledge in how a franchise's general manager should behave professionally around the media don't particularly speak well for him, though.