Perry Lefko

Perry Lefko keeps you connected to all the news in the CFL on Sportsnet.ca.

Just like that, it's over for Eric Tillman in Saskatchewan.

Surely there has to be a place in football for Eric Tillman.

It's just a matter of where, when and how he sorts out his life.

"We'll start on that process here tomorrow," Tillman said in his exit speech on Friday after resigning as general manager of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. "I fully expect to be working in the Canadian Football League at some point in the future."

Tillman parted with the team, which he worked for since August, 2006, four days after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a teenage girl in August, 2008. His squeaky-clean image and his tireless work promoting the Roughriders, the province of Saskatchewan and the Canadian Football League as a whole have been tarnished.

The GM of the Roughriders is like the premier of the province of Saskatchewan in terms of the public spotlight, which made this story/scandal one of significant proportional heights. His popularity level once soared as high as the skies in Saskatchewan, but plummeted with a thud.

As he said to the media after his guilty plea and subsequent unconditional discharge, he will have to earn the respect that he has clearly lost.

Tillman has often said football is a great game, but a lousy business. This, however, supersedes everything that goes beyond hirings, firings, trades, releases, promotions and demotions. There are no guarantees in player contracts and there are no guarantees for the men who sign them, regardless of what they have done. In his role as GM, he held significant clout over everything to do with the football team, but in the end he did not have absolute power.

"Eric has resigned. Effective today, he's off the payroll," Riders' president Jim Hopson said.

Just like that, it's over.

And yet you can't discount what Tillman did for the Roughriders franchise, elevating it to a CFL powerhouse, on and off the field. In 2007 in his first full year on the job, he won the Grey Cup with a rookie head coach he had hired, cut some key players and dramatically reduced the payroll. In year two, he allowed his head coach to leave to pursue an opportunity in the U.S., hired a replacement who had never been a head coach at the pro level, traded the starting quarterback who had been named the league's Most Outstanding Player the year before, and still made it to the playoffs. Last year, the Roughriders placed first in the West for the first time since 1976 and would have won the Cup were it not for the infamous too many men on the field flag that gave Montreal a second chance to kick a field goal and win.

The Roughriders' on-field success became a bonanza for season-ticket sales, marketing and other streams of revenues that have contributed to seven-figure profits. Remember, this was a team that had a $3 million debt load entering the new millennium.

Hopson acknowledged all that Tillman did to make the team strong on the field, but the Riders' code of conduct, one that Tillman vowed to uphold when hired, would make it difficult for him to do his job going forward.

And Tillman knew it, so he resigned.

"I think it was the right decision for my family and the right decision for the football team," he said.

Tillman was treated extraordinarily fair by the Riders, given that they put him on paid administrative leave at the start of last year, allowing him to continue to do the job, albeit away from the team's football and business operations. For public relations reasons and perhaps how it would affect Roughriders employees and fans, he simply could not work anywhere near the team's offices. He did the job at home, jokingly referred by one high-level Riders' board member as the Wizard of Oz. Tillman did not attend one practice or one game and stayed away from the Cup so the spotlight would not be on him, although much was written about his predicament.

With a little luck, the Roughriders might have won two Cups in three years with Tillman.

Perhaps the unfortunate ending of the 2009 Cup foretold what lay ahead. It would not be a storybook finish for the team or its GM.

Some Roughriders' fans felt the team should give him a second chance even with his admission of guilt, but not everyone was of the same opinion. Tillman knew somewhere at some point someone would snicker, point a finger or make a remark, and it would not be fair to his wife or their two young children, ages six and four.

"Quite frankly, we're a lot like a family (in which) a hurricane has hit their home," he said. "We've paid a very big price - my family has - because of me. The hurricane has hit the house and done a lot of damage, but we're still alive. I'm blessed with a remarkable wife."

Even after answering all the questions posed to him by the media, Tillman wanted to make one thing perfectly clear.

"I think this team is well positioned for the future," he said.

It just will be without him.

"The S on the helmet stands for Saskatchewan," he said. "It's bigger than any of us - it's a lot bigger - that hasn't changed."

Tillman, a vagabond who had hoped to establish roots in Regina, is on the move again, leaving behind some great memories and one awful one.

"I've lived 52 years. I hope I'm not identified by 10-15 seconds," he said. "But every person has to make their own assessment. If nothing else, I hope I'm remembered as the guy who loved this franchise. I hope I'm remembered as a guy who busted his butt for this franchise."