After another miserable season, Jim Barker and the Argos ran out of excuses for Cleo Lemon.
Jim Barker spent a year and half trying to convince everyone Cleo Lemon could be a consistent starting quarterback in the Canadian Football League..
Well, so much for that. On Tuesday, Barker announced to everyone that it just wouldn't work, when the team formally sent out a media release that Lemon had been released.
It is hardly a surprise.
In fact, as if to underline just how poorly Lemon had done as a quarterback, the Argos provided statistical evidence of his folly, noting that in 25 regular-season games and two playoff games, he had a record of 11-14. In 2011, he had a 2-6 record. He completed 430 of 680 passes -- or 63.2% -- for 5,069 yards with 22 touchdowns and 23 interceptions.
What's even more damning is what the Argos didn't say in the media release. There was no congratulating him for what he had done, nor wishing him well in the future. It was almost as the Argos wanted to banish him and besmirch him -- kind of like Pharaoh banishing Moses to the desert.
Simply saying they had released Lemon would have been sufficient, as it is for most players who are cut, but in this case the Argos explained it in all its vivid and ugly detail.
"We felt it was in the organization's best interest to move forward this way," the normally-talkative Barker told the media.
He would be equally succinct on further questions. When asked whether it was a difficult decision, Barker said: "It's always difficult to do those kinds of things."
Asked if he had an idea he would release Lemon after last Friday's 29-16 loss to B.C., Barker said: "It wasn't a snap decision, I'll say that."
Asked if the release had anything to do with Lemon's performance, Barker said: "It's best for our organization moving forward."
Barker did his best to defend Lemon's rather ordinary performance as a rookie by pointing to the team's 9-9 regular-season record and 1-1 record in the playoffs. It was as if he was trying to say Lemon hadn't done so poorly. In fact, it was the Argos' defence, special teams and running game that created the victories. The team won not because of Lemon but despite him, though Barker disputed that.
Lemon never seemed to absorb the nuances and intricacies of the CFL game, which are far unique from its American variety. He came from the National Football League and started some games there, but never established himself as a winner.
Barker, who is coaching his third time in the CFL and has been around professional football almost exclusively in an offensive capacity, saw something in Lemon that no one else did when endorsing his signing and then making him the starter. It was almost as if Barker was trying to prove his critics wrong.
And there were many who simply couldn't see what it was that Barker saw in Lemon, whose struggles and last name combined to make him and the team the butt and brunt of some creative headlines.
Barker gave Lemon every possible opportunity until he simply ran out of patience. He yanked him after the first half of Toronto's loss to B.C. last Friday at home.
The Argos trailed 13-6 at the half, but the team was just awful on offence. Lemon had 11 completions in 15 attempts and only 47 passing yards. Three of his passes were dropped, but even with 14-of-15 completions he might have had all of 75 or 80 yards. He was not stretching the field by any means.
"People think you call plays to throw a five-yard or one-yard flat route on a second and nine, and that's not the way (it was)," Barker said, hinting at Lemon's decision to throw short passes. "We don't sit there and diagram so we can get one yard on second and nine on this play. That's not the way that it's done. You design a play and the quarterback reads it and throws the ball where he thinks it's appropriate. Sometimes that's the right play, sometimes that's not the right play. To say it was designed to throw the ball short all the time, that's not necessarily the case."
Barker, voted coach of the year last year, took a shot in the second half against B.C. by starting backup Dalton Bell, a taller, stronger version of Lemon with greater arm strength. Bell completed only 5-of-16 passes for all of 42 yards and had four interceptions.
And all the while, Lemon stood by himself far away from his teammates and sulked.
It was clear then and there he and Barker had reached a point of irreparable divide.
Lemon didn't even stick around to face the media afterward.
When asked if Lemon's reaction on the sidelines after he was pulled had anything to do with his release, Barker said: "The decision was made because we thought it was in the best interests of the organization. I'm not going to get into specifics of this or that. We parted ways, and he moves forward and we move forward."
Everything Barker said was as if he had been instructed to stay on point - which he did.
The reaction around the league was quite interesting.
"That's been Barker's guy and everyone knows it," said a football operations representative from another team, asking that his name not be used. "Maybe it was the sideline thing - Lemon standing away from the other quarterbacks and not helping Bell."
Steven Jyles, who was acquired from Winnipeg in the off-season but missed the first nine games because of off-season surgery, is now ready to play.
"Any time you are going to make a change at that quarterback spot, it can be hard for the leadership and chemistry of the team to work when players can be looking in more than one direction," said a member of another team's football operations. "Guys will feel they have to choose loyalties, so sometimes it's better to just move forward without that type of distraction."
It's possible Lemon would have been demoted to third string and asked to take a pay cut.
"We've parted ways. I'm not going to be specific," Barker said somewhat cryptically.
The reality is he just didn't work out as a consistent, reliable CFL quarterback.
"He was progressing. He was getting better," Barker said.
But he didn't expand in the same way he had endorsed Lemon in the past.
Few NFL quarterbacks make the transition to the CFL, and few are given the opportunity that Lemon had.
"Just to be realistic about it, any quarterback that can go a full season in the CFL definitely has an opportunity to show what (he) can do," veteran receiver Jeremaine Copeland said. "He got a chance to come back this year as a starting quarterback and he had nine games and I think he definitely got better than what he was last year. I think he was definitely growing as a quarterback, from my point of view, but it is what it is. We can sweep it under the mat because it's all over. It's null and void now."
It will be surprising if another team - in any league - signs Lemon.
It can be suggested the Argos, and Barker in particular, wasted a year and a half trying to develop a player at a position that is the most important in the CFL. Now they are back to square one with Jyles, who has shown some flashes of ability in the past but is largely unproven.
The next nine games will not only be important to determine if Jyles can be the true starting quarterback the Argos have been lacking since Damon Allen retired, but also in determining Barker's future.
The Argos have the worst record in the East Division (2-7), but are seen as being in far worse shape than the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who have a 2-7 record in the West. They made a controversial move by firing their rookie head coach Greg Marshall after losing to Toronto and falling to a 1-7 record. It was considered by some to be too hasty.
It is one thing to fire the head coach, it is quite another to release the starting quarterback.
There had been a belief that Barker simply couldn't afford to hang his future in the organization with a quarterback who was too inconsistent, stubborn or simply mediocre.
Whatever happens going forward, it won't be because of Lemon.
