Eye of the storm

What a way to end a crazy week in the Canadian Football League.

Following the relative calm of last week's Grey Cup - okay, there was the Angelo Mosca-Joe Kapp brouhaha last Friday, followed by the news leak one hour after the championship game that the Toronto Argonauts had reached a verbal agreement with Montreal Alouettes offensive co-ordinator Scott Milanovich to coach their team - the equivalent of a perfect news storm happened on Friday.

First came a report out of Saskatchewan by respected broadcaster Rod Pedersen on his blogsite that former Riders head coach Kent Austin, currently head coach at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., had been in Hamilton on Thursday to interview for the Tiger-Cats' vacant head coaching job.

It created hysteria in Regina, where Roughriders general manager Brendan Taman was inundated with media requests, which resulted in a hastily-called media conference to address the situation.

"He's obviously a good coach," Taman was quoted afterward in the Regina Leader-Post. "He's got a job. He's no different than anybody else. If and when we seek permission, we'll look at it at that point. But, as of right now, I'm not going to say much about it."

Austin coached the Riders to a Grey Cup victory in 2007, so potentially having him resurface in Hamilton instead of Regina would have looked incredibly bad for the Roughriders organization - to say nothing of Austin's reputation.

Pedersen, who does the Riders' radio play-by-play and also blogs for their website and the CFL's, insisted his information was accurate, despite claims from other media outlets suggesting otherwise.

Edmonton Eskimos GM Eric Tillman, who hired Austin in Saskatchewan and is a longtime friend of his, told sportsnet.ca that Austin did not interview in Hamilton, nor is he interested in the job.

"He told me 'it seems like every week I'm going somewhere new in the CFL. This is getting ridiculous. We have several recruits visiting here on Cornell's campus. How could I be interviewing in Hamilton for the job while I'm here talking to recruits?'"

But that wouldn't be the only interesting story to emerge. Word surfaced in Vancouver via radio station CKWX that Lions GM/head coach Wally Buono is expected to announce next week he will give up his head coaching portfolio, which would be punctuated by his recent Grey Cup win, to concentrate on managerial duties. Buono's replacements would be one of either Lions defensive co-ordinator Mike Benevides, Calgary offensive co-ordinator Dave Dickenson or Buffalo Bills quarterback coach George Cortez.

Buono's news became a footnote, however, because shortly before the end of business hours the CFL announced that following an investigation it was fining the Toronto Argonauts $5,000 for their overtures earlier in the week to Calgary Stampeders defensive co-ordinator Chris Jones, who is still under contract. CFL tampering rules state: "A coach, manager, trainer, player, officer, executive or any other person connected, directly or indirectly, with a member club is prohibited from directly or indirectly through an agent or by public or private statement or inference, contacting or negotiating with any non-playing person connected with another member club."

Jones gave notice to Stamps GM/head coach John Hufnagel he was leaving the team to join the Argos. This created a war of words between the Stamps and Argos, leading up to the official announcement of Milanovich's hiring on Thursday, during which the matter of Jones' imminent hiring was raised.

"We did not go after Chris Jones or pursue Chris Jones," said GM Jim Barker, who abdicated his coaching duties to hire Milanovich.

Following the CFL's release about the fine, the Argos stated in their own release: "The Toronto Argonauts football club will pay the league's fine in the matter of tampering with a Calgary Stampeder employee. The Toronto Argonauts recognize that casual conversations between various individuals frequently take place in professional sports that may unintentionally violate the spirit of a league by-law but are often not subject to fines. The Toronto Argonauts will continue to do business with integrity and while we regret this inadvertent error, we will continue to take actions to field a contending football team in 2012. We will close this chapter and move forward without further comment on this matter."

And thus ended a truly turbulent week in the CFL.

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