Randy Ambrosie speaks during a press conference in Toronto, Wednesday July 5, 2017.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
Beaten and completely bewildered, Randy Ambrosie was left thinking his second game in the Canadian Football League may have been his last.
The rookie offensive lineman had been taken to school by Nick Hebeler, the BC Lions' defensive lineman, who almost singlehandedly dominated the Calgary Stampeders' offence that day in 1985. Sitting at his locker after the game, Ambrosie looked shell-shocked, possibly even bound for a new career. What he did spoke to his character and commitment.
Ambrosie not only got better, he became good enough to start for nine years in the CFL. In his last season, as an Edmonton Eskimo, he got to play in the 1993 Grey Cup staged at Calgary's McMahon Stadium. With the Eskimos moving into the Stampeders' dressing room, he got to sit at his old locker, the one he occupied years earlier after being Hebelered as a rookie, only this time he ended up a CFL champion.
It was quite the reversal, and now as the 14th commissioner of the CFL, Ambrosie has a bigger transformation to manage. With his appointment confirmed Wednesday, the 54-year-old Winnipeg native has to push the league's growth, expand its fan base, help make the Toronto Argonauts matter in their market and work with the CFL Players' Association on how best to treat and reduce concussions.
The CFLPA wasted little time welcoming Ambrosie to his new post by e-mailing a statement that outlined what needed to be addressed in the current collective agreement with the league. "CFL teams are only required to give injured players 12 months of rehabilitation after an injury," CFLPA president Jeff Keeping said in the statement.
He added that a year is "insufficient time to deal with some serious injuries that can require more time for complete recuperation.
"Rehabilitation coverage for players is simply not adequate," Keeping said, "and we need to get it fixed."
Concussions were the topic that undid Jeffrey Orridge's short two-year run as commissioner. At last November's state-of-the-league address, Orridge's refusal to acknowledge any links between head injuries and CTE, a form of brain disease, played a role in his departure. Ambrosie said he was neither a scientist nor a doctor but insisted player safety will be a prominent issue in his time in office. That he also spent two years as secretary of the CFLPA has given him the instant credibility few of his predecessors were blessed with.
"It's a huge advantage being a former player," said Stu Laird, a former CFLPA president who counted Ambrosie as a Calgary teammate. (Ambrosie is the first former player to become commissioner since Larry Smith stepped down in 1997.) "The biggest commodity the league has is its players. Fans come out to watch the players and Randy understands that. He's a smart guy, a good guy and he appreciates what it takes to play the game."
Those who know Ambrosie well are quick to talk of his business skills. After football, he secured a series of managerial positions with Wood Gundy, Merrill Lynch Canada and Midland Walwyn. In 2003, he was the head of North American sales at HSBC Securities. From there, he moved to AGF Management Ltd. where he became president of AGF Funds. In 2012, Ambrosie joined MacDougall MacDougall & MacTier, Canada's oldest investment firm. The company was sold last year to Raymond James. Ambrosie served as a special adviser to Raymond James.
Tom Reimer, who played for the Stampeders before Ambrosie, got to know him when the two worked in the investment business in Toronto. From Reimer's perspective, Ambrosie's boardroom acumen mixes nicely with his likeability.
"He's one of the best leaders I've ever met," Reimer said. "The way he turned around a brokerage firm [MacDougall MacDougall & MacTier] is not dissimilar to what he'll be dealing with in the CFL. There were members of the [3Macs] board of governors who were stuck in the mud but Randy convinced everyone to go along with him, and he was very successful.
"I believe Edmonton was his first job as a manager [with AGF]," Reimer added. "And they gave him one of the worst branches and he turned it around."
One of Ambrosie's favourite talking points is family, from business to football to his mom and dad, both of whom have passed away, to his three brothers to his wife and three daughters. Barb Ambrosie comes with a football story of her own. When Edmonton played the Stampeders in the 1993 West Division Final, the weather was so cold in Calgary that the players were freezing during the pre-game warmups. Barb Ambrosie was recruited to drive to a nearby sporting goods store and buy as much winterwear as possible – balaclavas, gloves, toques, everything.
Sufficiently warmed, the Eskimos went on to beat Calgary for a berth in the 1993 Grey Cup, which Ambrosie would win before retiring as a champion.
"We hit it off right away," Reimer said of his friendship with Ambrosie, even though there is one pretend issue between the two. "It [that they had both played for the Stampeders] came up in our first meeting. From that day on he has denied ever playing for the Stamps. He always likes to say, 'Have you seen my Grey Cup ring?'"