Paul LaPolice Fired as Head Coach of Blue Bombers

After a 2-6 start to the 2012 season including a tough, last-minute 20-17 loss at home to the B.C. Lions, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have dismissed head coach Paul LaPolice.

“This was an extremely difficult decision to make, especially when dealing with the kind of quality individual as Paul is,” Bombers’ general manager and vice-president of football operations Joe Mack said in a statement posted on the team’s website. “As the season has progressed, and looking back on how we struggled throughout the second half of the year in 2011, we have become increasingly concerned with the direction of our club and felt this was in the best interest of our entire organization. Our commitment to winning hasn’t changed, and this decision was made in order to get our team back on track.”

Defensive coordinator Tim Burke has taken over as interim head coach of the team, which is last in the CFL standings.

The club hired LaPolice for the second time in February 2010 to be the 28th head coach in Bombers’ history, and he ended up compiling a 16-28 record in that time. Previously he had coached the quarterbacks, receivers, running backs, and the overall offence in 2002 when the club set several records, including Khari Jones’ 46 touchdown passes (team mark) and slotback Milt Stegall catching a league record 23 TD receptions; Stegall was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player that year.

LaPolice was first hired in the CFL in 2000 by the Toronto Argonauts, when then-head coach John Huard made him the receivers’ coach. The 42-year-old native of Lynchburg, Virginia spent two years in that role before going to Winnipeg. When the Bombers let him go after the end of the 2003 season, LaPolice went to Hamilton for two years as their receivers coach, then he went back to Toronto again in 2006 to take on the same role with the Argos.

He moved west again in 2007, this time to Regina to become a coach for the Saskatchewan Roughriders under head coach Kent Austin. The team won the 95th Grey Cup game that year, defeating the Bombers 23-19. It was only the third Grey Cup victory for the Roughriders since the club was founded in 1910.

In 2009, LaPolice would become part of Grey Cup lore once more. In the final seconds of the fourth quarter, Montreal Alouettes placekicker Damon Duval pulled a long field goal wide right, which had initially given the Roughriders the victory in the 97th edition of the final. As the Saskatchewan players celebrated, however, red flags flew all over the field. The officials ruled the Riders had 13 men lined up for the field-goal attempt — one too many.

The ensuing penalty moved the ball 10 yards closer, and Duval did not miss that second chance. The Alouettes won 28-27 as a result of the Riders’ botched formation; LaPolice, their offensive coordinator, took the blame for the incident. Live footage from the game showed him in the coaching booth slamming his headset in disgust when he realized what had happened.