Marcel Desjardins (born May 19, 1966) is the former

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

for the

Ottawa Redblacks The Ottawa Redblacks (officially stylized as REDBLACKS) ( French: Le Rouge et Noir d'Ottawa) are a professional Canadian football team based in Ottawa, Ontario. The team plays in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). Startin ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL). He has also served as the General Manager for the

Hamilton Tiger-Cats The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Tim Hortons Fiel ...

for two seasons. He is a four time

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

champion, having won his first three with the Alouettes and his fourth with the Redblacks in 2016. Desjardins is a graduate of the Sports Administration program at

Laurentian University Laurentian University (french: Université Laurentienne), officially the Laurentian University of Sudbury, is a mid-sized Bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public university in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, incorporated on March 28, 1960. Lau ...

in Sudbury, Ontario.

Administrative career

Montreal Alouettes

Desjardins first joined the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...

as the team's assistant director of football operations in 1999. He was promoted to the position of assistant

in 2002 and won his first

championship as the Alouettes won the

90th Grey Cup The 90th Grey Cup was the 2002 Canadian Football League championship game played between the Edmonton Eskimos and the Montreal Alouettes on November 24 at Commonwealth Stadium, in Edmonton, Alberta. The Alouettes defeated the Eskimos 25–16 in th ...

that year. He spent four and a half seasons as the Alouettes' assistant GM where the team played in three Grey Cup games over that period.

Hamilton Tiger-Cats

On August 29, 2006, Desjardins was named the general manager of the

, replacing the team's interim general manager,

Rob Katz Rob Katz (born 1969 or 1970) is a former interim general manager for the Hamilton Tiger Cats from 2005 to 2006 and the chief operating officer for the Tiger Cats from 2005 to 2007. Before his career with the Tiger Cats, Katz held previous position ...

. Desjardins took over a 2–9 Tiger-Cats team that had already fired their head coach, Greg Marshall, their offensive coordinator,

Joe Paopao Joe Paopao (born June 30, 1955) is a former professional Canadian football quarterback and coach in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Paopao played 11 seasons in the CFL and was a member of the BC Lions, Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Ottaw ...

, and their offensive line coach, Kani Kauahi. The Tiger-Cats won two more games with Desjardins as the GM and finished with a 4–14 record. He hired former Alouettes head coach,

Charlie Taaffe Charlie Taaffe (April 20, 1950 – October 29, 2019) was an American gridiron football coach. After retiring in 2014, he was hired by a company called Quarterback Country to run a year-round quarterback training and development program. He serve ...

, to lead the team, but Desjardins' first full season with the Tiger-Cats with a 3–15 record. Notably, he had signed

Casey Printers Casey J. Printers (born May 16, 1981) is a former professional American football, Canadian football and indoor football quarterback. Printers spent most of his professional career with the BC Lions in the Canadian Football League, and also played ...

midway through the season and traded away incumbent starter,

Jason Maas Jason Maas (born November 19, 1975) is the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and a former Canadian football quarterback in the CFL. He is best known for his playing career with the Edmonton Eskimos where h ...

, but the team's offence still struggled. The biggest challenge facing Desjardins going into 2007 was the introduction of the CFL salary cap which required him to slash as much as $1 million dollars from player salaries as a result of excessive contracts being given to players prior to his arrival. He was fired at the end of the season on November 5, 2007.

Montreal Alouettes (II)

Desjardins returned to the Montreal Alouettes to once again serve as the team's assistant general manager on December 5, 2007. He spent another five years with the Alouettes and won his second and third Grey Cups as the team won championships in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

and

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Ottawa Redblacks

Desjardins received his second opportunity to assemble a CFL team as he was named the general manager for the expansion

on January 30, 2013. After a dismal 2–16 inaugural season, Desjardins quickly assembled a competitive team as the Redblacks finished with a 12–6 record in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

and an appearance in the

103rd Grey Cup The 103rd Grey Cup was a Canadian football game that was played on November 29, 2015 between the East Division champion Ottawa Redblacks and the West Division champion Edmonton Eskimos to decide the Canadian Football League (CFL) championship f ...

. In just their third season of existence, Desjardins' Redblacks won the first Grey Cup in forty years for an Ottawa CFL team as they defeated the

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the third-old ...

in the

104th Grey Cup The 104th Grey Cup (branded as the 104th Grey Cup presented by Shaw for sponsorship reasons) was a Canadian football game that was played on November 27, 2016, between the Calgary Stampeders and the Ottawa Redblacks, that decided the champion for ...

game. The team remained competitive as they returned to the Grey Cup in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, but the Redblacks lost the game to the Stampeders. The team experienced a substantial decline in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

as Desjardins chose not to re-sign certain players while others departed as they were looking to cash in on the success they had while in Ottawa.

Trevor Harris Trevor Harris (born May 31, 1986) is an the United States, American professional Canadian football quarterback for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was signed by the Jacksonville Jaguars as an undrafted free ...

Greg Ellingson Greg Ellingson (born December 30, 1988) is an American professional Canadian football wide receiver for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football at FIU Golden Panthers football, Florida International ...

William Powell William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the ''The Thin Man (film), Thin Man'' series based on the Nick and Nora Cha ...

, and

SirVincent Rogers SirVincent Rogers (born May 9, 1986) is a former gridiron football offensive lineman who played professionally for 12 years. He spent the bulk of his career with the Ottawa Redblacks of the Canadian Football League (CFL) where he won the 104th Gr ...

. The team also lost their

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of an American football or Canadian football team who is in charge of the team's offense. Generally, along with the defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, this coach re ...

Jaime Elizondo Jaime Elizondo is an American football and a Canadian football coach. Elizondo has had 25 years of coaching experience in both collegiate and professional levels, most recently serving as the head coach, offensive coordinator, and quarterbacks co ...

, to the

XFL XFL may refer to: Sports * XFL (2001), a defunct American football league that played its only season in 2001 * XFL (2020), a professional American football league Vehicles * Bell XFL Airabonita, a 1940 U.S. Navy experimental interceptor aircra ...

after he was not permitted to interview for a vacant CFL head coaching position. The team finished with a 3–15 record and the team's head coach,

Rick Campbell Rick Campbell (born December 20, 1970) is an American-born Canadian football head coach and co-general manager for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League. He was the Calgary Stampeders' defensive coordinator from 2012 to 2013 and was also an ...

, resigned due to a strained relationship with Desjardins. Desjardins hired

Paul LaPolice Paul LaPolice (born June 12, 1970) is a gridiron football coach who was most recently the head coach for the Ottawa Redblacks of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He is a two-time Grey Cup champion as an assistant coach, most recently in 107th ...

to be the Redblacks' new head coach and then traded the first overall draft pick in the

2020 CFL Draft The 2020 CFL Draft took place on April 30, 2020 at 8:00 pm ET and was broadcast on TSN and RDS.. 73 players were chosen from among eligible players from Canadian Universities across the country, as well as Canadian players playing in the NCA ...

for quarterback,

Nick Arbuckle Nicholas Arbuckle (born October 4, 1993) is a professional Canadian football quarterback for the Ottawa Redblacks of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He has also been a member of the Calgary Stampeders, Ottawa Redblacks, Toronto Argonauts, and ...

. However, after being unable to comes to terms on a restructured contract with Arbuckle following a cancelled

2020 CFL season The 2020 CFL season would have been the 67th season of modern-day Canadian football. Officially, it would have been the 63rd season of the Canadian Football League. It was originally scheduled to begin on June 11; on April 7, the start of the s ...

, Desjardins signed

Matt Nichols Matt may refer to: *Matt (name), people with the given name ''Matt'' or Matthew, meaning "gift from God", or the surname Matt *In British English, of a surface: having a non-glossy finish, see gloss (material appearance) *Matt, Switzerland, a mu ...

and released Arbuckle. Desjardins oversaw a Redblacks team that further went into decline in

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

. After starting the year with a 2-9 record and a record of 5-22 overall following their appearance in the 106th Grey Cup, Desjardins was relieved of his duties as general manager on October 25, 2021.

References

External links

Ottawa Redblacks bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Desjardins, Marcel 1966 births Living people Hamilton Tiger-Cats general managers Ottawa Redblacks general managers Sportspeople from Burlington, Ontario