New Elks president Morris vows to curb turnover of players, staff in Edmonton

EDMONTON — Chris Morris played each and every snap of his 14-year CFL career wearing Edmonton’s green and gold. He won three Grey Cups, and described the team as a family.

As the new president of the Edmonton Elks, Morris pledged that those family values will return to the franchise. As an alumnus and a member of the Ring of Honour, he’s watched the team go through the 2020s and miss the playoffs, season after season.

He’s seen players come in, players go out. There have been quarterback controversies and quarterback carousels.

He said the culture of signing and cutting players, and re-making the team year after year, has to come to an end.

“The first thing we need to build here is a championship-level football team.” Morris said Thursday during a media conference held in the Elks’ locker room a day after he was confirmed as the team’s new president and chief executive officer. "This city was about nothing but championships for decades and decades. We need to be a championship-level team that competes for Grey Cups every single year. There’s been people before, there’s been five presidents in the last eight years, who have sat up here and said the exact same thing.

“But what I will tell you is this. We are going to build a culture in order to achieve our goal of building this team. Our culture here will be one that values everyone, from the player on the field to the person in the front office to the people selling our tickets.”

The former offensive tackle has been a principal in an Edmonton inner city school, and spent the last 12 years rebuilding the University of Alberta Golden Bears’ football program, which had been doormats in Canada West. He said that, this past year, the University of Alberta’s camp program raised more than $800,000 that went towards scholarships. When he got to the U of A, that program raised $30,000 a season.

His press conference felt more like a halftime team-talk from the coach, and alumni in attendance even cheered some of his talking points, especially when he said “I promise you, the revolving door is over” when it came to players and staff.

“How can you identify with a team when three quarters of it turns over? ” he said. “You tell me another sports franchise that’s had as much turnover as we’ve had over the last three years. You can’t build on that.

“Continuity is going to allow our fans to find something they can connect with and I think that’s going to go a long way to get this wrong.”

He said the team’s inability to stick with players and nurture them is “85 per cent” of the issue when it comes to the last half-decade of futility and waning fan support.

Next on Morris’s list is finding a permanent general manager. Geroy Simon took over as the GM on an interim basis after the team’s 0-5 start. Under Simon and interim coach Jarious Jackson, the team went 7-6 through the remainder of the year. Both men want to keep their jobs.

Morris said the GM decision will be made by Nov. 24, which will allow him time to talk to a couple of people he won’t be allowed to interview until after the Grey Cup.

“Geroy, Jarious, they’ve done a wonderful job in resurrecting what was an awful season,” Morris said. “They will be strongly considered as we move forward. However, we owe this city, and we owe everyone associated with Elks football, to find the best football mind to take over our franchise. This might be Geroy. But we are going to look and we are going to have an intensive search."

With Morris’s hiring, Rich LeLacheur’s tenure as the team’s interim president and CEO comes to an end. There will be a transition period where he helps Morris get comfortable, and, after, he will be a mentor. LeLacheur will continue to advise team owner Larry Thompson.

LeLacheur was hired in August of 2023, after Victor Cui and the team mutually agreed to part ways. LeLacheur shepherded the Elks through a major shift, as he led the search for a private owner. This summer, Thompson bought the team in its 75th anniversary season, taking it out of the hands of community ownership.

“Through the process of recruitment, Chris checked a lot of the boxes,” said LeLacheur, who had to convince Morris to apply for the job.

“He reminds me of another teacher and coach and player who happened to be a president here in Hugh Campbell.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2024.