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Pinball keeps inspiring Argos
Mike Clemons leads Toronto back to respectability

Toronto's love affair with Pinball continues long into retirement.

Michael (Pinball) Clemons is an adorable, articulate chap who, three years removed from his playing days, remains the city's most impactful football figure.

A longtime Toronto Argonauts fixture, Clemons personifies all that is successful about the problematic franchise.

Be it as running back, team president or head coach, Clemons is considered a master motivator -- passionate, not preachy -- and universally respected by peers and players alike.

People respond to him.

"Pinner is a great motivator," acknowledged Argos defensive tackle Johnny Scott. "And he does his job as a head coach, so the players have to do their job."

Clemons is, in fact, working two jobs these days.

He remains Argos president, a post he has held since Nov. 19, 2001, yet agreed, albeit reluctantly, to replace fired Gary Etcheverry as head coach on an interim basis on Sept. 17.

Two months later, Clemons is being hailed a miracle worker after leading a moribund 4-8-0-0 franchise deep into the playoffs.

"It means so much for this organization that we're even here," he said.

Taking hold of the tiller, Clemons steered the seemingly rudderless Boatmen to a 5-1-0-0 finish and a stunning win over Saskatchewan in the East Division Semifinal before falling to powerhouse Montreal in the final.

With Clemons at the helm and the season hanging in the balance, Toronto, all but left for dead, experienced a remarkable about-face, racking up four straight wins down the stretch.

The Argos followed up a 29-28 overtime upset at Hamilton with a 29-12 romp over Ottawa, outscoring the Renegades 22-3 over the final 25 minutes, then clinched a playoff berth by rallying back from a 29-10 halftime deficit to defeat Calgary, 33-32.

That momentum continued into the East semifinal when, down 12-0, they battled back to upset favoured Saskatchewan, 24-14.

Many of the Argos credited Clemons for the late-season surge, and for inspiring them in a manner Etcheverry could not.

"The message ... was win or go home," Scott said. "Do we want this season to end or do we want to continue playing?

"The players made up their mind to go out and play. And whenever we decide to play, there is nothing that can hold us back or stop us."

Clemons is 18-17-0 in two stints as Argos head coach, a favourable record to the combined 5-14-1 of his predecessors, Etcheverry and the bombastic John Huard.

His secret? His will to win.

"His players respect his competitveness," CBC Sports football commentator Mark Lee opined. "And I think that's what has really come out in the last little while.

"He's always been a coach that has been able to get his players to respond."

Case in point, Clemons' locker-room speech prior to the semifinal caught on camera by CBC Sports.

"That was probably my worse speech ever," Clemons chuckled. "It was more of an emotional speech and, even when I am emotional, usually I am more articulate."

Eloquent or not, his pre-game sermon still had the desired effect.

As did his fiery address to players at halftime during the Calgary game when Toronto trailed 29-10.

"A lot of guys, they said that was out of character for Pinball," Lee discovered. "They're seeing something new in him, how badly he wants to win and that's rubbing off on them."

"A head coach's jobs, in most respect, is to be a guy who can rally everybody around one cause. The Argos' turnaround shows he's a guy with great spirit and a great leader because he's still fresh from the game and a lot of the guys that have seen him play, they have a lot of respect for him as a football coach."

Clemons realizes he is admired for his exhuberance, but stops short of making it a love-in.

This is pro football, after all, a sport predicated on preparation and performance.

"If we have the best pep talk in the world and we don't prepare this week, we're going to get our face knocked off," Clemons explained.

"Enthusiasm is one thing, but the real key to being successful is competence. It's doing the right things, making the right decisions.

"If you're not doing the right things on the field and constantly being beat, that enthusiasm starts to wane very quickly. You have to do the right things."

As a player, Clemons was a small man in a big man's game, a whirling dervish of a running back with uncanny balance and incalculable charm.

A Clemons carry often defied description -- bop left, feint right, accelerate, stop cold, cut back, look left, carom right, juke, jive, then explode upfield -- it was controlled chaos in perpetual motion.

A pinball.

"I think it was the correct depiction of me on a football field," Clemons admitted. "I think the moniker has served me well.

"Most people always thought that I bounced around off guys, but I truly know I was bounced around by guys."

Either way, Clemons retired the most prolific player in pro football history with 25,402 all-purpose yards, one of several records on his Hall of Fame resume.

Yet Clemons' success on the field was paralleled only by his popularity off it.

And, for the time being, on the sideline, too.