Marcel Desjardins was born on May 19,1966 and is a Canadian football executive who is currently the assistant to the general manager and player personnel for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League.
16 Facts About Marcel Desjardins
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Marcel Desjardins has served as the general manager for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for two seasons and the Ottawa Redblacks for eight seasons.
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Marcel Desjardins is a four time Grey Cup champion, having won his first three with the Alouettes and his fourth with the Redblacks in 2016.
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Marcel Desjardins first joined the Montreal Alouettes as the team's assistant director of football operations in 1999.
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Marcel Desjardins was promoted to the position of assistant general manager in 2002 and won his first Grey Cup championship as the Alouettes won the 90th Grey Cup that year.
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Marcel Desjardins spent four and a half seasons as the Alouettes' assistant GM where the team played in three Grey Cup games over that period.
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The biggest challenge facing Marcel 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.
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Marcel Desjardins was fired at the end of the season on November 5,2007.
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Marcel Desjardins returned to the Montreal Alouettes to serve as the team's assistant general manager on December 5,2007.
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Marcel Desjardins spent another five years with the Alouettes and won his second and third Grey Cups as the team won championships in 2009 and 2010.
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Marcel Desjardins received his second opportunity to assemble a CFL team as he was named the general manager for the expansion Ottawa Redblacks on January 30,2013.
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In just their third season of existence, Marcel Desjardins' Redblacks won the first Grey Cup in forty years for an Ottawa CFL team as they defeated the Calgary Stampeders in the 104th Grey Cup game.
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Marcel Desjardins hired Paul LaPolice to be the Redblacks' new head coach and then traded the first overall draft pick in the 2020 CFL Draft for quarterback, Nick Arbuckle.
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However, after being unable to comes to terms on a restructured contract with Arbuckle following a cancelled 2020 CFL season, Marcel Desjardins signed Matt Nichols and released Arbuckle.
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Marcel Desjardins oversaw a Redblacks team that further went into decline in 2021.
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On January 11,2024, it was announced that Marcel Desjardins had returned to the Montreal Alouettes to serve as the team's assistant to the general manager and player personnel.