He won a Grey Cup in ’99 with the Tiger-Cats, now he’s got a shot at a third Super Bowl ring

By Steve Milton Spectator Columnist

Tim Terry’s resumé of championships screams far more loudly than his voice ever does.

A Grey Cup title as a Hamilton Tiger-Cat player, two Super Bowl wins as an NFL executive, and a third on the line Sunday night.

“Tim was quiet but personable; he listened more than he talked,” recalls Ticat Hall of Famer, Joe Montford, “A lot of people who are like that tend to do very well.”

Terry, the 46-year-old native of Long Island, N.Y., is the director of pro personnel for the Kansas City Chiefs. But in 1999, he was the other starting defensive end for the Ticats as they won their only Grey Cup in the last 35 years.

Mike McCarthy, then technically football operations consultant but in actuality much more than that, brought Terry to Hamilton after he was released from an NFL practice squad earlier that summer and, like Montford, had him switch from linebacker to defensive end.

Terry started the schedule’s final six games, plus the three post-season victories, including the 32-21 Grey Cup win over Calgary in Vancouver.

“I’ve been blessed to be around good teams and leadership,” Terry told The Spectator earlier this week from Kansas City.

For years, Terry was Green Bay’s assistant director of pro personnel and helped assemble the 2008 Super Bowl champions and he has been an integral part of building the powerful Chiefs, who won last year and are hoping to repeat against Tom Brady.

“I loved Canada and I remember that season very vividly. I’d got released by Kansas City and there is a little bit of irony in that now. I had never fully got the confidence in the knee I hurt-a-year and a half earlier until I got the chance in Hamilton to play regularly,” he says.

“I was in pretty good shape but my first practice, with the length and width of the field and the yard off the ball, I was just gassed. That team had a great mesh with Joe and Danny McManus, Calvin Tiggle, Orlondo Steinauer, all those guys. And Dennis McPhee (defensive line coach) was an outstanding mentor. I still keep in touch.

“That was the first time I had won a championship since high school. And with the drought in Hamilton, it meant so much to the city when we brought that Cup back.”

Terry played with menace and what Montford described as a “real lean to his body, almost horizontal to the ground.” Terry recalls that he came close to agreeing with McCarthy on a contract extension, but decided to give the NFL a final shot. He landed in Seattle, playing 38 games over the next three seasons. Two years later, he began his 13-year stint in the Packers’ front office.

He praises the CFL’s competitive style and speed and says he often advises younger players who don’t make his team to keep an open mind about coming north rather than sitting idle in wait for an NFL call. For years, he scouted CFL games in person — he plucked punter Jon Ryan out of Winnpeg in 2006 — but increased responsibilities have kept him south of the border the past three years, scouting the league by film, the past three years. That also prevented him from attending the reunion of the 1999 winners here 16 months ago.

Montford playfully points out that Terry was one of several Ticats playing the opposite end from him, including Willy Whitehead, Mark Word and Tim Cheatwood, who then went to the NFL.

“Joe made us look good because he was taking all the blocking,” Terry concurs.

He also agrees that he tends to listen more than talk, believing that’s how to learn and adjust to rapid changes. He credits the Chiefs’ success to ownership and management acting co-operatively, with a collective ear to the ground. Their teams, division winners every year Terry has been there, focus much more on what players can do, than what they can’t. Exhibit A: Patrick Mahomes.

Terry still follows the Ticats closely. He gets a new Hamilton shirt every summer when the team comes to Kansas City to scout.

“I’m joking around with my kids and they ask, ‘Dad what are you talking about?’” he laughs.

“And, it’s the Oskee-Wee-Wee chant.”

Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com
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