Why CFL made the right choice hiring Stewart Johnston as the league's 15th commissioner
Stewart Johnston leaves a strong first impression.
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More than anything else, it's evident his fervor for football is genuine.
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In a life on a circular path, the Toronto-born 54-year-old who grew up in the nation's capital again lives in his hometown and, after a 28-year career at The Sports Network — more than half of which as company president and senior vice-president of Bell Media, content and sales — Johnston has returned to his first love.
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The following is an edited version of a 40-minute conversation Postmedia had with the Canadian Football League's 15th commissioner at a downtown Ottawa hotel on the morning of the Redblacks home opener.
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'I think it starts with a passion for football. I've had that ever since I was a kid. I grew up throwing the football with my brothers in the backyard, and took that to playing some high school football, loving every second, but consuming a ton of football on television. And so I really have that.
'I joined TSN because I'm a sports fan in general, but football's always been the number one for me.
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'At Bell Media, I had an amazing job. I occasionally thought to myself, 'do I have the coolest media job in the world?' I worked with the biggest media company in Canada. I'm leading the sports division. I'm leading the news division. I'm leading the entertainment division, driving content for Crave. I'm leading the ad sales division, driving significant revenue across multiple platforms. I loved coming to visit the sales team and the operational team here in Ottawa. It was really diverse, really widespread, and I had 3500 people reporting to me as a team, all fantastic at what they do, and just as passionate about the industry as I was.
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'And so for anything to pull me away from that, it would have to be pretty special.
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'When this opportunity came up, (former commissioner) Randy (Ambrosie) announced his retirement in the fall of last year, and this opportunity came up, I thought briefly about it, but I was so consumed with my job that I didn't focus too much on what was happening. I just had a lot going on and wanted to make sure things were going as well as they could at my shop.
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'And then, into the new year, I had some people related to the league reach out and ask if I'd be interested in throwing my hat in the ring. That's when I took a moment to think about that. I said, I've been 28 years with one company in diverse roles and I learned every day, which is critical for me. So the idea of leaving after 28 years was daunting and really not something I'd consider because I was enjoying what I was doing.
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