It’s difficult to fathom a more heartbreaking way to lose a playoff game than on a walk-off field goal, with zeros on the clock and a Grey Cup berth on the line.

It’s also difficult, if not impossible, to understate the magnitude of that type of agony for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and their faithful supporters, given they haven’t celebrated a Grey Cup victory since 1999.

But two months after the latest gutpunch, president of football operations Orlondo Steinauer chooses to focus on the positives rather than wallow in the could-have-beens from the Eastern Final.

“We’re obviously extremely disappointed in the outcome,” Steinauer said earlier this week during CFL Winter Meetings in Calgary. “I thought we played hard and we didn’t find a way to win.”

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The Montreal Alouettes won 19-16 on a 45-yard field goal by José Maltos Díaz.

“I’m super proud of our people and everyone involved, from the coaches to the players,” Steinauer said. “You have to reflect on how we were able to get to that game and how we can possibly have a different outcome.”

Zooming out to the bigger picture, the Tiger-Cats (11-7) finished first in the East in 2025. The offence put up glittering stats with Bo Levi Mitchell under centre and a star-studded receiving corps at his disposal (including Kenny Lawler, Kiondré Smith and Tim White).

Sackmaster Julian Howsare led a ball-hawking defence. Kicker Marc Liegghio connected on 92.9 per cent of his field goal attempts.

The Tabbies couldn’t pull it all together when it mattered most.

Steinauer signed Mitchell to a two-year extension in December — thus crossing off the biggest item on his off-season to-do list. Father Time comes for all of us at some point, but the brazen gunslinger led the league in passing last season with 5,296 yards, 36 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

Not bad for a guy the Calgary Stampeders cast aside in 2022 for being too injury-prone and allegedly past his prime.

“Bo still wants to play football and Bo can get the job done,” Steinauer said. “He can lead a football team, and he has everything you would want to lead your team to a championship.”

So now the focus turns to providing Mitchell with the best-possible supporting cast.

“Bo needs to be protected, first of all,” Steinauer said. “Bo can’t do it by himself. So if Bo is going to lead us to a championship, we’ve got to be a great team, along with a great offence. Obviously, he’s got to have receivers, but it starts up front with protection.

“If you can’t keep him up right, then it’s hard to deliver the football.”

 

To that end, guard Brandon Revenberg, a five-time All-CFLer, signed an extension with the Tiger-Cats earlier this month. The East Division nominee for Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman is an invaluable cog.

But Steinauer says there’s still work to be done in providing Mitchell with a stellar offensive line.

“It’s ongoing,” Steinauer said. “It’s in motion, right? The beautiful thing is we don’t play, or we don’t go to training camp, until May. So there’s lots of time in between.”

On the other side of the ball, Hamilton signed Howsare — the East Division nominee for Most Outstanding Defensive Player — to a contract extension. Howsare is coming off a career season in which he amassed 43 defensive tackles, two forced fumbles, one interception and one touchdown.

Howsare joins Revenberg and defensive backs Stavros Katsantonis and Jamal Peters as big-name players who chose to stay in Hamilton rather than test free agency.

That leaves receiver Tim White — coming off his fourth-straight 1,000-yard season — as arguably the marquee free agent Steinauer has yet to get a new deal with.

“We have offers out to quite a few people,” Steinauer said. “All I can tell you is that we’re maneuvering and moving things around and getting offers out to people and trying to get them signed accordingly.”

 

The Tiger-Cats aggressively shopped the free agent market last winter, but it remains to be seen if they’ll do the same this time around.

“We were able to make splashes because people chose to not re-sign in their respective spots,” Steinauer said. “You can want people, but sometimes you want a person and three or four other teams want the same person. So it doesn’t always go exactly as planned. That’s why you have multiple plans and strategies.”

Back in his playing days, Steinauer loved planning and strategizing from his perch at free safety. To this day, he loves still being in the middle of the action (minus the cleats and shoulder pads, of course.)

He labels this time of year, for CFL executives, as “ridiculous” — and he means that in a good way.

“Make sure your phone is charged,” he said. “There’s phone calls, Zoom meetings on top of other meetings. Talks with everybody from coaches to agents to your personnel department. Your staff is going down to different bowl games. We have free agency. It’s kind of non-stop, and that’s kind of the fun of it, right?

“This is a hectic time of just busyness is the best way to describe it. Every day brings something new. Sometimes, there’s lots of traction. You’re watching lots of film. It just doesn’t stop, and it’s great.”