Dinwiddie has two Grey Cups — probably should have three — and he won while starting at quarterback with Macleod Bethel-Thompson in one game and career backup Nick Arbuckle in the other.
Dinwiddie doesn’t just have two Grey Cup wins. He has two wins over Mike O’Shea, who will wind up in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame as a coach and already is there as a player. He has two wins over the almost-dynastic Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
That would be the equivalent to Craig Berube having two Toronto Stanley Cup wins over Paul Maurice or Jon Cooper.
That kind of championship material should make you a legend for life — but just not here, where the CFL doesn’t fully register anymore and the Argos too often seem to be more about yesterday than they are about today.
This Argos team has been special for most of the past 20 years, with five championships won and four different head coaches and four different quarterbacks and deserves more regard and respect than its gets from the city and from the local media.
Dinwiddie himself takes a certain pride in all that has been accomplished in his four years with the Argos.
The Leafs finished first in their division this year. It was the first time they’d ever finished first in the Atlantic Division.
The Blue Jays finished first in 2015 in the American League East and haven’t been close since and before then. The Raptors have one first-place finish in 30 years.
In between winning his two Grey Cups, Dinwiddie had a record-tying 16-2 season with the Argos and a first-place season in his first year coaching. Who has ever done anything close to that in Toronto?
Answer: Maybe Cito Gaston. Maybe nobody.
‘I think more people recognize me now than ever before,” the coach said about his apparent anonymity. “I see more people wearing Argos stuff than ever before. I think that’s a good thing.
“I wish it translated to better attendance at our games. We’ve got to keep working at that.”
He will have Kelly back at quarterback, likely in time for Week 3 as Arbuckle starts the opener.
He will have Miyan Williams, the former Ohio State starter, carrying the ball alongside the flashy Deonta McMahon.
He still has the irrepressible Wynton McManis at linebacker — Toronto’s most complete athletic performer — and all kinds of depth at wide receiver and a secondary he likes that includes the veterans Tarvarus McFadden and Benjie Franklin.
There is a lot to like about this team, more to like about the bottom-line, little-known coach. What does this sporting city want more than championships, more than first-place finishes, more than affordable and available tickets?
They have all that. It’s more fans they need. It’s always that.
Just win baby, Al Davis used to say.
Dinwiddie has won, baby. The rest around him, forever, needs to grow.