One of the oddest, and most telling, numbers from Toronto's first seven years is zero.
Not zero playoff games, that's telling but not odd. Rather, it's the amount of former TFC players that returned to the club for a second go-around. You would have thought that the insane volume of former Reds would have seen at least one repeat offender.
But, nope. Once they escape Hogtown they either fade away into obscurity, or never look back.
However, there are some whispers -- very early whispers that are too unsubstantiated to even call rumours yet, but whispers none-the-less -- that that might be changing in 2014. And changing in the most insanely spectacular/infuriating way possible.
There was a boy from Scarborough...
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
When the news first broke that Canada's and TFC's all-time leading scorer, Dwayne De Rosario, would be a free agent (insofar as any MLS player is truly free) nearly everyone jumped to immediately squash any and all talk about the possibility of the world's most potentially hilarious homecomings happening.
"I don't want to talk about the possibility," long-time commentators spat. "Get it out of your head; it's not happening," others suggested.
I resisted writing this column for more than a week because I initially agreed. But, the logic of it -- along with the previously mentioned per-rumour whispers -- has forced me to adjust my thinking.
(As an aside, I'm referring to the logic of the team wanting to sign him. I'm not saying it's logical to actually do it. The discussion of whether TFC should do something is much different than the discussion of whether they will do something).
Yes the majority of long-time, informed TFC fans are, at best, ambivalent and, at worse, hostile, to the idea of revisiting DeRo. However, there is a larger group of former or would-be fans that simply don't care about chequegate and who would be excited to see DeRo back. That excitement probably wouldn't move season tickets, but it might be enough to get those fans paying attention again, or coming out to a single early season game.
This is where you need to get into Tim Leiweke's head -- he of the don't pay us until January mantra. If the money was right -- and it goes without saying that the money would have to be right. He's not a DP anymore -- then bringing DeRo back would be a fairly low-risk move that could have huge potential benefit.
From DeRo's perspective it's a fully new front office so there would be no lingering hard feelings. He is also a proud athlete with a healthy ego. The thought of riding back into town and being the man who dragged TFC back from the dead is probably compelling.
And, it's home. That does matter.
TFC is also placed in a position where they are a team that could roll the dice on him. They have cap space and lots of allocation. As a Canadian he doesn't take an international spot. They also sit third in the re-entry draft order and one of the teams above is the team that dropped him. Unless you think Chivas is interested, TFC is effectively the first team to have a shot at him.
Again, they aren't using a DP slot on him, but an incentive heavy one year deal for about $200,000?
That would probably be worth the gamble in their minds.
Would it be worth the gamble though? This is where it gets a bit murky. From a business perspective I think yes. There are far more TFC fans that still love DeRo than dislike the way he left. He'd return a hero to 80 percent of the fan base and the other 20 percent would forgive immediately following the first chicken dance.
It is, however, possible that he's done. His ability to be managed has also been rightly criticized. There would be risk.
There could be reward too. His raw offensive ability is nearly unmatched in MLS. He is in great shape and a long off-season could help that knee recover.
If he could come back at about 80 percent of his form from just a couple years ago, and if he was willing to be a secondary player behind new DPs, and if they could find a salary that was both enough to satisfy his ego and low enough to give TFC flexibility, then...it's not as out there as people initially suggested.
TFC's done dumber things, after all.