Jim Barker has been in football for nearly 50 years, half of that time spent in the Canadian Football League. Although he's now back as the Toronto Argonauts' director of player personnel, he spent much of last year fearing it was all over.
“You always worry about that because I really wanted to keep going. I'm not ready to retire and I just don't feel like my age says I should,” Barker said. 3DownNation. “I stayed very close with the staff (even when I wasn’t with the CFL team) as a hobby, I just like to follow them, the players, where they come from and what they do.”
Barker's most notable CFL stints came with the Calgary Stampeders in the 2000s and the Toronto Argonauts in the 2010s, where he served as head coach and general manager of both organizations. However, when he was fired as Toronto's general manager after the 2016 season, demand for his services dropped.
The 69-year-old served as a football operations consultant for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2019 and a senior advisor for the Argonauts in 2022. Both seasons went well—the Tiger-Cats went 15-3 with Barker on board, and Toronto won the surprise surprise Gray Cup—though he disliked the consulting job, saying it was like being “an intern with gray hair.” He missed being a more integral part of the staff.
Barker had been a full-time pundit for TSN while in between stints in the CFL, but that opportunity ended shortly before the start of the 2025 season. The network experienced a shake-up that led to numerous programming changes, including new graphics, music, special guest panelists and the departure of some longtime analysts.
“(TSN producers) Chris Edwards and Arden (Tosun) came in and they didn’t think I was the one the station needed,” Barker said. “It's been a difficult year for me, but this is the business and I didn't know this business. I'm glad to be back in a business that I understand. (In football) know that if you lose matches you will be kicked out of the game – you need to make sure you find ways to win matches. In the media, you don’t know that.”
The Pasadena, California native enjoyed his time at TSN, although he always enjoyed working in football more than in television.
“Wwhat I do now is much more fun for me. TV was great; I've worked with fantastic people. It's one of those things that is so different. When you work in television, I always looked at it as entertainment, etc.The key is to keep people interested and observing, giving them something they can't get from anyone else. I thought I brought a little bit of a different perspective in terms of having been an assistant coach, a head coach, a general manager, and I've done all these things, and so my perspective on different things about why teams do this or that, I thought I could bring something to the table.specifically for broadcast,” Barker said.
“Media was great, it was outstanding – great people, everything was fantastic. I wasn't very excited about how tIn the end, it all fell apart, but that's their business, and that's what happens, and now I know that's how it is there.
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Barker's teams have had success on the field – he has won five Gray Cups and one Coach of the Year award – but he has also made an impact off the field. He gave many longtime CFL employees their first coaching or personnel jobs, including Orlondo Steinauer, Mike O'Shea and Ted Gouveia, although he also helped people get into the NFL.
Four young professionals who worked under Barker in Toronto found work in the south and got stuck. Vince Magri is a professional scout for the Buffalo Bills, Chris Rossetti is the director of pro scouting for the New York Giants, Curtis Rukavina is the co-director of pro scouting for the Bills, and Matt Justin is a scouting intern for the New York Jets.
“What I've enjoyed the most is watching young Canadian guys grow up in this business. Four of them came to work for us here in Toronto and are now playing in the NFL,” Barker said. “I'm proud of it and I've always felt we need opportunities for young people to grow. It's a very difficult business to break into.”
“I like to take young guys and develop them. I'll do the same here.”
Barker has two new CFL scouts who will join the team in 2026, but he declined to name them at this time. He noted that in the coming months they will be traveling with him to many college all-star games in the United States, where he plans to help them gain strength in business.
“It's great that I have these young guys and I can teach them how to scout the game, scout the practice because you have so many players you're trying to track down,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to it – I hope I can take these young people and develop them into first-class people who will be general managers in the CFL in 10 years.”
As for Toronto's roster, Barker clearly wants to improve the offensive line. In 2025, the Argonauts allowed a league-worst 56 sacks and averaged 3.9 yards per rush, nearly a full yard less than any other team. He didn't seem to like the team's decision to trade DeJon Allen last offseason or the team's decision to move Ryan Hunter from guard to tackle.
“Anyone who watched the team play saw a lot of struggle on the offensive line,” Barker said. “They had a lot of injury problems and I think that was a problem for them. I think you build a team from the inside and you better be good on the offensive line and you better be good on the defensive line.”
Since 2010, Barker has settled in Toronto, where he can work year-round, making the Argonauts an ideal candidate to return to full-time CFL personnel work. His excitement for the role is palpable, and he has a tough job ahead of him—the team went 5-13 last season and now he has a new head coach — Barker set off on the road with great pleasure.
“II'm older now and I was worried (I won't find another job). I didn’t know what was going to happen, but for me everything worked out exactly the way it was supposed to,” he said.If I can do this for the rest of my life, I will be the happiest person on the planet.”
