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This is how you begin if you're the rather stunned Toronto Argonauts.
You call Winnipeg on Monday, at the start of Grey Cup Week.
You call and then quickly, you steal.
But before that, you quietly let out word about what you're planning or thinking about without being too obvious or apparent.
The Canadian Football League rule is rather clear. You have to wait seven days after a team has played its final game of the season before you can approach and ask for permission to talk to an employee.
In this case, the employee happens to be Mike O'Shea.
The former Argos great needs to be the next coach of the Double Blue.
This needs to happen quickly.
He is the best coach in the Canadian Football League and has been for about a decade. His contract with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers is up. He has not signed for next season or any seasons after that for reasons muddled and unexplained.
The Argos have no choice but to move hastily here if they have any hope of landing O'Shea to replace the rather successful Ryan Dinwiddie, who as of Wednesday is now coach, offensive coordinator and general manager of the forever wayward Ottawa Redblacks.
Which is a position I wouldn't necessarily wish on my favourite football coaches -- and Dinwiddie is certainly one of those.
He came to the Argos as something of an unknown. His hiring was little more than a leap of faith. He was a backup quarterback barely being noticed in the league. He took CFL assistant coaching jobs at the bottom of staffs wherever he could get them.
And then, the Argos hired him as head coach to the excitement of absolutely no one.