Justin Medlock (9) of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers during the game against the Montreal Alouettes at Investors Group Field in Winnipeg, MB. on Friday, June 24, 2016. (Photo: Johany Jutras)
Stanley Bryant has always been one to efficiently punch the clock every day and then do his thing in football’s trenches when the ball is placed on the tee for real.
And so it says something when a man who, like so many others, craves his offseason to recuperate both mind and body, is already keen to get back to the grind that is a Canadian Football League campaign with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
“I know it’s only been like a month or something, but for some reason I’m already itching to get back, to get rolling again,” said Bryant this week from his offseason home in North Carolina. “I know a lot of guys are. The guys on the O-line are always talking on our group chat about that. We’re building something great and this team wants to be the team that brings a championship back to Winnipeg.
“It’s going to be a long five months for me now to wait for it to start up again.”
Bryant, the Bombers mammoth left tackle, and kicker Justin Medlock had the paperwork on their restructured deals filed with CFL HQ on Tuesday, meaning their names are both removed from the prospective free agent list and also locked in to the club’s depth chart for 2017.
That’s no small thing, either, given Bryant has been solid protecting the left flank of an emerging and improving offensive line and Medlock – the CFL’s Most Outstanding Special Teams Player last year – was the consistent difference maker the club needed from that spot.
“They approached me about restructuring my contract and I figured I could help the team out,” said Medlock from Florida this week. “It worked out for both. I’m glad to get this deal done and I’m really looking forward to this year.”
The Bombers put a lot of money on the table to lure Medlock away from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in free agency last February, but after one year in Winnipeg the veteran kicker – who continues to speak highly of his old boss in Kent Austin – is thrilled with what he is seeing here.
“I’ve had a couple of guys talk to me in the offseason here about the possibility of getting to Winnipeg,” Medlock said.
“A lot of guys are very interested in playing for the Bombers now.”
“If you had asked that four years ago about the Bombers, I think people would have looked the other way… myself included. I looked at that situation a while ago and said I wouldn’t play in Winnipeg just because of the way things were back in the day.
“Kyle (Walters), Mike (O’Shea) and Wade (Miller) have done a really good job of changing everything.”
That could be mammoth as the CFL free agent market officially opens next month. Winnipeg isn’t the black hole it once was for prospective free agents. Both Walters and O’Shea have signed contract extensions, giving the team stability at the top, while the club finished on a 10-3 run to end the regular season before falling to the B.C. Lions in the West Division Semi-Final.
Those are all factors that should have Walters’ phone humming over the next few weeks.
“We had a rough start last year but then started to get better and better every week after that,” said Bryant. “We all felt that once we got to the playoffs, we were going to make our run and win the Grey Cup.
“We’re going to be great, man. We feel like we let it slip away at the end of last year. I know the team won’t be the same but we’ll have some guys back and we’ve got a group that is ready to prove we are a Grey Cup championship team.”
“This next year is a big one for us. We feel like we’re ready to become an elite team that can beat the other teams in the West and go on and win a Grey Cup.”
