Medlock Best In The Biz

TORONTO – Justin Medlock will be the first to insist his mighty left leg has got much more to give. Yes, he’s got more big kicks to make for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and more records to hunt down and obliterate.

And because kickers are always taught to look ahead to their next attempt – not the makes or the misses fading in the rear-view mirror, including the 61-yarder in the West Semi-Final – he’s already been thinking about tweaking this and adjusting that to make 2017 even more memorable.

With all that out of the way however, let’s reinforce this: Medlock’s 2016 campaign was pretty bleepin’ good.

And Thursday night at the Art Gallery of Ontario he was honoured as the Canadian Football League’s Most Outstanding Special Teams Player.

The voting was conducted by members of The Football Reporters of Canada from all nine markets and a national chapter, as well as the head coaches from across the league and Medlock won over Hamilton Tiger-Cats returner Brandon Banks, receiving 61 of a possible 73 votes.

“It’s exciting, it’s an honour to win this award,” said Medlock. “It’s a lot of hard work throughout the year. It was a goal.”

“The first time I walked into Investors Group Field I saw that list of Most Outstanding Special Teams Player Award winners and I wanted to get on that wall.”

Justin Medlock

He is the fourth Bomber to be named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Special Teams Player, joining Albert Johnson III (2000), Charles Roberts (2001) and Keith Stokes (2004). He is also the first Bomber to win one of the league’s major awards since Chris Matthews was named the Most Outstanding Rookie in 2012.

Medlock’s record-tying, record-smashing season – one in which he absolutely obliterated league and Blue Bombers kicking standards – included setting the new single-season field goal record, now 60, breaking the old mark of 59 set in 1990 by Dave Ridgway of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

And if Ridgway is remembered as ‘Robokicker’, then Medlock is an updated, improved model cyborg. Already the most-accurate kicker in CFL history, Medlock was 60 of 68 in field-goal attempts this year – upping his career percentage to 87.7 per cent – and connected on five field goals from 50-plus yards, including a 58-yarder in his first game as a Bomber, tying Bernie Ruoff’s record, set in 1975.

Medlock twice hit seven field goals in one game and six in two others while breaking Troy Westwood’s single-season club record for points with 227. He also went 40 for 40 in convert attempts, averaged 42.7 yards per punt and led the league in kickoff average at 66.7 yards.

All this from a guy who has taken a circuitous route to this point.

having been cut eight times and changing teams 11 times. An All-American at UCLA, he was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs, but has also worn the colours of the Toronto Argonauts (twice), St. Louis Rams, Washington Redskins, Detroit Lions, Carolina Panthers, Omaha Nighthawks of the UFL, Oakland Raiders, Hamilton Tiger-Cats (twice), Edmonton Eskimos.

His arrival in Winnipeg as a free agent this past winter was arguably the biggest of many off-season signings for the Bombers, as he provided stability at the position after Lirim Hajrullahu struggled mightily in 2015.

He was money for a team that needed its kicker to finish drives with points, not disappointment, and played a major role in the club’s 11-7 season and first playoff appearance in five years.

Medlock was accompanied at the awards gala by teammates Andrew Harris and long-snapper Chad Rempel and went out of his way to thank Bombers President and CEO Wade Miller, who made the announcement at the ceremony, GM Kyle Walters, head coach Mike O’Shea, special teams coordinator Paul Boudreau, Rempel and holders Weston Dressler and Matt Nichols.

And, of course, his wife Hannah whom he referred to as ‘the MVP of the operation.’ Medlock also spoke glowingly of the direction in which the club is headed.

“I just think we’re doing good things,” said Medlock. “We have a great coach, he’s such a positive guy, and he knows how to get on us when he needs to and be honest when we’re down and pick us back up. And then you’ve got Kyle Walters and Wade Miller who are doing an awesome job and we’ve got great guys in there… a couple more pieces and we’ll be back up there in the Grey Cup, hopefully.”

His goals for 2017: get back to the awards gala next year with all of his teammates – that would mean they are in the big game – and then this, as an encore:

“Not miss… at all,” he said. “That’s my goal. I had too many misses this year, especially at the beginning. I plan to come out a little sharper.”