#MarksCFLWeek | Day One

REGINA – Matt Nichols is trying to be serious. Really, really trying.

He’s standing in front of a Canadian Football League backdrop extolling the virtues of the inaugural get together dubbed ‘CFL Week’ and life as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers starting quarterback, when friend-foe-new father Bo Levi Mitchell steps between two reporters and holds a baby diaper up to his face like a microphone.

“To play quarterback you need that confidence from the guys behind you, from the coaching staff to the front office to your teammates,” Nichols begins, before the interruption. “I felt like I had that for the first time in my CFL career last year and, obviously, they feel that way about me too, signing me to that extension.

“I have the utmost respect for that and have taken that challenge on to work extremely hard this offseason to make sure that I’m well prepared for our teammates and do everything I can (insert diaper-microphone here)… to beat Bo Levi Mitchell.”

And that, in a snapshot, is exactly what the league has its fingers crossed CFL Week will come to represent. It’s been called a Comic Con for CFL fans and billed as a fun offseason gathering to help build a buzz about the league in that lull between the crazy spending by GMs around free agency, then the draft and opening of training camps in late May.

The CFL has landed a major sponsor in Mark’s and has a budget of over $1 million to fly in close to 60 players – including nine starting quarterbacks and Bombers players Andrew Harris, Jamaal Westerman, Taylor Loffler, Weston Dressler and Nichols – to schmooze with fans. Among the scheduled events are Wednesday’s announcement of the 2017 inductees into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, a Fanfest and two combines for the top draft-eligible prospects.

“It’s great. It brings the players together, the fans together, it gets everyone excited about football,” Nichols said. “It feels like the season is right around the corner when you start seeing all the guys again. It’s been fun and I’m looking forward to the rest of today and all day tomorrow, to get to see and meet as many people as I can and get to know these guys off the field a little bit more.

“We’re all in this position because we are extremely competitive people so as soon as everyone starts talking trash, everyone gets into it. It’s all in good fun, though. Most of the guys here have played together at some point or hung out together at some point. It’s just nice to get to know them a little bit more, especially because during the season you go out to dinner with some of these guys but it’s really hard to relax and have a full conversation with someone when you know you’re playing them in a game the next day. It’s nice to be around someone without that game-day feel.”

Pressed about the who, what and where behind the latest round of trash talk, Nichols grinned.

“I might have threatened Bo Levi Mitchell last night with a fork at dinner…”

“We’re good friends, obviously,” he said. “And then guys I’ve played with, we like to talk trash a little bit. Willie Jefferson, Odell Willis and all the big talkers.”

Both Harris and Nichols spoke with the 40-plus members of the media accredited for the event on the first day of the ‘Car Wash’ – a day that includes the rounds with the press as well as promo spots for TV rightsholder TSN and promo shoots for advertisements.

And both raved about the additions made to the Bombers this offseason.

“We’re excited,” said Harris. “I’ve been talking to a lot of guys this offseason and just getting a feel for the vibe they have and guys are excited to come back and start where we left off. The staff has done a great job of filling some holes we had and getting some key guys in free agency. We have some good draft choices coming up… the biggest thing is we have a solid nucleus and a group that wants to win and knows how to win and is hungry to win. We have a chip on our shoulder still and that’s the football I like to play.”

“Fans should be excited,” added Nichols. “I think this is one of the first times in a long time where there’s that very real feeling of a Grey Cup-type team. We showed that we were close last year and we feel like we’ve even added more pieces to the team we had last year with the amount of guys coming back, which is unusual in professional football.

“Kyle and O’Shea and those guys have done a good job assembling a team with really no weakness. Even talking to all these other guys every one of them is, ‘Man, you guys have got a squad over there in Winnipeg.’ Everyone knows. It’s going to be a little bit different for us but it’s something we’re going to have to handle as a team going in know we are going to get everyone’s best shot every week.”