CFL Week Recap

REGINA – It’s easy to say now, in hindsight, that it was an idea destined to work.

You take almost any event with the Canadian Football League slapped on it and the good folks in Saskatchewan are in big time. The league’s heartbeat is here in the Prairies after all, and the loyal faithful in the Saskatchewan capital so love their Roughriders and the three-down game, strolling through the streets and seeing all that green makes every day seem like St. Patrick’s Day.

And so, with the inaugural CFL Week now in the rearview mirror, some might respond with a ‘well, of course it was going to work’ shrug of their shoulders.

Still, the sporting world is littered with ideas that looked good on paper but failed miserably when put into practice. But the CFL made this work through that combination of inspiration and perspiration.

CFL Week brought together the league’s current stars with the past and the future, and all of them were more than willing to engage with fans.

And by the time the weekend’s combine rolled around – it’s still something to hear fans cheer or ooh and aah a pancake block in offensive line vs. defensive line one-on-ones – the event was already a touchdown.

To the fans, you’re amazing.

To the players, you make this possible.

To Regina, thanks for being unbelievable hosts. #MarksCFLWeek ☑️ pic.twitter.com/VrPE4ZYKCX

— CFL (@CFL) March 26, 2017

The sure sign this not only worked, but has long-term possibilities: there is already a debate about where to hold next year’s event. Does the league bring it back to Regina again? Does it move it around to another CFL hotbed like Edmonton, Ottawa, Hamilton or Winnipeg?

Or does it think outside the box further and move it to a non-CFL market with a big university program like Saskatoon, Quebec City or Halifax?

Those questions don’t get asked if the inaugural CFL Week wasn’t a rousing success.

Other leftover tidbits and notes from the last few days in Regina…

Fisheye view of the bench press event during the 2017 CFL combine in Regina, SK., Friday, March 24, 2017. (Photo: Johany Jutras)

SOMEWHAT LOST in the announcement last Wednesday that Mike O’Shea was part of the 2017 Canadian Football Hall of Fame class was the fact that Geroy Simon also has connection to the Blue Bombers.

Simon came north to Winnipeg in 1999 to begin his CFL career and had 85 catches for 1,031 yards in 27 games over two years before the Bombers gave him the green light to head south to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Simon spoke of his friendship with former Bombers GM Brendan Taman – he brought him to the CFL and later signed him in Saskatchewan as a leadership piece late in his career – in his address to the media before Wednesday’s announcement.

“I’m thankful for the Lions, I’m thankful for the Riders and I’m thankful for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for giving me a great opportunity to play the game I love,” said Simon. “My 15 years in the CFL have definitely been amazing and special.

“When I first came to the CFL, my goal was to play a couple years, have a couple thousand-yard seasons and then go back to the NFL. I went back to the NFL without the thousand-yard seasons but  I went back and learned a true lesson: I belonged in the CFL. I loved my time in the CFL and the whole time I was in NFL after Winnipeg, the only thought I had was about getting back to the CFL.”

BOMBERS QB MATT NICHOLS was one of many current CFL players flown into Regina for the week. He, along with Andrew Harris, Weston Dressler, Jamaal Westerman and Taylor Loffler, all spoke about moving on from last November’s West Division Semi-Final and the excitement building for the 2017 season.

“I’ve moved on from all of that (the playoff loss) but at the same time I’ve watched all of our games multiple times this offseason just to go back through with free eyes to see what I could have done better,” said Nichols . “It’s watching those games with the idea that I need to improve my game a little bit more and then implement that into my training so that I evolve as a player and be even better this year than last year.”

The Bombers, like every team in sports, haven’t been without their share of change this offseason. But unlike many winters of late in these parts, the winter has been mostly about continuity, from O’Shea and GM Kyle Walters signing extensions, to Nichols and others signing new deals to stay.

“To be able to work with the same coordinator for a second year… that’s one of the first times I’ve had that in my career. It’s nice,” said Nichols. “This offseason I think LaPo (offensive coordinator Paul LaPolice) has gotten sick of me sending e-mail after e-mail, making sure we’re getting everything straightened out and we’re evolving as an offence. It’s nice to be able to hit the ground running. We’ve got a lot of guys coming back who already know this offence and we can just add pieces to it and make it even better than it was last year. It’s very exciting.”

Evraz Place in Regina, SK. Tuesday, March 21, 2017. (Photo: Johany Jutras)

INTERESTING BIT from Walters, the Bombers GM, about whether he and O’Shea have similar eyes when watching and evaluating talent that assembled for the weekend’s national combine.

“No, there are always differences,” said Walters. “Leading up to this we’ve had those meetings where the week prior to the combine in Montreal, thinking back where Craig (Smith, National Scout) and Ted (Assistant GM and Director of Player Personnel), myself and Mike close the door for a couple days and sit and watched all the cut ups and went through how we graded them.

“You’re watching the same player so generally when we all saw him similarly we’d moved onto the next one but there was a bunch where we were different in our opinions and you would hash it out and ask ‘Why did you see it like this, why did you see it like this; this is why I saw it like that.’ And you’d watch the film and have discussions and then come to a general consensus.

“It’s all part of the process. You’d hate for everybody to sit in the same room and say ‘yep, yep, yep’ all in agreement. It’s nice to have different opinions and the scouts bring more of a quantifiable look at the height, weight and speed.”

What Walters and O’Shea do see the same is an effort level. Walters has said previously he and the head coach do have soft spots for ‘effort’ guys.

“They have to have the athletic ability to compete at the CFL level,” said Walters. “Mike and I, where we’re wired similarly, is we want to see a kid compete, we want to see a kid give maximum effort, but there has to be a set athletic skillset for him to be able to play at the CFL level. It’s a group effort that we all work towards, that final master grade and now this is just another piece of the puzzle.”