Matt Nichols (15) on the sidelines during the preseason game vs the Edmonton Eskimos June 15, 2017.
First thing’s first – seeing Matt Nichols rocking a Gonzaga ball hat and T-shirt is going to take some getting used to for his Eastern Washington University cronies.
“It’s true,” began Nichols with a chuckle during a telephone chat from Spokane. “There’s a little bit of a rivalry between the two schools. And J.C. Sherritt (a former teammate at EWU and with the Edmonton Eskimos) has been mad at me the last few days because I’ve been wearing my Gonzaga hat as my workout hat.
“He wants to flip it off my head.”
Earlier this week, Nichols – the Winnipeg Blue Bombers starting quarterback and two-time winner of their Most Outstanding Player Award – confirmed that he had been accepted to the Sport and Athletic Administration Master’s program at Gonzaga University.
He’ll begin with a couple of online courses in the fall before the workload cranks up in the second term next winter. It’s a very prestigious program and difficult to gain entry – Nichols had to write a handful of essays, submit letters of recommendation, and shot a video at Investors Group Field with Bombers’ video ace Riley Marra to help with his submission.
“It’s pretty awesome to be accepted,” he said. “I basically spent all of January working on it every night.”
“Waiting to pursue my Masters has been great because now I feel like I have a good idea of what I want to do when I’m done playing.”
Nichols earned a business administration degree during his playing days at Eastern Washington, and that was his fallback plan as he entered pro football some nine years ago. But carving out a career in the game – first as an undrafted free agent with the Dallas Cowboys, and then to the Edmonton Eskimos, to now as the starter with the Bombers – has helped him define what he wants to do when he eventually hangs up the helmet and shoulder pads.
“The first few years in pro football were a big struggle because you never knew if you were going to make the team,” said Nichols. “I always knew I had my business degree, but I never had a for sure, set-in-stone plan. Then for a while I was sure I was going to coach, but now that I’ve played for a while I feel like I owe it to my family to not go the coaching route so I could be able to see my kids play sports and do a lot of the things coaches seem to miss out on. Now I’ve gone away from that. I’m not saying I’ll never coach, and regardless of what I do, I’ll always train quarterbacks and be a part of the game somehow. I feel like I have so much knowledge to give and would love to influence the younger kids to give them knowledge I didn’t get until I was in college. I’m always going to teach the game in some capacity.
“But I feel like I’ll always need to be a part of sports, be a part of a team, and I feel like this Masters will help me.”
Before Bombers fans begin to panic about Nichols walking away from the game any time soon, his career playbook calls for him to play ‘seven or eight more years’ and then possibly move into a sports administration role at either one of his alma maters.
His experiences in this league and his education would also make him uniquely qualified for a potential management role with a CFL team.
“I love the other side of the game,” said Nichols. “I’m big into contracts and understanding the business side of it and this program helps with that because you learn about facilities management and dealing with sponsorships and fundraising. I feel like this is something which can set me apart. I feel like I have a lot of knowledge, but there are lot of things still to learn to get into that side of athletics.
“The last year or two I’ve settled on this idea. It just really feels right for me and it’s something I would be passionate about. As an athlete, I’ve been passionate about something for a long time and I just can’t see myself sitting in a cubicle.
“It’s what I envisioned coming out of college, but now I’ve developed all these other skills,” Nichols added. “Being at all these dinners and talking to business people I feel like I’ve gotten better at putting myself out there. I feel more comfortable relating to people.
“It also doesn’t hurt that I’m a low-handicap golfer if I was needed to take some of the donors out golfing. If that’s the case, I’m your guy.”
Nichols already has some connections south of the border that were influencers in his decision to pursue his Master’s at Gonzaga. The University of North Dakota hired former EWU product Bill Chaves as their new athletic director in January. Chaves still texts Nichols after every game during the CFL season and plans to attend a Bomber game this August to meet with the QB and North Dakota football legend Weston Dressler.
And Matt Martin, a former teammate at EWU, is now the Associate Athletic Director at Winthrop University in South Carolina. Winthrop’s Director of Athletics, Ken Halpin, is another EWU product who also completed his Master’s at Gonzaga.
“I’m excited about this,” said Nichols. “It’s not cheap, but I feel it’s important to invest in yourself and I didn’t have to pay (for school) the first go-round when I was playing.
“Every other year I’ve gone to school it’s been because I had to. This is because I’m choosing to and these courses are preparing me for real life, for the things that really interest me.”
Nichols starts his online courses in the fall for the two-year program. And after his first year, he’ll need to work as an intern in the field.
“I’ll find somewhere to do that,” he said. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll be a Blue Bombers intern.”
