Most Memorable Game | Adam Bighill

Each week, a Bombers player visits with Ed Tait of bluebombers.com to reminisce about a particular game that is most memorable for them in their careers in high school, college or professional careers.

This week: Adam Bighill

Bighill background:

• A five-time CFL All-Star (2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018), Bighill also has won the CFL’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player Award twice – in 2015 with the B.C. Lions and in 2018 with the Blue Bombers.
• Bighill was a star at Central Washington before coming to the CFL. In 2010-11 he was CWU’s Co-Athlete of the Year and was named a First Division II All-American.
• He spent six years with the B.C. Lions (2011-16), he was part of the 2011 Grey Cup championship team. He was twice named the Lions Most Outstanding Player and three times their top defensive player.
• Bighill signed with the New Orleans Saints in 2017 and dressed for three games that season. He asked for his release in May of 2018 and signed with the Bombers soon after.
• A full-time Winnipeg resident who is raising his family here while working as a financial consultant, Bighill is one of the club’s most influential players and a leader in the community.

Bighill:

“At every level I have these games that I remember the most, games that were also influential or important to me and my team.

“In high school I never won a championship, but I can remember a playoff game quite well because of the battle we had – and we ended up losing 21-14. We were playing Othello High School (Othello, Washington) and they ended up winning the championship that year. I had a solid game. We were down by a touchdown and they were driving the ball and trying to run out the clock and I had an interception that gave us a chance to get back with one last drive. We didn’t quite make it, but it’s one of those games where you’re doing your job, making plays and coming up big when you need to come up big.

“It’s the same thing in college where we lost a quarter-final game to the eventual national champions, Northwest Missouri State, in 2009.  but I had a killer game with something like 16 tackles and four tackles for loss. It’s memorable because you are playing your best game when it counts the most. You’re making plays, you’re there for your team. Those things are important.”

“Winning a championship for the first time in 2011 with B.C. was special because I had never experienced that before. So, yeah, that was a big deal. Every year you pack your stuff up and put it into a garbage bag and say, ‘Well, maybe next year.’ That was the first year I didn’t have to do that.

“It was the same feeling in 2019 when we did it again with the Bombers. There’s nothing better than that feeling after putting so much hard work into it. That first time being a champion is so special and then this time around it was almost even more so. There was so much meaning to this one for the entire community.

“The playoff games stand out because they are the most exciting and there’s so much at stake. That’s why you remember them the most because everything is so much more important. Making plays in those games is more important than anything you’ve done in the regular season. Yes, you’ve had to make plays to get to the playoffs, but the regular season is a means to an end. Then it really matters.

“I look back at 2019 and, man, every playoff game in its own way, had things that stick out and you remember. That whole run was so special.”