Winnipeg Blue Bombers #8 Zach Collaros at practice November 14, 2019.
Given the last 16 months – including the cancellation of the 2020 Canadian Football League season – Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea is simply ecstatic his team will have the chance to repeat as Grey Cup champions.
And if that is a narrative that will be subsequently beaten to a pulp all season all the way to the Grey Cup in December, well, he’s OK with that, too.
“(The topic of trying to repeat) is going to be addressed,” O’Shea said in a Zoom call with the national media on Monday. “I mean, I’m not going to get my shorts in a knot if the media uses those phrases and asks the question of a player and the player responds with those phrases back. But the fact although we’re going to have a lot of guys coming back and our team, especially our offensive side, is still fairly intact, there’s still going to be a lot of guys on the team that haven’t won anything.
“The idea every year is to go out and win a championship, right? It’s not where it falls in the line of championships or anything like that. I don’t think the Eskimos were talking about winning five in a row (from 1978-82), they were talking about winning one because teams change and so the messaging has to change, too.”
Much of the topics O’Shea, GM Kyle Walters and quarterback Zach Collaros had previously been addressed/discussed in Blue Bombers-sponsored media availabilities this month.
But here are a few other nuggets that came from Monday’s chat…
Walters, when asked about what percentage of Blue Bombers players have been vaccinated with the July 10th opening of training camp fast approaching:
“We’re going to keep that to ourselves. Our medical team tracks that and in the spirit of privacy, and it’s a sensitive fine line where the union is trying to protect a player’s privacy and the clubs are getting them as much information as they can. It is an individual choice. It’s not going to be public knowledge but we are spending the time and educating the players and letting them make their decision based on all the information we can find for them.”
Collaros, on the benefits of having a full training camp after arriving at the trade deadline in October of 2019:
“Just being off for so long, just getting the opportunity to compete is what I’m really looking forward to – whether it’s throwing the ball into a net, doing the conditioning things after practice, 7 on 7… we’re all just craving that competitiveness. I think it’s going to be a great camp, lots of energy. I’m not sure how we’re going to have to split things up with the social distancing and all that but, man, I’m just excited to get out there.
“Just being able to spend more time with the guys, being around that locker room will be very valuable moving forward. Again it was four or five weeks (in 2019) and I felt like I had been there a long time. That speaks to the organization and the leadership we have there and the guys in the locker room.”
Collaros, when asked how the end of 2019 helped rejuvenate him and then the impact of not playing in 2020:
“Being able to join the Bombers organization and play the last four games there definitely rejuvenated my career in everybody’s eyes and even for me it was a boost of confidence. It was like, ‘OK, I can still do this.’ It’s not that I ever doubted myself, but when you don’t play it’s different.
“… when you look back at it, it was really a cool year of football because I got to be around of amazing football minds. I definitely learned a lot for maybe my next step after I’m done playing and also little nuggets and tidbits of things I can use to try and become a better leader for our room.”
Walters on discussions on a controlled scrimmage with the Saskatchewan Roughriders – tentatively scheduled for July 24th, but since scrapped:
“When the schedule came out and with no preseason games Jeremy (O’Day, Roughriders GM) and myself and Mike and Dickie (Riders head coach Craig Dickenson) talked about it makes perfect sense to investigate a scrimmage and throw some ideas around if it was a possibility. It was discussed, but ultimately it was not approved by the CFL medical team.
“We did discuss it, unfortunately it was not able to come to fruition. We’ll just follow what the medical guys tell us to do.”
