“Winnipeg is a very close place to my heart.”

Alden Darby, Jr. had already been met at IG Field by Brandon Alexander upon his arrival late Tuesday. He had already been razzed by teammates for being one minute late to meetings Wednesday morning – and for the egregious error of not bringing donuts.

And he had already shadowed the starting secondary for a spell, bouncing around and reacting like a man well versed in the Winnipeg Blue Bombers defence.

Yet it was what Darby, Jr. did next, after the team stretch period and just prior to the official start of the session, that spoke volumes of his excitement of being back in Winnipeg: he went to every player on the field – those he knew already and all the new faces – and did the bro hug/back slap thing.

“My thing is, I just want to play football,” Darby, Jr. would later explain to a media throng after practice. “That’s my biggest thing. Winnipeg is a very close place to my heart. The guys on this team… there’s probably not a day that’s gone by since I left that I haven’t talked to the guys here because they’re family and I built a serious bond/relationship with all the guys on this field and in this organization. It’s surreal.”

Darby, Jr. had been frustrated with the decrease in his role in Hamilton – he had dressed for 10 games this year but made only one start in the last eight – but was soldiering on and preparing for another practice when he was told of the trade.

“It’s tough because I haven’t been out there as much as I wanted to and it wasn’t anything, to my knowledge, that I did wrong,” he said. “It was just… I still don’t know what to call it. I’m blessed that I’m healthy, that my body’s still fully 100 percent. And like I was telling BA (Brandon Alexander) last night at the hotel, there were some days I wanted to be really sad and really down about not being out there and not playing but then I would think about those people who are back home and not even in a locker room. Sometimes you hear those types of things and it’s so cliché, but it’s the truth – you’ve always got to find the blessings in things. At least I’m still here collecting cheques, I’m still able to put on a uniform and I’m still able to run around and I’m healthy. Even the guy on the team that’s not healthy and imagine how he would feel just to be healthy. So, every time I would get down and sad about not playing, I would revert to that – I have a uniform, I’m still making money, my body’s healthy, my mind is good, so it’s a blessing.”

As thrilled as Darby, Jr. is about his return, the Blue Bombers are just as ecstatic to add a veteran presence to a secondary without starters Demerio Houston and Nick Taylor.

“He’s got the ability to play all positions,” said defensive coordinator Richie Hall. “He’s smart, he communicates, and I think the biggest thing is he’s been successful in this league, but he also understands. He’s a communicator. It’s like having another coach out on the field. He’s been in our system, so he understands what we do.”

It’s also important to point out that the addition of Darby, Jr. – along with Desmond Lawrence, who was also scooped up from Hamilton after his release on the weekend – isn’t an indictment of the work of rookies Jamal Parker and Evan Holm.

“No, no… not at all,” said defensive back coach Jordan Younger. “It’s about having options. We were at the point where we were limited with the options we had.

“You’d like to have as many bullets as you can shoot – that’s what you’d like to have at the end of the season/playoff time. Having these guys with that talent level and that understanding of the CFL game just gives us more options as far as how to strategize against our opponent.”

Darby, Jr. was asked at the end of his media session if it was flattering to be twice traded for by the Blue Bombers.

He grinned and then said: “I mean, yeah, that’s pretty dope. Now let’s go back and do what happened last year when I got traded and win another Grey Cup.”

HIGH PRAISE:

One more from Darby, Jr. on his good friend, B.A., and the influence the Blue Bombers safety had on him last year here in Winnipeg.

“I love that dude. He’s amazing,” Darby, Jr. said. “It’s just his story and his perseverance. I was telling him in the car how you look at teams and you wonder why some guys rally around guys more than certain players. I told B.A. there were so many times during the year last year where I would be tired or think I’m tired and I’d look over and see B.A. and without even knowing or talking to him I’d know he’s about to go 100 miles per hour every single play. So, how can I be tired? How can I not be balls to the wall when I know what B.A.’s going to be giving?”

MORE DB HELP:

As mentioned above, the Blue Bombers have also brought aboard Desmond Lawrence (6-1, 185, North Carolina) – who played in 15 games over the last two years with the Ticats and was the club’s Most Outstanding Rookie last season.

“Good ball player. Experienced,” said Hall, the Blue Bombers defensive coordinator. “I don’t know what happened over there but when you look at it, it gives us an opportunity to provide depth. He’s a young guy, but he’s had experience playing, so it’s not like we’re trying to teach him the game – he understands the game. It’s just a matter of him familiarizing himself with our terminology. It makes us a better football team. It was a surprise. One man’s misfortune is another man’s opportunity and that’s an opportunity for us.”

SALUTED… AGAIN:

One day after Zach Collaros and Nic Demski were honoured as CFL Top Performers for their work in the win over Saskatchewan they were again recognized as the league’s Players of the Month for September.

Collaros completed 67.6 percent of his passes for 1,125 yards and 12 TDs in four games, while Demski had 346 yards from scrimmage and six TDs.

Owe it to my teammates ✊🏽‼️ #ForTheW https://t.co/8dY3kU3yfL

— Nic Demski (@Demski9) October 5, 2022

FYI:

Willie Jefferson was not at practice on Wednesday but should be good to go on Saturday vs. Edmonton. CB Jamal Parker was back at work after missing Tuesday’s session.

• O’Shea on his faith in kicker Marc Liegghio – at the trade deadline last year the club had acquired Sergio Castillo: “You just look at the numbers (Liegghio has an 87.5 field goal percentage). The numbers are completely different compared to what they were last year when we made that deal. They speak for themselves. We’re in a much different spot than we were last year.”
• The CFL announced Wednesday that DT Ricky Walker has been fined for an illegal block on Riders OL Terran Vaughn.
• DC Richie Hall on Donald Rutledge, Jr. being replaced by Redha Kramdi last week: “He’s done a good job. One of the conversations I had with Rut is sometimes as a young player you hit the wall. We’ve played 15 games so far, plus two pre-season games, that’s almost two college seasons. It’s just long. It’s a grind and until you go through the grind you don’t know it.
  “We gave him the opportunity to sit back and just observe things from a different perspective. I’m not concerned regarding him. He’s got 15 games experience as far as playing with us and he’s going to be OK. It’s one of those that you don’t experience until you go through it. We talk about it and we talk about it, but until you physically go through it you don’t know.”