It never quite looks right – at least, from this perch – when a player who has risen to fame in one uniform is then showcased pulling on another.
My examples: I think Joe Montana in K.C. Chiefs colours, Wayne Gretzky in a St. Louis Blues jersey, first seeing Dale Hawerchuk in a Buffalo Sabres uniform or – to bring it even closer to home – Charles Roberts in B.C. Lions linen at the end of his career.
More recently, there was Bo Levi Mitchell earlier this week trading in his Calgary Stampeders red and white for the black and yellow of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in what is unquestionably the biggest transaction of the Canadian Football League offseason so far.
Technically, Mitchell was sporting the Ticats alternate look as he met with the media in Steeltown wearing a gray ball cap featuring a big ‘H’, but it was still somewhat startling, even if it was expected given the Ticats acquired his rights in November for the opportunity to negotiate exclusively before CFL free agency.
And just like that, one of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ biggest nemeses is no longer in the West Division.
It’s worth pointing out here that Mitchell’s first game with his new squad will be the Blue Bombers’ home opener on Friday, June 9th, but the narrative certainly changes now that he is no longer leading a division rival.
Fans in these parts grew to love to hate Mitchell over his years in Calgary, with much of that vitriol fuelled by the fact he held a 12-5 career record against the Blue Bombers. It began with his first start, back July 26, 2013, right here in Winnipeg and with Kevin Glenn and Drew Tate both injured. All Mitchell did in his debut was go 29-of-33 for 376 yards and three TDs while being named a CFL Player of the Week.
Mitchell regularly pummelled the Blue Bombers defence through to October of 2018 before his invincible armour began to show wear and tear. Winnipeg went 5-2 against Calgary in Mitchell’s last seven starts against the club, including the 2019 West Semi-Final when the club rallied for a win en route to ending the Grey Cup drought. In his last three starts against Winnipeg, all losses, he completed 51.1 per cent of his passes for 522 yards with two TDs and four interceptions.
All of this isn’t an attempt to knock Mitchell whatsoever. He’s consistently won in this league, did consistently beat the Blue Bombers, and was the face of the Stampeders and all their winning for a decade. It’s just going to look different when he leads the Ticats out of the tunnel at IG Field in June.
More notes and quotes as we roll out the latest edition of 1st & 10…
1. We’ve already hammered this drum a few times lately, here’s one more beat: with Mitchell signing in Hamilton consider how the QB landscape has changed in the West Division in less than a calendar year.
- Most Outstanding Canadian and rising star Nathan Rourke has signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Vernon Adams, Jr. will now lead the B.C. Lions.
- The Edmonton Elks have hitched their wagon to Taylor Cornelius, who became their starter after Nick Arbuckle and Tre Ford had their shots behind centre through the first five weeks last year.
- Jake Maier replaced Mitchell in Calgary last season, prompting the Stamps to move his rights to Hamilton.
- And Saskatchewan, rumoured to be a destination for Mitchell if he had hit the market, may now look at Dane Evans if he is dumped by the Ticats or, possibly, Trevor Harris or McLeod Bethel-Thompson if that veteran pair isn’t re-signed in Montreal or Toronto, respectively, or circle back to Cody Fajardo.
2. One more on this, just to cement a point… Here are the career records of all those potential West Division starters in regular season starts against the Blue Bombers: Adams, Jr. (2-1), Cornelius (0-4), Maier (0-2), Evans (2-1), Harris (4-7), Bethel-Thompson (1-3) and Fajardo (2-6).
So, again, Bo had a 12-5 record and 79.4 winning percentage against the Blue Bombers. The rest, combined, are 11-24 for a winning percentage of 31.4.
3. The Blue Bombers continue to whittle away at their prospective free agent list in advance of the CFL market opening on February 14th. This week it was linebacker Shayne Gauthier and here’s the piece we did after chatting with him about his return.
4. Leftover from the Gauthier conversation and not included in the story above is one of the little things that make CFL players so real. I asked the veteran linebacker if he is a ‘big deal’ in his hometown of Dolbeau-Mistassini, a city of about 15,000 some 300 kilometres north of Quebec City. Well, turns out Gauthier does have fans there beyond friends and family.
“There are a huge amount of Bomber fans there,” he said with a chuckle.
The proof: last year Gauthier donated one of his jerseys and helmets to be sold at an auction through the Rotary Club. The sale raised $3,500 which was then used to help get equipment for kids in the area who couldn’t afford to play sports. Two scholarships have also been set up in his name at his high school, Polyvalente Jean-Dolbeau.
Gauthier hopes to crank up the fundraising efforts even further this spring with a cornhole tournament and other events to raise more money.
5. Gauthier joins a long list of players that have re-signed since the Grey Cup loss that includes Pat Neufeld, Willie Jefferson, Adam Bighill, Desmond Lawrence, Winston Rose, Mike Benson, Kyrie Wilson, Stanley Bryant, Jermarcus Hardrick, Jackson Jeffcoat and Mike Miller, along with the return of Tui Eli after a year away from the game.
6. A big question/concern from Bomber fans as we get closer to free agency is what’s happening with the receiving corps. As it stands, Nic Demski, Rasheed Bailey, Greg Ellingson and part-time receiver/ace returner Janarion Grant are all pending free agents. Couple that with the uncertainty regarding Dalton Schoen and the NFL – he has right up to the start of free agency on February 14th to sign down south – and that is a massive question mark right now for the club.
Schoen, Demski, Bailey and Ellingson finished first through fourth in receiving for the Blue Bombers last year, combining for 235 catches and a whopping 38 TDs.
The football operations guys are understandably keeping quiet leading into free agency and the legal ‘tampering window’ preceding it that allows for other CFL teams to make offers to players. Of note, the Blue Bombers were very busy in the days leading up to the market opening last year, re-signing Winston Rose, Bailey, Mercy Maston, Johnny Augustine, Nick Taylor and Brady Oliveira from Feb 1st right up to the deadline.
For those wondering, the Blue Bombers are certainly not alone among CFL teams with respect to receivers inching close to market. Check out the list from around the league here.
7. This for all the CFL draft picks out there… The CFL’s Scouting Bureau has released its Winter Edition of the Top 20 prospects eligible for the CFL Draft on May 2nd, topped by the Brown brothers – Chase, a running back and Sydney, a defensive back – both of Illinois.
8. Good read here on former Blue Bomber QB Zac Taylor, now the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals who has his club one win away from a second straight Super Bowl appearance.
Taylor, if you recall, joined the Blue Bombers in 2007 after starring at Nebraska and a stint with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He dressed for only one game for Winnipeg that year – the ’07 Grey Cup – after the unfortunate injury to Kevin Glenn in the East Final.
The Blue Bombers QB depth chart for that game featured Ryan Dinwiddie, making his first start, Kliff Kingsbury and Taylor. Dinwiddie is the coach of the Toronto Argonauts, Kingsbury was just let go by the Arizona Cardinals as their head coach and Taylor is the Bengals boss.
9. A plug for our latest ‘Handled Internally’ Blue Bombers podcast, featuring Chris Streveler of the New York Jets. Co-host Darren Cameron and I had a 43-minute chat with the former Blue Bombers QB, and he brought it in our chat.
A couple of highlights:
- Streveler on how he bounced from Miami to the Jets in late July and then put together a memorable preseason that landed him work in New York:
“It’s an absolute rollercoaster. The great thing for me is over this last year I’ve experienced so many sides of this business. The side where you’re getting cut, you’re getting cut, you can’t catch a break a year straight. And then the other side where you finally get an opportunity, and you take advantage of it and it presents more opportunities.
It’s been cool to see my role shift in the locker room a little bit just because there are some young guys on the P squad (practice squad) who are in that carousel of getting cut, or maybe rookies who are waiting for that opportunity and I can provide that insight, ‘Look, don’t get frustrated. Stay with your process, continue to work hard and I know it’s cliché, but an opportunity is going to come and when it comes you’ve got to be ready to take advantage of it because you don’t know when it’s going to happen.’ What happened to me is a perfect example of that.”
- And a fan asked in a write-in question through Twitter if Streveler still watches CFL games?
“I watch games all the time, especially the Bombers stuff. I try to stay as engaged with it as much as I can. Obviously, it gets a little harder once we start our season… I always tell people, ‘You’ve got to check out CFL football, man. It’s so fun to watch.’ My dad, even to this day, still watches all the games. He’ll be texting me about Hamilton playing Ottawa and he’s like, ‘Oh… you seeing Dane Evans out there?’ Dude, he loves it. I’ll be at his house, and he’ll turn on a CFL game and say, ‘I’m telling ya, this is more exciting than the NFL.’ I love it. He’s more dialled in than even I am.”
10. And, finally… a tip of the hat to former Blue Bombers receiver Arjei Franklin, who received a life-saving award this week – his second – while working as a constable for the Windsor Police.
Franklin was a third-round pick of the Blue Bombers in 2006 and played with the club through 2009 before being traded to Calgary. He was always a pro as a player and is clearly carrying that on with the police.
“Every time a police officer puts on the uniform and gets in their cruiser, they are prepared to take on whatever the situation presents,” Franklin told The Windsor Star. “My colleagues do courageous things every day and I see it on a regular basis. This was an opportunity for me to react based on my training.”
