The magic is in Bombers’ magnificent culture; the moment is inevitable Unshakable bond, trust, commitment between Mike O’Shea and his players has Blue & Gold headed to rarefied sports championship territory in Sunday’s Grey Cup By: Mike McIntyre Posted: 7:00 PM CST Friday, Nov. 18, 2022

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/11/2022 (725 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Incredible. Monumental. Historical.

It’s hard to keep finding the words to describe what the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have accomplished over the past few years. Capturing one championship is difficult enough, a feat the majority of professional football players fall short of. Two? That’s truly something special. Three? You’re in elite company, breathing rarefied air.

Now imagine those triumphs aren’t scattered over a long career, but in consecutive seasons. That is the stuff of dreams. Of dynasties. And the Blue & Gold are knocking on the door, with just the Toronto Argonauts standing in their way of a third-straight Grey Cup Sunday in Regina.

To get some additional perspective on just how magical this recent journey has been, I called upon a couple of experts in the field. Bob Cameron has three rings, won over his 23-year career in Winnipeg (1980-2002). Joe Poplawski managed to get to the promised land once during his nine-year tenure catching balls for the Blue Bombers (1978-86).

Both are members of the organization’s Ring of Honour. Both had difficulty coming up with a way to describe this recent run.

“Unbelievable,” said Cameron, who remains the Canadian Football League’s all-time leading punter, who took my call while in middle of jogging up a hill in Arizona, where he’s on vacation.

“You know, with the way free-agency is now, players can go anywhere they want, so many one-year contracts, it’s absolutely amazing and a testament to the coaching staff and management and players. You just don’t have people staying in one place like we’re seeing happening with this team, which is totally amazing.”

Poplawski’s auspicious CFL debut in 1978 — he was named Most Outstanding Rookie — happened to be the year Edmonton won its first of five straight Grey Cups. They’re the last team to win three consecutive championships, and the two they added in ’81 and ’82 for good measure, cemented their place in the record books. Now, exactly 40 years later, Poplawski is watching the Blue Bombers take a run at that kind of legacy.

“I look at it from the other side. We had a pretty competitive team in Winnipeg during those years, as well,” he said. “We were probably, for three of those five years, the second-best team in the CFL. Every time we’d play the Eskimos, you’d be more ramped up. You were trying to compete against the best.

“You know, with the way free-agency is now, players can go anywhere they want, so many one-year contracts, it’s absolutely amazing and a testament to the coaching staff and management and players. You just don’t have people staying in one place like we’re seeing happening with this team, which is totally amazing.”–Bob Cameron

“So, now, when you look at it from the Bombers’ perspective, going for No. 3, it really is incredible.”

Both Cameron and Poplawski said it’s all about the Mike O’Shea way. The culture he’s built is the type every professional sports team strives for, but few actually achieve. Players not only want to compete for him. They will do everything they can to win for him.

“O’Shea is, no doubt, the leader, and the team, the players, follow suit,” said Poplawski. The result is that stars including Zach Collaros, Adam Bighill and Willie Jefferson, who are not only as skilled as any at what they do, but de facto player-coaches as well, who won’t allow for any of their teammates to get comfortable or complacent.

That accountability is palpable, and truly stands out from the pack. Where others might be satisfied with past successes, that’s certainly not the case with the Blue Bombers. How did they respond this year to the massive target on their backs coming off two straight Grey Cup victories? By stringing together the greatest regular season in franchise history with a 15-3 record, and then taking care of business in the West Division Final a week ago against the No. 2 team in the league.

“I’m blown away,” Cameron told me. “When you get to playoffs and championship games, there’s usually not a whole lot of difference between teams. But I just think, in Winnipeg, they’ve got the right players. And it all starts with Mike O’Shea.”

Cameron shared a conversation he had with O’Shea when he first took the coaching job back in 2013. The Bombers were a mess, both on and off the field, and there wasn’t going to be a quick or painless fix to the many problems plaguing the organization. A few more tough years would follow, with plenty of chatter around here about whether the new regime was just more of the same old, same old.

“I remember him telling me ‘We’re going to do this right. And we’re going to go with good people, that I can trust on the football field.’ I was thinking, ‘OK, that’s all good that he can talk like that,’” said Cameron, who admits he was rather skeptical. “But then he did it. He did it his way. I’ve been to a few dinners with them. They’re just a bunch of really good people. And a lot of your personality as a team comes from your head coach. To me, that’s the key.”

“O’Shea is, no doubt, the leader, and the team, the players, follow suit.”– Joe Poplawski

The buck doesn’t stop there, of course. From club president Wade Miller to general manager Kyle Walters, the brass has given O’Shea the necessary tools to succeed. And the players have responded in kind, swallowing some pride (along with some money, at times) to ensure as much of the core remains together to keep the good times rolling.

“Just go up and down the line and boy, there are just a lot of very smart people doing the right thing,” said Cameron. “And I don’t think you can downplay the confidence factor of being a Grey Cup champion, and knowing in the big games that you’ve come through in the past. That just gives you a hell of a lot of confidence to win it again.”

Throw in a loyal, knowledgeable fan base here in Manitoba, one Cameron and Poplawski see up close as Winnipeg residents, and you have the recipe for sustained success.

“I can reflect now to the ’84 Grey Cup team and the fact that we were 22 years without a Grey Cup in this city at the time. And what it meant to the city, the celebrations in the streets, attendance at the stadium and everything,” said Poplawski.

“And you can once again take a look at the flagship in the CFL, which is the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. They have a special culture. There’s no doubt about it. It’s spoken about amongst the players. It’s something everyone wants to duplicate. The Bombers, they are the cream of the crop. Everybody wants a piece of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Everyone wants to be just like the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.”

Incredible. Monumental. Historical. And, allow me to add one more word: Inevitable.

This group is too talented, too structured, too disciplined, too well-managed and too well-coached to let this golden opportunity slip through its hands. I expect the Bombers to come up big once again Sunday, and leave us scrambling to find the words once again.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg