O’Shea signed, sealed and ready to deliver more wins By: Mike McIntyre Posted: 12:34 PM CST Friday, Dec. 9, 2022

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This article was published 08/12/2022 (650 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mike O’Shea is not about to start taking any victory laps, even though his impressive resume certainly would entitle him to do so.

Rather, the two-time Grey Cup champion head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers — fresh off signing a three-year contract extension — says there’s plenty of unfinished business.

“I don’t think we’re done yet,” O’Shea said Friday morning as he met the media at IG Field.

“I think that the group that we have here, now there’s always additions and subtractions every single year, it’s pro sport, but the group we’ve assembled, the group that’s all thinking the same way, believe that we’ve got a lot of legs left in this so it would be fun to be a part of.”

The Bombers have gone 82-58 since O’Shea took the reins eight seasons ago. He’s currently the CFL’s longest-serving head coach, and, with three more years in Winnipeg, has a legitimate chance to become the franchise’s all-time leader in career coaching wins. Bud Grant (102) and Cal Murphy (86) are the only names ahead of him on the list.

“It’s a great day in Bomber history,” said president and CEO Wade Miller.

“What he brings to the organization, we all see what that is in terms of where we’ve come from and the continuing success we’ve had. We talk about building a winning, sustainable organization and Mike O’Shea is a key part to that in what he’s built and the leadership he brings to the organization and the culture he’s built here. You hear it from the players, you hear it from everybody involved.

Winnipeg came up painfully short last month in their bid to win a third consecutive championship, falling by a single point to Toronto. But the future remains bright, with O’Shea joining several core players in extending their stay in Winnipeg.

“I don’t spend a lot of time being prideful. Certainly don’t want to become complacent,” O’Shea said of his mindset.

“There’s a large group in this building that believes this team’s got a lot of legs left. No time to look back now. Once again thankful that it’s been this long of a ride so far, but not going to put a ceiling on it.”

Despite being in fairly rare air when it comes to on-field success, O’Shea insisted he’s not focused on what his legacy might be.

“There’s guys that spend their careers worrying about their legacy. I think that’s ass-backwards. You work hard every day and then somewhere down the road somebody else tells you what that is,” said O’Shea.

“Somebody else decides that. The only thing you can decide is how hard you’re going to work every day and the decisions you make that day.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg

Mike McIntyre
Sports columnist

Mike McIntyre grew up wanting to be a professional wrestler. But when that dream fizzled, he put all his brawn into becoming a professional writer.

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