Our new Bombers up to same old tricks

"Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing."-- football coach Vince Lombardi

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers haven't won the Grey Cup since 1990.

In so doing -- or not doing -- they have become the Toronto Maple Leafs of the Canadian Football League.

Still, I had high hopes for the new season, for the new Bombers under their new coach.

But not after their televised first regular-season game last Thursday in Edmonton.

A season opener that, to me, looked like a season closer for the Bomber hopeful.

To me, it looked like déjà Blue.

All over again.

I know, the season's only one game old, but, alas, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers seem up to their old ways.

We have yet another messy public feud happening between a veteran player and a head coach.

Different player -- Derick Armstrong instead of Troy Westwood -- and coach -- Mike Kelly instead of Doug Berry.

Same old disruptive outcome.

We have a good defence that looks like it could be the team's best offence. I mean, the Bombers' defence looks capable of producing touchdowns every game, which is more than I expect from the offence.

And, of course, we have another disappointing season-opening loss -- this time, 19-17 to the Edmonton Eskimos.

I'm not sure exactly when I first got that déjà Blue feeling.

It could have been when the Bombers' offence -- at the direction of its rookie head coach -- chose to purposely score on themselves.

The conceded safety -- which made the score 2-2 with little more than two minutes left in the first half -- was a strategic decision that not only surrendered the lead but led to the Eskimos' first touchdown with 24 seconds left in the second quarter.

No, it wasn't giving up two points that got to me.

It was the fact that the only two points the Bombers got in the first half weren't really earned. They were similarly gift-wrapped by the Eskimos.

Actually, now that I think about it, the brutal Bomber offence wasn't even what bothered me most, because, well, one gets used to that as a Bomber fan.

What really got to me was the feeling that I was watching an inter-squad game, not a Canadian Football League regular-season opener.

I know there are some players -- and even coach Kelly -- who were with the Eskimos last year and some former Bombers who are with the Eskimos.

The most high-profile former Eskimo is Bomber quarterback Stefan LeFors, and it showed on one play when the new starter gave an Edmonton defensive player a big smile after a play and the Edmonton player gave him a pat on the back.

Save it for after the game, boys.

It's all a little too cosy for my liking and it suggests a lack of focus.

In my brief and inglorious time in pro sports I was taught not to fraternize with the other team.

Hating them was OK, though.

Maybe it's just me, but at one point when the Bombers went into their no-huddle, hurry-up offence it looked more like a no-offence, hurry-up cuddle.

I called Mitch Zalnasky, the former Bomber who does colour commentary for CJOB's Bomber coverage and he didn't see it quite the same way.

He was too gentlemanly to say that I'm an old fool for being old-school, but he did say that the way I was taught to look at the other team is long gone.

Trash talk notwithstanding.

In the CFL, he suggested, it began leaving as soon as free agency arrived, which meant players were moving from team to team and friendships developed between teammates who eventually play for rival teams.

Yet oddly last season -- and I think this was and maybe still is part of the Bombers' problem -- I didn't get the feeling there was a lot of love between players on the same team.

The team's togetherness just didn't seem to be there.

I didn't ask Zalnasky if he agreed with me on that.

Zalnasky did agree with me on one thing, though: The Bombers, as they stand, are one of the bottom three teams in the league, right down there with Hamilton and, yes, Edmonton.

And six of the team's first nine games are on the road.

He thinks it'll be a different team come October.

But in the meantime...

"It could be a long summer," Zalnasky predicts.

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 7, 2009 B1