Enlarge Image

Michael Bishop brings experience and perspective -- plus a great arm -- to the Bombers. (KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES)

TORONTO -- No doubt there have been odder marriages and stranger relationships. Lyle Lovett and Julia Roberts, for example, instantly comes to mind. And Anna Nicole Smith and the 80-year-old oil billionaire would certainly have to be remembered as, well, strange.

All of which brings us to this sudden Michael Bishop-Winnipeg Blue Bomber engagement, one that is to be showcased for the first time this afternoon at Rogers Centre against the Toronto Argonauts.

Call it a marriage of convenience -- 66 yards passing a week ago, that's a flick of Bishops' wrist -- or an act of complete desperation, but there are many across the Canadian Football League who believe this relationship might actually have some staying power.

Think about it for a moment... the Bomber offence has been so disgustingly awful the last two weeks every incompletion -- heck, every snap -- became not only a referendum on Mike Kelly's offence, but on the ability of Stefan LeFors to establish himself as a bona fide starter.

And so as favourable working environments go, that's a little like taking correspondence heart surgery and then being handed a scalpel in an emergency room.

Enter Bishop, dusted off after being cut loose by the Saskatchewan Roughriders last November and goofing around with some outfit called the Corpus Christi Hammerheads of the Indoor Football League. He's 33, 15-5 in his last 20 starts with the Argos and Roughriders, and a guy who has clearly established what he can do in this game: Fit in with teammates instantly and throw it deep and hard.

A quick fix? A Band-Aid? Yeah, probably. But Kelly & Co., desperate to jump-start a stagnant passing attack, are hopeful it's the right fix that can temporarily cover up some icky wounds.

"Right now he gives us a chance to do something, because the more I watch that tape from last week the more frustrated I become. We didn't get things done," Kelly said Friday after his pre-game press conference.

"The things that made Milt Stegall famous... he would have had a field day out there last week because of his experience. He would have seen some things and read them.

"It was tough sitting Stef down. I still believe in Stef. I think he can play.

"But things are the way they are and things had to be done. Ultimately it's my responsibility and you have to put those things aside and try to make it different."

And so the Bombers turn to a journeyman, a guy who starred at Kansas State, was a Heisman Trophy runner-up, shared a locker-room with Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, was once called the 'Michael Vick of the Arena League' -- for his skills, he's never been to a dog fight -- and has helped lead two CFL teams to the playoffs.

It's not just a rifle arm that Bishop brings to the huddle, then, but perspective.

After all, he wasn't exactly perched by the phone waiting for it to ring.

In fact, he already had two job opportunities staring him in the face -- one the chance to coach quarterbacks at his old high school, the other the chance to coach both football and baseball at a private school in Texas.

But these chances to extend a career eventually do dry up completely. And so when the Bombers beckoned, Bishop didn't balk.

"Once you get older you understand how to handle all the ups and downs better, how to brush things off your shoulder and keep moving forward," Bishop said Friday. "A lot of the young guys... it takes them four-five years to understand that. Once you understand that, it's like a walk in the park. If something bad happens you deal with it and move on. You don't let it linger on and affect the kind of person you want to be in life.

"Football is extra. It's like a gift. There's other things for me besides football. I wake up every morning and live life to the fullest. Look, any time you get another opportunity to play this game, it's always good. One door closes and another opens. I'm blessed for the opportunity, but if football was to end, I would still be good.

"Once anybody who plays the game reaches this level they understand what it really means. Football is just a game. If you can walk away from the game healthy and go home to family that loves you regardless of whether you win a championship or lose in the final... that's life. That's important."

A team desperate for any kind of offensive production hands the ball to a quarterback with nothing left to prove and zero to lose. A match made in heaven? Stay tuned.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 1, 2009 D1