Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
For some players, more than a playoff spot on the line
Five days from now, your Winnipeg Blue Bombers will either begin the process of hosting the first round of the Eastern division playoffs, or they will be handing out Glad garbage bags to one another as they clean out their lockers to signify the end of the 2009 season.
As much pressure as a win-or-go-home scenario presents to a football club, players are playing for much more than just a playoff berth and the continuation of the 2009 year when the regular season wraps up at home this Sunday afternoon against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
We have all heard the saying in football that "you are only as good as your last game," which makes most of us not very good football players right now after our performance in Montreal. But in the bigger picture, this game, win lose or draw, could very well be the final imprint the athletes on this team get to leave in the mind of the fans, the coaches, the managers and executives across the CFL.
Of course if you win, you live to play another day and demonstrate and showcase your skills and worth to the purveyors on a week-by-week survival basis. But if things don't work out, what you display on the field this Sunday can be the last impression you leave in the minds of the decision makers over the next seven months.
They say that first impressions are all that many people use these days to judge and determine the futures of individuals. Well, in professional football, the first impression for this team and its players came in the first regular-season game on July 2 in Edmonton. Like it or not, the chances of that game being referenced or mentioned when discussions inevitably begin in the off-season about the roster composition are somewhere between slim and none -- it's the last impression that sears the block of memory in everyone's minds.
At this point, no one cares how you played in the first contest or first home game or first half of the year (well they do -- but to a lesser a extent). It's all about whether you have evolved, persisted or improved as the season went on and the games became more and more meaningful, and the obstacles like injuries and adversity piled up. Whereas games earlier in the year can obviously impact the standings and your playoff chances and pad your stats for the long haul, nothing was ever won in professional football in the first two thirds of the season.
It has been my experience that coaches want players on their teams that can overcome everything that the marathon CFL season can throw at them. They don't want players whose production tails off as they wear down and the games get more and more meaningful to the franchise. Because at this point after 17 regular season games, two pre-season contests, training camp and an intrasquad scrimmage, we all either become the guy that is beaten up and hanging on by the thread of our medications, or the one who fights through it and takes advantage of those who are less resilient and less physically prepared than they are.
At this point in the year, if you have been playing consistently, there is something wrong with you physically. It may be tendonitis, or "a bruise on top of a bruise on top of a bruise," to quote Glenn January, or something completely out of your control like a torn knee.
If you are at 100 per cent in Week 18 you have not been playing football for the past 17. Injuries are out of the control of athletes in terms of timing and severity, but if you are well enough to play and be captured on film, be sure that no one -- save for yourself -- will remember under what duress or impediments you were operating when it is reviewed.
Whether Sunday proves to be the last game of the year is a variable that needs to motivate this team exponentially more than the group that is traveling here that has already made it to the post-season. But just as important, recognizing that your performance on this day may be the final reference on the resume of your continuing football career should incite all of us to even higher and more desperate levels. Playing under the weight of these realities and pressures at this time of the year is what makes football fun. Often, when someone threatens to take everything away from you, only then do you realize just how much you love it.
Doug Brown, always a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears Tuesdays in the Free Press.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 3, 2009 C3
-
WFP Hockey
Download our new hockey app for the iPhone for Winnipeg Jets updates
-
Editor's Bulletin
Sign up for daily bulletins from editor Margo Goodhand
-
Winnipeg Jets
All things NHL on our Jets landing page
-
Twitter
Follow our reporters and our news feeds on Twitter
-
News Cafe
Check out the menu, read our blog posts or get info on coming events
-
Facebook Fanpage
Follow our Facebook Fanpage for story links, contests and special events
Ads by Google
- Back to Top
- Return to Sports
Poll
Most Popular
- Piers Morgan blasts 'gruesome' Madonna
- RCMP receptionist told Stobbe wife was dead
- Search is on for man seen leaving the scene where two Alberta Mounties were shot
- City family donates $1 million for endowed research chair in cardiology
- Province rules out reports of cougar in Transcona
- Census 2011 : Immigrant influx boosts Manitoban population
- Should the federal government be spending $7.5 million on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee?
- Slain woman appears before jury on video
- CNN's Roland Martin suspended for comments that sparked protest by gays
- Driver of van in Ontario crash that killed 11 ran stop sign, police say
- Piers Morgan blasts 'gruesome' Madonna
- Clothing chain pulls Caterpillar boots to protest closure of London, Ont., plant
- Three winning tickets sold for Friday's $50 million Lotto Max jackpot
- Woman sexually assaulted during noon-hour in Exchange District
- Woman's car stolen at gunpoint at St. Vital mall, police say
- Eleven people killed after truck hits van in southwestern Ontario
- 'This is so silly': Mom and Dad tell story of baby Zade, born on side of Highway 59
- Stobbe said slaying during shopping trip 'strange': sister-in-law
- Tactical squad storms St. Vital house
- Restaurant Dubrovnik may be closed for good
- Do you smoke marijuana?
- Driver dead after SUV goes over Disraeli Bridge
- George Clooney's prank could end Pitt's career
- Piers Morgan blasts 'gruesome' Madonna
- Tina Maze strips down to her sports bra to send out underwear message: 'Not your business'
- Clothing chain pulls Caterpillar boots to protest closure of London, Ont., plant
- Minor earthquake strikes near Manitoba
- Car's plunge off Disraeli fatal
- Two children, two women die in fire
- Kate Beckinsale's weight fears over Underworld catsuit
- Harper driven by libertarian ideology, not reality
- Province rules out reports of cougar in Transcona
- OMG! Candy kings back at it
- Task force to review 2011 flood
- Winnipeg software company ranked top employer
- Tassimo brewers and espresso packages recalled amid rupture, burn concerns
- Lesson about war, power told with Shaw's comic touch
- Stobbe said slaying during shopping trip 'strange': sister-in-law
- Easy, economical, healthy soup
- Original Joe's, Elephant & Castle expanding
- Swedish bunny's sheep herding skills becomes click-monster on YouTube
- League encourages hazing secrecy
- Northern fishing lodge destroyed by fire
- Police target drivers talking on cellphones, texting
- Harper driven by libertarian ideology, not reality
- Obama torn by conflicting allies
- 'This is so silly': Mom and Dad tell story of baby Zade, born on side of Highway 59
- Time, it appears, is on Assad's side
- Minor earthquake strikes near Manitoba
- Woman's car stolen at gunpoint at St. Vital mall, police say
- Minor earthquake strikes near Manitoba
- Paddler Starkell was modern-day voyageur
- Driver dead after SUV goes over Disraeli Bridge
- Car's plunge off Disraeli fatal
- Canadian woman 'badly injured' in Mexico, local media report apparent beating
- Winnipeg mother watches as car stolen with child inside
- Swedish bunny's sheep herding skills becomes click-monster on YouTube
- League encourages hazing secrecy
- Local shooting spoofed on SNL
- The cost of calories: It's expensive to eat healthily


You can comment on most stories on winnipegfreepress.com. You can also agree or disagree with other comments. All you need to do is register and/or login and you can join the conversation and give your feedback.
The Winnipeg Free Press does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comment, you agree to our Terms and Conditions. These terms were revised effective April 16, 2010; View the changes. New to commenting? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions.