Brown’s earned triumphant exit

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This article was published 21/10/2011 (5157 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Doug Brown has known nothing but disappointment when the football season ends in Winnipeg.

And so it seemed earlier this season, when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were 7-1 and talk of the first Grey Cup championship in these parts in 21 years was running rampant, that there was perhaps finally some karma coming into play in what is Brown’s 11th and final season as a Bomber.

In a career in which he has done just about everything a football player can do on a field, the one thing the veteran Bombers defensive tackle hasn’t done is win a Grey Cup. The Hollywood ending, of course, would be for Brown to finally end that skid this season and then gracefully slide into his planned retirement on top as a champion.

But a 2-5 mid-season skid has transformed that 7-1 record and stranglehold on first place in the East to a 9-6 record and second place with all the momentum travelling the wrong direction as his club heads into a critical home game Saturday against division rival Montreal.

Put it altogether and it would be hard to blame Brown if he was getting that familiar old feeling of ‘here we go again.’

Not so, says Brown.

“Not with this team, not at all,” Brown said Thursday. “The ripples we’ve faced with this team this season in going from 7-1 to 9-6 are nothing compared to the challenges we’ve faced on other teams since I’ve been here, including last year where we lost so many close games in every way you can imagine.

“Going through all that just really strengthened the character and bond in this group. I think we’re definitely capable of putting our disappointments behind us and moving forward this weekend.”

Bombers centre Obby Khan, who’s played the last six seasons with Brown, said there is the same feeling in the Bombers locker-room this season as there was a couple years in ago when now Hall of Fame receiver Milt Stegall was retiring.

“It brings back all those memories of Milt Stegall. We really wanted to win it for Milt and of course we came up just short in ’07 (when the Bombers lost the Grey Cup to Saskatchewan). And now this year, we want Doug to win it.

“You know, I train with him year-round and I see how hard he works and how much he has invested in this team and this community. It just really makes you want to win it. And I still think we can do something very special this year.”

The Bombers could take a giant step towards that goal with a win over Montreal. A victory would put the Bombers back in control of first place in the East division — and the bye to the East final that comes with it — heading into the last two games of the regular season, while a Bombers loss would clinch Montreal their 10th East division championship in the last 13 seasons.

The stakes are huge and could not be more clear, and starting quarterback Buck Pierce says it would not just be Brown who would be redeemed by a long-awaited Grey Cup for Winnipeg this season.

“You’d love to win for a lot of people who came through here for the last 20 years,” said Pierce. “Doug is a guy who’s stuck around here and really exemplifies everything we’re about in this organization.

“He’s a leader and I’d love to get him one this year.”

Whatever happens over the next month or so, Brown says he remains resolved that his 11th season in Winnipeg will also be his last.

“Absolutely. No question.”

And so with that, the only question still to be answered is whether the ending turns out to be a dream or just another nightmare.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca