Centre Picard happy to be Blue again, promises to play like he always has — hard

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This article was published 02/06/2015 (3778 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

He’s been called a lot of names, most of them uttered between curses and that can’t be repeated on these pages.

One did stick — “The Angry Frenchman” — and anyone who has ever lined up across the line of scrimmage from Dominic Picard will insist it absolutely, positively fits the 6-2, 310-pound product of Ste-Foy, Que.

Funny, then, to see Picard stepping in front of a row of cameras Monday at Winnipeg Blue Bombers training camp, shaking hands and introducing himself to reporters again with smiles and slaps on shoulders. During the course of a three-minute, 25-second scrum, he spoke over and over again how special it was to be back with the Bombers — the team that drafted him in 2006 — and of his excitement to be asked to play a key role with the club’s big eaters on the line of scrimmage.

And when it was done, he nodded respectfully to the group and thanked them.

So… “The Angry Frenchman?”

“That’s my personality on the field, not off it,” said Picard during a chat afterwards. “I want to be a winner. I AM a winner. That’s how I approach life. To be on that field is a privilege. I love and respect the game and I play on the edge because I feel that’s how it’s supposed to be played.

“I’ve had a lot happen to me in my life and so when I walk out here every day it means something to me. That’s why I have so much fight and passion.”

It was back in the fall of 2004 that Picard was diagnosed with testicular cancer. It was devastating news for a guy in the prime of his life and trying to catch the attention of pro scouts while playing for Laval. The fact he had already lost his father to cancer also opened up some emotional wounds.

A year and a half later after winning his fight with The Big C, Picard was in his first pro training camp with the Bombers.

“I will tell you right now, when I think about the Bombers and coming back here, the names that pop into my mind are Doug Brown and Milt Stegall,” said Picard. “Those two guys taught me how to become a pro. (Current Bomber offensive line coach) Bob Wylie was there then too, and he taught me so much. But when I think about players, I think about those two, Doug and Milt, and that’s what I’m trying to do now with these guys.”

Brown remembers Picard’s first camp. He remembers schooling him on one-on-ones, taking advantage of the rookie’s inexperience. And then he remembers how Picard responded.

“He’s one of those guys who always keeps score on everything from the game to those individual battles on the line of scrimmage,” Brown said Monday. “There’s really two sides to him. One is his ability as an agitator because he can really take your focus off your game to the point where you’re not thinking about your responsibilities as a defensive lineman. And when he is able to do that, he’s winning because you’re not worried about getting to the quarterback or the ball carrier, you’re looking over your shoulder when you’re around a pile because you just don’t know what he’s going to do. He’ll compliment you when you do beat him or say something at you in French and then throw in something like ‘Better watch your knees next time…’

“The other side,” added Brown, “is this: everybody gets beat on the field and some guys, if you get on them early, you could own them the entire game. But not Picard. He responds by changing his technique, doing something different or by doing something outside of the rules of play.”

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Brown laughs after that last sentence and that, in itself, is a big part of why Picard was so quickly scooped up by the Bombers this winter after the Saskatchewan Roughriders dumped him in a salary-cap move. Picard isn’t the most gifted technician at the line of scrimmage, but he is a tone setter. And his tone is this: don’t ever let up until the whistle blows. Even then, enemy D-linemen should keep their head on a swivel or else they’ll get drilled in the ear hole.

And if it’s true a football team gets its personality from the men in the trenches, then the Bombers could use a size-large helping of what Picard serves up on every play.

“When you play against me, you know what you get,” said Picard. “I’m intense. I wouldn’t call myself ‘nasty’, I’d call myself ‘up on the edge.’ That’s what I bring to this offensive unit and to this offensive line. That’s the way I’ve always played. That’s the way I’ll keep playing.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait