Bombers should be motivated by job security

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This article was published 21/10/2015 (3952 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They are still chasing something meaningful here, these Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

The big picture for this franchise is that coveted playoff spot and the shot — however long it might be — to line up for a Grey Cup smack dab in their own backyard. Let’s face it, just getting an invitation to the playoff derby would help put the shine back on the franchise, even if it is short-lived.

They’ve been saying all the right things to that end this week. Looking forward, not what’s behind in the rear-view mirror. Throwing punches until they are told the fight is over and blah, de-blah, blah.

Pretty standard stuff. And frankly, it’s something everyone in these parts have heard a bazillion times before over the past few seasons.

That’s why it says here the bigger picture for everyone involved with this outfit — from the very top of the football operations organizational chart right down to the practice roster dude with just a metal chair to call home in the dressing room — should be this:

When a team stinks this badly for this long, the biggest motivator of all should simply be staying employed.

All of this isn’t to hint there will be sweeping changes with the Bombers, especially with all signs pointing to president and CEO Wade Miller keeping GM Kyle Walters and head coach Mike O’Shea in place for 2016. Continuity is a tough sell when a team is 5-11, but with Drew Willy out since August, it is a sales pitch that does have some legs.

Here’s the meaty counterpoint, though: when an organization is headed for its fourth-consecutive losing season and has the lowest win percentage in the CFL over the same span — and just one winning season in the last eight — then fear can also be, perhaps should be, a powerful motivator.

And no one should feel comfy their handiwork in 2015 earns them an invite back in 2016.

“We’re getting paid for this, that’s the bottom line,” Bryant Turner Jr. said earlier this week.

“We’re playing for our city, we’re playing for our fans, we’re playing for our family. But we’re also playing for ourselves.

“It’s like an interview every time you get on the field. That film is your resumé, that’s what the coaches always tell us. It’s very important to finish strong no matter what happens. Whether we make it or not, other coaches in the league are looking at it.

“And so we have to keep fighting. You keep fighting because it’s your job.”

That’s well said. But watching this football team sleepwalk through the first half of so many games this year — and second halves, for that matter, too — it’s clear Turner’s approach is far from universal in the Bombers clubhouse.

Their record also means it’s clear that no matter how this turns out, there will still be significant roster turnover this winter.

“Every day you’re out here you’re fighting to keep your job,” said Nick Moore. “That’s from Day 1 until the end of the season and you’ve got to carry it into the off-season during your work. You’ve always got to remember there are guys trying to take your job every day. They’re always bringing new guys in… younger, quicker, faster. That’s always in the back of your mind.”

Funny thing about that. As much as the Bombers have been airlifting guys in for a look-see over the past few weeks, the results have been essentially the same. And so, that fear-of-unemployment factor is clearly having little impact. Maybe that says something about this team, too. For all those good guys in the locker-room we keep hearing about, for all that character, the results on the field have been miniscule.

Again, salvaging something of this season could save some of the jobs in that room.

Now, every team finds its motivation in different ways. Many of the Bombers at the turn of this millennium made no secret of their desire to win a championship, but they were also openly motivated by playoff money, calling their post-season push one year the “Baby Needs Shoes” run.

Those teams lived to cash those playoff cheques. This Bombers crew should play just to keep their cheques.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPEdTait