Blue like what they see from emerging wide receiver

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This article was published 09/08/2016 (3596 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Once Thomas Mayo steps onto the football field, he goes through a ritual not unlike most players.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers first-year receiver dreams of making the big play, like the 13-yard touchdown — his first in the CFL — he hauled in late in the first quarter of last week’s 37-11 home win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

He envisions having big games, like that one against the Ticats, where he paced all Bombers receivers with seven catches for 84 yards and a score in just his third start with the Blue and Gold.

But before Mayo, 26, can fully appreciate and take in all that is around him, he first must let a little out.

“Before every game I throw up,” confessed Mayo, while sitting in the locker room following practice Tuesday. “Just last game I threw up in the locker room. Then again before the first huddle.”

Mayo said his penchant for tossing his cookies before a game started in his junior year, something he did to combat the nerves of playing NCAA Division II football with California University in Pennsylvania (he also played two seasons at Concord University, another Division II school. He racked up more than 4,300 receiving yards in four seasons split between the two schools).

After college, Mayo said he would throw up before NFL workouts. He eventually signed with the Oakland Raiders — where he was one of the final cuts —  in 2012 and then with the New York Jets. He barfed before games in the Arena and Indoor Football Leagues, where in parts of three seasons he signed with the Chicago Rush, Spokane Shock, Tri-Cities Fever and Nebraska Danger.

“Once I do it, I feel great,” said Mayo. “If I don’t do it, my nerves get all crazy.”

As curious as his story is, it’s also fitting Mayo shared it so freely.

Mayo, who grew up in Reston, Va., has never been one to apologize for the player he is on the field, nor for the person he is off it. He has a glowing personality and isn’t afraid to have fun with teammates. He’s as confident as he is caring, as genuine as he is cocky.

Though he understands it’s a personality that isn’t always going to fit with everyone in a crowded locker room, staying true to who he is hsd given him the most success over his career.

“Here, they let me play my game,” said Mayo. “You feel good being yourself. For me, I need to be physical. I need to trash talk. I need to be able to play my game in order to contribute. It’s weird to say — even weirder to figure out — but it just all goes together.”

It’s something Mayo said had gotten away from him through the first five weeks of the season. He dressed for only two of them. Despite putting up solid numbers in one — he had five catches for 78 yards in a loss to the Calgary Stampeders in Week 2 — he still didn’t feel like himself.

So when a number of starting receivers were expected to be out of the lineup prior to last week’s game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea approached him with the simple message: he needed to step up, and Mayo knew exactly what he needed to do.

“It was that moment where I said to myself, ‘If I go out, I’m going out on my own game,’ ” said Mayo. “Last week put me over the top of where I needed to be at as far as confidence level.”

O’Shea, who played 16 seasons in the CFL, knows the different sorts of personalities that fill a locker room but his main focus with Mayo is what he brings to the field. 

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“I’m not trying to make everybody fit a certain mould,” said O’Shea. “As long as they buy in and are doing everything they can to help us win, I think certain characters are welcome in a dressing room.

“He’s a guy that showed up and had a lot of desire to make the team. He’s always working hard, he catches the ball well, he’s explosive, he’s got a high degree of athleticism that allows him to do a lot of different things. What’s not to like?”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

twitter: @jeffkhamilton

Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer

Jeff Hamilton is a sports and investigative reporter. Jeff joined the Free Press newsroom in April 2015, and has been covering the local sports scene since graduating from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2012. Read more about Jeff.

Every piece of reporting Jeff produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.