O’Shea called to the Hall of Fame

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This article was published 22/03/2017 (3157 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

REGINA — The defining measure of Mike O’Shea’s football greatness and the mark he’s made on the Canadian Football League can’t be found with a simple Google search — even if what you come across is, all the same, impressive.

O’Shea, who was drafted fourth overall by the Edmonton Eskimos in 1993 but played his 16-year career for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Toronto Argonauts, tackled more bodies than any other Canadian to play in the CFL. Only Alabama-born Willie Pless, with 1,241 tackles, has more than O’Shea’s 1,151.

“I liked learning the game of football. I liked understanding it,” O’Shea said during an interview Wednesday at a downtown Regina hotel, where he is staying while attending events for the inaugural CFL week in the Saskatchewan capital. “But nothing feels better than whacking somebody.”

In his first season in the CFL, as a 22-year-old just months removed from a successful collegiate career at the University of Guelph, O’Shea was named the league’s most outstanding rookie.

By the time he hung up his cleats prior to the 2009 season, O’Shea’s list of accomplishments included a most outstanding Canadian award in 1999, the same campaign in which he earned his lone CFL all-star nod and the second of his three years as an East Division standout. He won three Grey Cups — all as a member of the Argos — following the 1996, 1997 and 2004 seasons.

Because of these achievements, O’Shea was honoured Wednesday night as one of four players and two builders named to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and Museum’s class of 2017.

Former running back Kelvin Anderson, receiver Geroy Simon and quarterback Anthony Calvillo round out the player inductees, while Calgary Stampeders mainstay Stan Schwartz and former University of Saskatchewan coach Brian Towriss will enter the hall in the builder’s category. The group will be enshrined in Hamilton in September.

“A much deserved and overdue honour,” Winnipeg Blue Bombers general manager Kyle Walters said of the announcement. “When you think of in recent history what sums up the Canadian Football League, from a football player, it’s Mike O’Shea. The reputation he has, the type of player he was — a through and through Canadian.”

It’s these — call them less quantifiable qualities — that O’Shea, now the head coach of the Blue Bombers, brought to the field every day that better defines his CFL lore, at least to those who played with and against him.

A survey of former teammates and opponents shows a mix of adoration and fear. Those who played with O’Shea idolized his unwavering work ethic; those who were forced to play against him dreaded his ability to deliver crushing blows. Both sides, however, respected what he brought to the game.

“His leadership,” Calvillo, the legendary Montreal Alouettes quarterback, said Wednesday when asked what stood out most about O’Shea.

The two played together in Hamilton for only one of Calvillo’s 20 CFL seasons. But despite only being teammates for a short while, the impression O’Shea made still lingers.

“Guys had so much trust and so much respect for him that when he stepped on the football field, people were going to wait to see what he had to say — and he commanded that,” Calvillo recalled. “Not too many people were able to do that.”

“Intense. Hard working. Gritty. Passionate. Fiery,” were the words offensive lineman Jeff Keeping used to sum up his former Argos teammate and later his special-teams coach. “That red hair isn’t just on the outside, he’s burning inside, too.”

It’s a legacy O’Shea prefers not to call a legacy at all. In fact, he hates the word — “It’s a bull—- word, to be honest” — and he grimaces at any mention of any mark he’s left on the game. O’Shea said he didn’t start playing the game for moments like Wednesday’s, even though he appreciates what it means. He also prefers to believe no one before him joined the game for the glory afterwards, even if he’s noticed it’s becoming a sentiment used more and more in professional sports.

“You don’t ever start playing a sport for that. You do it to run and block and hit and tackle and get hit and get knocked down and get back up. That’s what you sign up for. And then at the end, people talk however they want to talk.”

O’Shea has never been one to celebrate his own success; there’s always something more to achieve, something greater to strive for. It’s an attitude he’s carried with him his entire career, and something he passes on to his Blue Bombers players.

“He has a lot of respect for what you do and the time you put into the game,” said Bombers defensive end Jamaal Westerman. “But he also holds you accountable and he can do that because he has the background as the best middle linebacker in the league of all-time. The funny thing is you’ll rarely hear him mention his playing career.”

So how did a kid from North Bay, Ont., come to play, let alone dominate, the game of Canadian football?

“I was too small to play hockey,” said O’Shea. “It got too frustrating for me as a small hockey player.

“I wasn’t a very good hockey player to begin with, but when everybody else is growing and you’re not, hockey becomes extremely frustrating for my style — you look at the way I played football — and it didn’t work when you’re little.”

As there were no community teams where O’Shea grew up — he didn’t start playing football until Grade 9 — it would take years (and a notable growth spurt) before he became one of the better players. When he did eventually find his groove, he blossomed into one of the best. By his final year of university, O’Shea had earned the reputation that he seemed destined for greatness, well on his way to a professional career.

“He was arguably the best football player in the country in 1992, at the university level. Just dominant,” said Walters, who was a rookie at Guelph when O’Shea was in his final year. “When I saw him at that point in his career, he was legendary Mike O’Shea.”

Of course, that wasn’t the way O’Shea saw it. Instead, he remembers the doubt he felt watching CFL games as a teen.

“I didn’t care where I was drafted, I never thought of that,” O’Shea said. “I thought about hoping to make the practice roster. I wasn’t selling myself short, I just understood how difficult it was.”

O’Shea said it wasn’t until 15 games into his award-winning rookie season in Hamilton that he finally realized he could compete in the CFL.

“It’s not until you’re in there playing that you maybe realize you belong. In the first year, everything is coming so fast at you, you don’t have time to think about whether you belong or not. You just got out there and do your damn job,” he said. “I think I tried to approach the game like I was going to be released every single year. It makes you work pretty hard.”

Pressed on this approach, and the undeniable pressure it put on him, O’Shea just shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t look young, do I?” he said.

He’ll be 47 in September, according to Google.

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton