Kicking and dreaming

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This article was published 08/06/2017 (3040 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers wanted Félix Ménard-Brière, even if there were few signs early on to suggest as much.

Last month, while the first round of the CFL Draft was nearing the midway point, general manager Kyle Walters traded away the sixth overall pick to the B.C. Lions to choose two spots later, at eight, while also acquiring the Lions’ fourth-round selection.

With the eighth pick, Winnipeg selected Geoff Gray, the University of Manitoba Bisons offensive lineman currently under contract with the NFL’s Green Bay Packers. When it came time to pick in the fourth round, it was Ménard-Brière — a highly regarded University of Montreal kicker — whose name they called.

The addition of a kicker came as a bit of a surprise to those outside the Bombers’ draft room, especially Ménard-Brière. Unlike Hamilton and Ottawa, two teams that showed a ton of interest in him, the Bombers’ level of attention was based on one phone call. Even that call, placed by head coach Mike O’Shea, didn’t make Ménard-Brière think twice about one day becoming a Blue Bomber. O’Shea asked the customary questions that every young prospect hears before wishing him good luck at the New York Giants’ mini-camp.

None of that matters now, of course. Donning blue and gold as often as a smile for the past couple of weeks, he’s just thrilled to be playing football again. It’s the first step to fulfilling a childhood dream of one day playing the game at the professional level.

“I’m happy being here,” the 23-year-old said with his thick French accent. “If I was, say, in Montreal, I would go back home and now I’m just here with the guys and that’s a lot of fun.”

What perhaps is most surprising, though, is not that the Bombers picked Ménard-Brière despite seemingly showing little interest but that they picked him at all — trading down only to select a player in a position that, at least for the foreseeable future, they don’t really need. The Bombers already have the best kicker in the CFL in Justin Medlock, who not only possesses the most accurate foot in league history, with a field goal success rate of 87.7 per cent, but also doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.

Last season, Medlock set a new CFL record with 60 field goals, while also tying or setting a number of other single-season franchise marks, including a new mark for most points (227). He ended the year being named an all-star and was awarded the league’s most outstanding special teams player.

Though it’s a common refrain in training camp that no job on the roster is safe, it’s hard to believe that extends as far as Medlock. In fact, if there was anyone considered irreplaceable on the Blue and Gold, perhaps only Matt Nichols, the team’s starting quarterback and most outstanding player in 2016, is seen as more important to the 2017 season. But as impossible a task as it may be to edge Medlock out of playing time, Ménard-Brière said he can’t afford to be bothered by that line of thinking. The Bombers chose him for a reason, he said, and he’s here to show he deserves a chance to stick around.

“I don’t see it as an impossible situation,” he said, optimistically.

In his senior season, Ménard-Brière led the CIS (rebranded midseason as U Sports) with a 42.4-yard punting average, en route to being named to the All-Canadian first-team. “Even last year in the CIS, I proved to be one of the top punters, even compared to the CFL, so I think I can definitely play in this league. Right now I’m just trying to do the most that I can and learn from these guys and from Medlock, particularly.”

As good as Ménard-Brière has been in camp, and regardless of his performance in the pre-season, the odds of him earning a roster spot are long. While almost every Canadian that enters camp for the first time has bodies ahead of them in the depth chart, backup kickers aren’t often afforded an alternative route in the way of excelling on special teams first. Instead, they’re just cut.

In this case, Ménard-Brière has one more year of college eligibility, meaning the Bombers can opt to send him back to school for another year without losing his rights. That both helps his chances, as the club can look to ease him into next season, and hurts them, in that it’s an easy escape plan for Winnipeg if the braintrust decides to pad the lineup in another area.

O’Shea said he likes what he’s seen from Ménard-Brière so far in training camp, particularly as a punter. After all, that’s why the team drafted him and if he is to stick around this year it will be to compliment Medlock’s punting duties, not replace them (Medlock has spoken this season about fine-tuning his punting and has already introduced several technique tweaks).

“(Ménard-Brière has) certainly fit in quite well. When we drafted him, we really liked his directional punting and he’s showing that,” O’Shea said. “He has real good speed in his get-off time so you don’t have to worry about that. A lot of times when you get kickers from the States, their get-off time is too slow for them to work in this league, for whatever reason…”

“He’s working on his field goal kicking and it’s a good thing he’s here with Medlock… for him to learn from the best in the CFL.”

With close access to an asset such as Medlock, watching is as important as kicking. Ménard-Brière said he watches the veteran’s routine, mentally jotting down every last component of what is a very comprehensive approach. With Medlock, no detail is too small and every last one is over-analyzed. Then there’s what Medlock does in the weight room, the regiment he has for stretching and how he studies and prepares for games.

The mental side, Ménard-Brière said, is as important as anything else.

“I try to look at him all practice, all day, and I try to emulate everything what he does,” he said. “I try to be like him as much as I can.”

With time, Ménard-Brière is confident that one day he’ll be capable of filling both kicking and punting duties. A prominent soccer player before switching to football in Grade 11, it’s also not the first time he’s had to battle to prove himself. He was one of four kickers when he arrived at the University of Montreal. By the time the season started, he was the last one kicking, and it would stay that way for his entire four-year career there.

Perhaps even more impressive was a 75-yard field goal — a feat made even more remarkable by the fact it wasn’t rehearsed; it happened during a competition in which he was surrounded by cellphone cameras and after the other contestants had been eliminated.

“There was a wind and I was told to keep going back until (I) cannot make it. We started at 60 and the ball went straight through and I still had some leg,” he said. “Then it was 65, then 70 and then 75. At 75 it went in and I knew that if it was a 76 it might not go in. So I stopped there.”

This time around, however, he knows he has a long way to go and doesn’t plan on calling it quits until he achieves his goals, some of which are lofty; he wants to have a long career and hopes it will be in Winnipeg. Up against a great player in Medlock now, he dreams of joining the few other Bomber kickers that have reached legendary status.

“I had an interview a couple days ago and coach was telling me about Bob Cameron, the punter here for like 20 years,” he said. “I want to be like that.”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @jeffkhamilton