Time Blue thrust a dagger in their so-called Swagger

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/09/2011 (5380 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

And with that, it is officially time to get out of the T-shirt business.

Because the only T-shirt that matters this week is the one that says ‘Two-time Defending Grey Cup Champions’ on it. And you cannot manufacturer one of those — you have to earn it, quietly, as the Montreal Alouettes did over the past two seasons.

The value of a Swaggerville T-shirt has fallen faster in the past two weeks than a Greek bond and it hit rock-bottom on Sunday when it emerged — as one wag on Twitter posted Monday — that ‘SWAG’ apparently stands for ‘Saskatchewan Won Another Game.’

The only thing uglier than a 27-7 loss by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Labour Day Weekend was the 45-23 sequel that played out in front of a packed house of Bombers supporters at Canad Inns Stadium on Sunday.

But both those “horror shows” — to borrow Bombers lineman Doug Brown’s phrase — are going to pale in comparison to what is going to happen to the Bombers this Sunday in Montreal if they do not get their act together in a hurry this week.

And that process begins with eliminating the distractions and the sideshow and getting focused on one task — football. If that sounds obvious, that’s because it is. But it apparently needs saying anyway after what played out on Sunday.

Now, you would think that after what happened to the Bombers in Regina on Labour Day Weekend, the Bombers team that ran out of the tunnel on Sunday at Canad Inns would have been chastened and armed with a steely-eyed focus.

And yet there was Bombers defensive end Odell Willis in the first quarter after a sack of Saskatchewan pivot Darian Durant running over to the East Side stands to pull up his jersey and reveal to the fans and the television audience a T-shirt underneath upon which was emblazoned across the belly two words — “The Mayor.”

Now, leave aside the fact Willis was going to such extremes to celebrate a zero-yard sack. Leave aside that his claim to being ‘Mayor’ of Swaggerville is self-proclaimed, although verily backed by a league-leading 10 sacks. Leave aside even that Willis’s zero-yard sack was among the few bright spots on a day when the Bombers consistently failed to get an effective rush on Durant.

What is most worrying about Willis’s little sack celebration was this: After the Bombers got spanked by the Riders in Regina, Willis apparently spent at least part of his week last week planning his sack celebration and getting a T-shirt emblazoned in such a way that the words “The Mayor” would be visible below his shoulder pads should he raise his jersey.

That didn’t seem like it was a coincidence and it certainly appeared like it had been planned in detail. And it all smacked of the time NFL bad boy Terrell Owens pulled a pen out of his sock to autograph the football after he caught a touchdown pass during a game, rankling a lot of people at the time because of the arrogance it implied.

Now, none of this is to single out Willis for what happened on Sunday. The Bombers defensive end has been the very best part of a truly dominating defence. He is fiercely passionate about his team — passion that was on display on Sunday — and it is precisely because he is so absolutely critical to his team’s fortunes this season that it matters so much what he is thinking — or not thinking.

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Pro football, like every high level sport, is all about focusing on the process, never the result. Take care of the details and good things will happen, of course. But those good results are always, always, always only a happy by-product of good technique.

And so to presuppose a result to such an extent as to plan your celebration beforehand — right down to the details of what you’re going to wear — would seem to reveal something less than the total focus that was suggested would be required on Sunday after what had happened in Regina the week before.

If that message had not gotten through after the first loss to the Riders, Bombers fans can only hope that it sunk in hard and deep after Sunday’s debacle.

Because the T-shirt making machine in Montreal is still warm. And they don’t print gimmicks in that town. They mint champions.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca