Buck’s gotta be all that he can be on Sunday

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This article was published 25/11/2011 (5254 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER — The story so far is nice and all, but without a win on Sunday, Buck Pierce’s season is no different than that of any player from the seven CFL teams that won’t be crowned as 2011 Grey Cup champions.

Second place or eighth place, those stories all suck. Just ask Pierce.

“If I’m not wearing a fur coat and riding in a convertible down Portage Avenue on Tuesday morning this is just unfinished,” said Pierce, sitting at a hotel banquet table and talking over the grunting of his offensive lineman crushing a buffet breakfast on Thursday morning. “It’ll be a big, big disappointment. Our achievements will be what they are but it won’t be complete. That’s just the cold hard reality of this business. No one cares or remembers about who finished second.”

Finishing the story will require Pierce to be his best. To reach back and find the mid-season form that saw him throw eight touchdowns and two interceptions while completing 90 of 130 attempts for 1,339 yards over a five-game stretch that, not coincidentally, were all Winnipeg wins.

Ordinary Buck won’t do on Sunday. Not if the Bombers are to win. Nope, it’s Uber Buck or bust for the Bombers and their Grey Cup aspirations.

The B.C. Lions are too good to hope a 19-point game from Pierce and his offence will do the job, as it did against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats last week.

Forgive Pierce if he’s a little tired of all the melodrama surrounding his life as part stuntman, part quarterback, but it’s all getting to be a little stretched in his eyes.

Sure, it’s a great tale. Team quits on injury-plagued player, player finds new team, player suffers more catastrophic injuries, team refuses to quit on player, player makes comeback and leads new team to title game against old team.

But for Pierce, it’s all about what happens on the field.

“I’m working and preparing for the story to be about how well I played on Sunday. The storylines about redemption and me coming back to play here and having ill will towards the Lions organization is completely false,” said Pierce. “I want to win no matter who it is against. I’m preparing to have my best game of the year. The media and others make the stories out to be what they are. I can control what happens on the field and I hope it’s a story about our offence having success. We know we have to score more than we did last week. We did a lot of good things, but we’ll need more points to win this game. We can’t put that much pressure on our defence in a championship game. We get that.”

Pierce also understands what a win would mean to the people that follow his team.

“Someone told me I might not ever have to buy another beer in Winnipeg if we were to win. Maybe they’re right. That could keep me in Winnipeg forever,” he laughed. “Believe me, I know what it would mean to the fans and what it would mean to me. Because I consider myself one of them.

“I’m a Winnipegger. I’m a Manitoban and I’m a Blue Bomber. This is where I wanted to be once I landed in Winnipeg two years ago. I wanted to be right here at this place and time. And I’m gonna do my best to be the quarterback I am and end this 21-year drought. I want to bring a championship back to Winnipeg.”

Winnipeg wants the same, Buck. And they want you to be the one that does it.

Go ahead, make everyone happy.

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @garylawless