Kelly earns some love

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/07/2009 (6153 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

So let’s take stock, shall we?

A team finishes the 2008 season 8-10 and, somewhat unexpectedly, fires the head coach.

They hire this new guy who can alternate between abrasive and charming, and he nukes the old team and brings in an unknown quarterback with all of five CFL starts, all losses, and hands him the ball.

The housecleaning isn’t pretty — what overhauls are? — and as a result the locals are torn. A lot of popular players are unceremoniously handed pink slips. The franchise is rife with uncertainty. Doesn’t help that the coach ruffles feathers and doesn’t seem to mind.

Hence, after a two-point loss on the road, there are calls — literally, to the head coach on his own radio show — for his immediate dismissal.

In that same loss, one of the team’s star receivers quits. On the sideline. That unprecedented mutiny triggers a week-long controversy that shrouds the beleaguered team. Then…

A few days later, the team, making its 2009 debut at home… pummels the defending Grey Cup champions.

In Week 2.

Without their best Canadian player (Doug Brown). Without that aforementioned defecting receiver (Derick Armstrong). Without a key starting linebacker (Joe Lobendahn).

So perhaps some attitude adjustments are in order, at least for a week. Perhaps that quarterback doesn’t throw the ball like a shot put after all.

For what it’s worth, that’s exactly why, in this very space earlier this week, there was a plea for a little perspective. That maybe Stefan LeFors, although relatively unproven and with tepid statistics in the Bombers’ 19-17 loss to Edmonton in the pouring rain, might deserve a little breathing room. Or that Mike Kelly, regardless of your personal opinion of his personal opinions, deserved to succeed or fail by his own hand.

(Ahem. It was also mentioned in this space that it was "wishful thinking" to believe the Bombers could overhaul this outfit, start a neophyte quarterback and expect to win immediately. We stand by that, so wish away.)

So take a bow, Mr. Kelly. Maybe the demands for your smooth melon will abate to just a handful. Congratulations, Mr. LeFors, on your first-ever CFL victory. Don’t forget to keep the ball.

For the record, this is a victory that will reverberate throughout the CFL. Perhaps there are those who will view the Bombers’ victory as more of a slight on the Stampeders. To wit, "Not so much that the Bombers are that good, but that the champs are losing their belt." Whatever.

Hey, I’ll be honest. A Bombers loss by less than 10 would have been considered progress here, given all the aforementioned circumstances. That’s just being reasonable.

So a victory (the Stamps were favoured by as much as six points on the road) must feel like manna from heaven for the folks wearing blue-and-gold-coloured glasses. Of course, if it was too soon to declare even a modest loss the end of the Bombers’ world, then an upset — although clearly of massive importance — should not involve parade routes, either.

After all, 1-1 is what it is. The marathon continues unabated next week in Hamilton.

But, boy, what a breath of fresh summer air after so many weeks of turmoil, tantrums and tension.

Come to think of it, how beneficial was it for a youngster like LeFors, preparing for his Canad Inns Stadium debut, to have the entire focus of the previous week on the head coach and a player who’s no longer in Winnipeg? Perhaps it didn’t make a lick of difference to the Louisiana Lefty, but flying under the radar has its advantages.

Now the wolves will have to retreat. Skeptics like your humble agent included. Anyone looking for baby steps got a giant stride forward.

But if Kelly’s going to take all the heat when the Bombers lose by two to the Eskimos on the road, there better be some love coming his way for at least a fortnight if his fingerprints are all over a sound defeat of the defending champs.

In fact, this being a burg going on two decades without a championship, we’re guessing that this time tomorrow they’ll begin construction of Kelly’s bronze statue around the same place the dissenters were about to lynch him a few days back.

As for LeFors, they’ll be throwing a block party for the same guy who last week was widely considered by critics a lost cause who couldn’t throw a spiral.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Jen Zoratti | Next

Wednesdays

What's next in arts, life and pop culture.

Sign up for Jen Zoratti | Next

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Hey, get used to it, boys.

This is Winnipeg. And that’s how we roll.

After all, next week is just around the corner.

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca

Randy Turner
Reporter

Randy Turner spent much of his journalistic career on the road. A lot of roads. Dirt roads, snow-packed roads, U.S. interstates and foreign highways. In other words, he got a lot of kilometres on the odometer, if you know what we mean.

   Read full biography