Victory means… more work

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/07/2009 (5933 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

He was doused with Gatorade after earning his first win on Friday and then honoured with lager and ale a day later.

Yes, Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Mike Kelly now has liquid proof of the old adage ‘to the victor go the spoils.’

So there was Kelly — less than 24 hours after his troops spanked the Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders 42-30 to help him pick up his first ‘W’ as a head coach — back at his office studying film when he got a call from the receptionist at the front desk.

It seems an anonymous fan, apparently very appreciative of the Bombers’ effort Friday, had dropped off a little package with his name on it.

Turns out Kelly had been asked by Kim Babij of Shaw TV’s Fabulous Blue Bomber Show last week what kind of beer he liked and answered with "cold and free." Pressed further, he admitted he liked Corona with lime on a hot summer day, but the Irishman in him always had a hankering for a Guinness.

Lo and behold he opens up the package delivered to him to discover three Coronas, three Guinness — and a lime.

"Now all I need is an opener and a knife," joked Kelly during his media session Saturday. "My, how things change, huh?"

Yes, such is life in this football-crazed burg where the popularity of the head coach — and the starting quarterback — can plummet or skyrocket based on the how the standings change.

And so Friday night-Saturday morning was a good stretch for Kelly. After all, he may or may not pile up a ton of victories in his career as the Bombers’ head coach, but there’s only one first win. And the fact it resulted in a Gatorade shower, a six-pack of his favourite brews and was experienced by his 72-year-old mom Hilda — who flew in from Florida — only makes it that much sweeter.

"I got a nice hug from her afterwards and it was certainly heartfelt," said Kelly. "My dad passed away 10 years ago in 1999 and he was a football coach and just a huge influence on my life. She knew how important this was. They were huge Blue Bomber fans from ’92-96 (when he was the offensive co-ordinator here) and didn’t get rid of any of their Blue Bomber stuff. I find that very interesting… they’ve had stuff from every place I’ve been and yet it’s the Blue Bomber stuff that my parents still had. That goes along with what I’ve been saying since the day I came back.

"This place made a huge impression not only upon me but my entire family. I was very appreciative and it was kinda cool that my mom came up here at her age, to just jump on a plane and come on up. It was a nice thing. She told me three days ago, ‘I’m coming up.’ "

Kelly spent Friday night at — here’s the free plug — Earl’s with some of the other coaches and their wives but didn’t exactly paint the town red celebrating. And when he awoke Saturday he discovered 43 messages on his BlackBerry with another 20 or so filtering in by the time he held his afternoon session with the media.

"I had a very nice talk with Damon Allen, he gave me a call," Kelly said.

"And some of the guys from the past era recognized some of the things we were trying to accomplish offensively and got a little bit excited about it. It was a what-was-old-is-new-again type thing. It’s very nice when people reach out like that and it’s been a variety of people from all over North America, which is very humbling.

"But I guess I’ve been internalizing things because I had a bit of a rumbly stomach all night and didn’t really sleep very much thinking about how things went.

"To be honest with ya, I didn’t like how the last two minutes of the game played out (when the Stamps scored two late touchdowns). We have to learn to finish out games better than that. And that kept me awake."

And that, in a nutshell, is life as a head coach. One minute you’re hugging your ma or grinning at a surprise gift, the next you’re trying to decipher what stunts the Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ D-line might offer up Saturday in Steeltown.

"What we did 24 hours ago doesn’t affect what we have to do over the course of this week," said Kelly. "I said it all along: My main concern is we make improvement every week and I’m not going to let anybody get fat and happy over a win in the second week of July.

"We have a lot more to accomplish. I believe in this team and I’ve never wavered from that, but it’s up to myself and the coaching staff now to keep the pedal down and keep these guys focused and get them to realize what can be accomplished if they continue to work."

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

today’s bomber report c4