Sworn to serve and protect

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This article was published 24/06/2010 (5644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The big man stood in the mid-day sun, sweating profusely and breathing heavily, and took the oath of any decent, upstanding offensive lineman.

And that is: Keep your quarterback/meal ticket decent and standing up.

"That’s our little brother out there and we have to protect him," Kelly Butler huffed and puffed, moments after taking a few wind sprints at the end of Bombers practice Wednesday. "We’re his big brothers out there."

For the record, Butler stands 6-foot-8 and weighs in the ballpark of 330 pounds, give or take a meal. So if Butler was, indeed, your big brother, we hazard to guess you could waltz into the nearest biker hangout, key a couple of Harleys and ask: "Anybody got a problem with that? No? Didn’t think so. Hey, you gals want another round of Crantinis?"

And on the field, the 27-year-old Butler — who came to the Bombers via the NFL’s Detroit Lions, Cleveland Browns and the Arena League’s Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz — revealed that Bombers head coach Paul LaPolice has already driven home the offensive line’s purpose in life.

"The coach makes a joke and says if (the quarterback) gets hit, are you going to call his mother?" Butler said. "So I don’t want to be the guy who has to call any one of our quarterback’s mothers by giving up a sack or letting one of them get hurt. We want him to leave the same way he came in the game; clean and untouched."

We’re just spitballing here, but LaPolice is probably only half-joking. After all, as the Bombers continued to prepare for their July 2 season opener against the incoming Hamilton Tiger-Cats, two developments emerged from Wednesday’s workout — one expected and the other not so much.

The expected: That LaPolice officially named Buck Pierce the Bombers starting quarterback. The not so expected: There’s every indication that the Bombers may begin the season with two import tackles on the offensive line, with Butler being bookended by Andre Douglas, an equally large mammal out of Temple at 6-foot-4, 340 pounds.

At first blush, that possibility could raise some eyebrows given the Bombers lack of overall Canadian depth. In fact, the standard CFL procedure dictates that one import offensive lineman can be considered a luxury. Can the Bombers afford two?

Perhaps this is a better question: Can they afford not to?

After all, if every single discussion on the Bombers prospects this season begins with, "Well, if their starting quarterback can stay healthy…" doesn’t it logically follow that every conceivable effort be made not to be calling anybody’s mother in August?

True, it doesn’t matter who serves as minders for Pierce if his swashbuckling nature takes over and he goes all Errol Flynn on sojourns out of the pocket. Pierce has an injury history not so much because he’s fragile, it’s just that he plays like he’s invincible, an admirable but ultimately flawed concept for mortals.

And just because a Bombers offensive line prospect owns a U.S. passport doesn’t automatically mean they’re any more deserving of starting than a Canadian.

Regardless, we say the more bubble wrap the better. And if that wrap comes in the form of 650 pounds of import tackles, so be it.

LaPolice has not yet committed to his import ratio on the offensive line, although Butler is a lock to start. But when the topic was broached, the Bombers head coach replied: "We believe it starts with the gentlemen up front, no matter who the quarterback is. Because you have to protect the passer and you have to run the football… those two things. If that’s where the most talented players are, we’ll put two imports there if we have to."

One thing is certain, however, now that Pierce has officially been handed the dead pig, it’s time to get serious about keeping that No. 4 jersey spotless as humanly possible.

"It’s very important that we have great protection so that the quarterback can go out there and do his job at the highest level," Butler reasoned. "That’s not just the tackles, it’s the whole offensive line as a unit. All for one and one for all, that’s our motto. Each person has to be accountable.

"We have a collective goal to go out there and be physically dominant, be a high-powered offence that’s mean, and make sure our quarterback doesn’t get touched."

It appears the Bombers have a choice: Field the best possible protectors, regardless of nationality. Or risk the unwelcome prospect of notifying their little brother’s mommy something has gone amiss.

Turns out, some calls are easier to make than others.

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.

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