‘I feel really, really good’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/11/2011 (5253 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

History — the fullest weight of history — suggested that Buck Pierce would never play another game after he dislocated the elbow on his throwing arm during the 2010 Labour Day game in Regina.

A review by the Bombers medical staff last winter found no other example in the history of professional football where a quarterback had returned to play again after that particular catastrophic injury.

But Pierce not only returned to play in 2011, he returned to start. And not only did he start, he started a career-high 16 of 18 regular season games in 2011 for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

This Sunday, Pierce will now almost certainly start his 17th game of the year, in the biggest game of the year — the CFL East Division final against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Canad Inns Stadium.

For the first time since he sprained his knee in a loss to the Toronto Argonauts on Oct. 28, Pierce returned to the practice field with his team Tuesday at Canad Inns Stadium and then emerged from the playing field to promptly pronounce himself fit and ready to start against Hamilton.

“I feel really, really good,” Pierce told reporters. “Percentage-wise, I feel like I can do everything that I need to do with limited aggravation. I’m very confident in it right now.”

Asked if there was any doubt in his mind that he will start on Sunday, Pierce was unequivocal. “No. Obviously it’s not up to me, but I feel good.”

The man who will make the final determination on whether Pierce starts on Sunday was also upbeat after watching Pierce practise. But head coach Paul LaPolice also left himself a little wiggle room. “He threw the ball OK,” said LaPolice. “Buck is our starter and if he can play, he will play,” said LaPolice. “If we deem he can’t play after the next three days of practice, we’ll play our second string Alex (Brink). I just have to see him move around and see his ability to move and function. Today was a start. I thought he threw the ball well. I haven’t watched the film yet but I thought he saw things well.

“But I don’t want him to be vulnerable in the pocket. We’ll make that determination in the next few days.”

While Pierce has started all but two of his team’s games this season, there’s been no shortage of medical drama surrounding the Bombers pivot. In addition to the two games Pierce missed entirely, he has also had to leave five other games early with injury this season.

Pierce’s anemic offensive numbers in 2011 are surely at least partly a reflection of all that medical drama. The Bombers QB is last among the principal starting quarterbacks in the CFL this season in completions and yards and his touchdown to interception ratio — 14:18 — is league-worst by a wide measure.

But despite all that adversity — and, in a way, precisely because of it — LaPolice thinks Pierce has provided service to his team this season that transcends the mathematics of what he has accomplished on the field.

“I think quarterbacks are measured not just in stats but in what they do,” LaPolice said. “How do they get teams to win games? — and that’s certainly what he’s done.

“I think it’s an example. I think the guys respond. They know Buck will compete and… they don’t want to let him down.”

Pierce has already overcome long odds just by coming back to play. He has both dragged his 10-8 team along with him this season and, at times, been a drag on that team. But through it all, he has led by example.

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And so Pierce will attach a brace to his right knee on Sunday and limp out on the field one more time, in hopes of doing it one more time after that in the Grey Cup.

It’s already more than anyone expected from Pierce — or his team — this season. But more is expected — and will be demanded if the Bombers are going to beat a Hamilton team that put up 52 points on Montreal last weekend. “No doubt. I don’t think there’s any secret we have to play better as an offence,” said Brink, who got the start in Pierce’s absence in a loss to Calgary in the final regular-season game of the year. “We’ve shown some good things, we’ve played well for three quarters, that kind of thing.

“But in playoff football, that’s not good enough.”

That Pierce is playing at all — in this game, in this season — is no small miracle. But on Sunday, he will also have to play well.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca