This is Willy’s moment to shine

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This article was published 27/09/2014 (4084 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sports, as we saw with Derek Jeter Thursday night, has a way of drawing us in, setting us up and sometimes even delivering. Drew Willy will be trying to live such a moment in front of 30,000 or so Winnipeg football fans plus a national TV audience this evening.

Sometime around 5:30 p.m., with the sun barely beginning to droop, the Blue Bombers and their offence will be trumpeted out on to the field, with each player’s name called out over the PA system. Willy will be the last man introduced.

And with a city having hung on his every wince and grimace this past week as he fought to get his way into the lineup with a sprained shoulder, the roar that will accompany his trot out on to the field will be heard in Gimli to the north and Emerson to the south.

Maybe, after an era of most dreadful football, with the only drama coming in the form of GM and head-coach firings, folks around here are a little starved for some emotion. And maybe it’s only Game 13 for a .500 football team. But this is the moment of this season.

If Willy can loosen up his arm and find a way to sling his team to victory over the visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats, this is a game we’ll talk about around here for a long time.

So, yes, the stage is set. Now, as has become the theme of this season for the Blue Bombers, it’s up to Drew Willy.

If you don’t have a ticket, and by late Friday afternoon there were still a few thousand waiting to be bought, you might want to grab one. The potential for a flop is there, surely, but so, too, is the promise of something special. And that’s been a rarity for Bombers fans these last, lean years.

Willy will need several productive seasons and a Grey Cup to eventually cement his legacy among Bombers fans, and while that script remains to be written, it is becoming more and more clear he has leading man material.

Willy shouldn’t be playing today. Don’t believe head coach Mike O’Shea or Willy when they try to downplay his injury and refusal to miss a 13th consecutive start.

He’s hurt. He’s sore. He’ll be taking a needle loaded with painkiller prior to the game and likely another at the half. Willy’s team needs him and so he’s found a way to get in the game. Heroic? No.

But the stuff that eventually turns a passer into a winner and maybe even a champion? You bet.

No offence to Wade Miller, Kyle Walters and Mike O’Shea, but Drew Willy is the best thing to happen to the Winnipeg Football Club in a very long time.

He is a franchise quarterback. Walks it, talks it, looks it, acts it. And follows it through.

“He told us he would play in this game right after he got hurt in B.C. And you know what, we believe what Drew says. So we believed he would play. Once I saw him out on the field throwing the ball around this week, I knew he’d be playing,” said receiver Clarence Denmark.

Defensive back Chris Randle says when Willy whispers, his teammates lean in to listen.

“We need him. He knows that. So he got himself ready to play. That’s leadership. We follow his lead,” said Randle.”

This is his team. Having him play (today)… we all know what he’s done to get ready. We will be playing for him. And he’s playing for us. That’s what’s happened around here this year. We play for one another. Drew is a big part of leading that change.”

O’Shea was getting peppered about Willy on Friday and as always he was careful and thoughtful with his answers. O’Shea follows his instincts, but in a controlled manner. He stays on point. But when asked if Willy was a franchise quarterback he didn’t think for a second.

“Absolutely,” said the coach.

A win today and no one around here will be able to argue the point.

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