Bishop’s inaugural speech a long time coming

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/09/2009 (5846 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

No one is quite sure what triggered it or what brought Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback Michael Bishop to the point where — his frustrations mounting, his anger about to boil over — he decided to rally the troops before they ka-boomed into a zillion pieces.

But there was the embattled Bomber QB during last Saturday’s win over the Toronto Argonauts, not once but three times addressing a team he wasn’t even a part of two months ago. And if the Blue Bombers are to turn around their 2009 campaign — and, yes, that’s still a big-time ‘IF’ — every one in Bomberland may point back to what the 33-year-old said as positively critical.

Speech No. 1 came at halftime with the Bombers ahead 17-9. After gathering the team together in the locker-room…

“I made some comments about all the adversity we’ve been through and the turmoil this team is in,” Bishop explained. “And I just wanted to remind them that we were still in control of our own destiny.”

OK, so it wasn’t exactly Winston Churchill’s ‘whatever the cost may be’ speech during The Battle of Britain. But there was more. Speech No. 2 came in the fourth quarter with the Bombers ahead 29-9, but the situation deteriorating after a brawl that saw four players ejected. Again Bishop gathered his teammates together, this time at the bench…

“I said, ‘You know what? That could be us if we’re not careful. What Toronto is doing with all the extra stuff… the difference between us and them is we have more character than them. We have guys that still believe. Let’s not lose that. Let’s fight together for the rest of this game, let’s win this game and then move on.'”

And, finally, Speech No. 3 came right after the game as Bishop and his teammates stood on the Bombers logo at midfield.

“I was just trying to remind everybody about that feeling, about the week that we had leading up to that moment,” Bishop said. “All I want is for us to keep together because a family, in the end, will always stay together regardless of what happens. I hope everybody understands where we’re at in our season and the opportunity we have in front of us.”

Now, maybe this all seems a little melodramatic, given we are talking about a 4-8 squad still out of the playoff picture. And maybe head coach Mike Kelly’s reference to Bishop ‘taking ownership’ of the team seems odd given his criticisms of the quarterbacks’ play this season. You could also accuse us of being hypocritical, given we’ve suggested in this space that Bishop is hardly the long-term answer to this team’s quarterback needs.

But right here, right now, what Bishop did last Saturday does speak of leadership. And it says something of the maturation of a player who has bounced around from league to league, team to team with the very same scouting report: big-time arm, fits in well, average intangibles.

So what triggered Bishop’s inner Knute Rockne?

Maybe he was simply tired of the losing and playing the pincushion for all the offensive ineptitude. Maybe it was the understanding that when you get summoned from football’s scrap heap, as he was this summer, it might be the last time the telephone rings. Or maybe it was both.

“You know, I could have just taken a back seat,” said Bishop. “But I sit in here and I see how many of these guys care. I see guys in here and this is all they have. And the older you get the wiser you get and you realize you could be here today, but gone tomorrow. You have to seize the moment, you have to live in the moment.

“I kinda wish I had done it earlier, but I just didn’t feel it was the right time. These guys knew I played in the league, but they didn’t KNOW me. But at that point I felt it was now or never and I had to speak my mind.

“Honestly, I hope that’s our turning point,” Bishop continued. “There’s a saying we have in Texas: ‘You’re on the right track, but you’re on the wrong train.’ I’d like to think now we’re all on the right track AND the right train.”