Denmark, Bombers stay loose during storm delay

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This article was published 04/08/2016 (3357 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For Clarence Denmark, the two-and-a-half hour weather delay that pushed the start of Wednesday night’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers game past 10 p.m. was a tad agonizing.

The stat sheet might suggest otherwise—Denmark reined in seven catches for 69 yards and a touchdown—but considering it was his first game back since being cut in the offseason due to the business side of football, the wait was just that much longer for No. 89.

“You’re pumped and you’re ready to go and then you have to wait hours,” he said. “It was a really long time.”

Denmark, like the rest of the team, spent the time rehearsing their pending onslaught of the visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Music and light-hearted joking kept things loose, as did stretching and the camaraderie of 46-men ready to go to war.

Not once did head coach Mike O’Shea have to go into the room and re-focus is squad, he told reporters following the club’s dominant 37-11 win that stretched into the wee hours of Thursday morning.

“Each time I walked in with an update on the time and the delay, they seemed more and more ready to go,” O’Shea said. “Basically, I’d step my toe across the line in the dressing room and then turn around and leave because they were ready to go. It didn’t matter what the delay was going to be—they were ready.”

O’Shea said he was unaware of what his players were doing in the room, admitting he stays out of it as much as he can.

“They handle the room, which is what you need,” he said.

It’s been a wild, weather-filled year so far for the Bombers. Their win in Edmonton last week was delayed for a half hour and their home opener was split up by a 65-minute break, too. Even their practice this past Monday was cut short due to Mother Nature.

“I think if it was our first time this year, guys might have been rattled a little,” said Matt Nichols, who won his second straight start after taking over from the underachieving Drew Willy.

“It’s something our guys are used to and you learn to adapt to it and not worry about things you can’t control. Guys did a good job of staying stretched out and staying focused, fired up and ready to go.”

Nichols said he wouldn’t mind starting every game after 10 p.m. if it meant a win would follow a few hours later. If it was up to his stomach, however, they’d still start on time.

“I’m starving right now, that’s for sure,” he said. “You usually plan on eating two hours before the game. I’ve been snacking on bananas and Gatorade bars and stuff like that trying to stay hydrated and filled up. Usually you’re eating again by 11 p.m.”

Neither team referenced the delay having any bearing on the their on-field performance. A visibly frustrated Ticats head coach Kent Austin said his team flat out got beat by a better team on the night.

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“No chance,” he said. “They were pent up in their locker room too. No factor at all. We just got whipped by a better football team, that’s it. Period.”

Ticats quarterback Jeremiah Masoli had bigger problems than a weather delay following the game. The pivot, filling in for the injured Zach Collaros since the beginning of the season, turned the ball over four times in the game, or about as many words he used to describe the beat down.

“Nope, they just beat us,” Masoli said when asked if the weather delay had any ill-effects. “It changes nothing. They had the same weather we had.”

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @scottbilleck

Scott Billeck
Reporter

Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.  Read more about Scott.

Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.