Miller realizes retirement required in new role as Blue Bombers special teams co-ordinator

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This article was published 08/01/2024 (664 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mike Miller was still clearly coming to grips with his new role on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers when he faced reporters eager to find out more about his sudden career shift.

Miller was named the CFL club’s new special teams co-ordinator on Monday, a surprise move for a player who just last season was on the roster. After suffering a career-ending neck injury in training camp last year, the opportunity to move into a coaching role in 2024 was just too good to give up.

So good, in fact, that it only seemed to recently dawn on Miller that accepting the job also meant retiring from playing the game. This reality started to sink in only after messages began trickling in on his phone, congratulating him on his retirement.

“I honestly didn’t even think that me taking this job would also be me announcing my retirement,” Miller said in a conference call. “That kind of hit me today when people were like, ‘Congrats on retirement!’ and I was like, ‘Ahhh sh-t… I don’t remember retiring.’”

Miller takes over a job that once belonged to Paul Boudreau, who was told last week that his contract would not be renewed. Boudreau had been the special teams co-ordinator since 2016, and until last season had one of the league’s top units.

It didn’t help that Boudreau had lost Miller — who is considered to be among the best special-teams players in league history, the all-time leader in tackles, with 226 — for the year and was also without dynamic returner, Janarion Grant, for a long stretch of the season.

“Paul did a great job. I really enjoyed my time playing underneath Paul and we were very successful on special teams underneath him,” Miller said. “I don’t really know yet (how different my approach will be). I just found out I’m the coach. I still have some things to think about.”

Miller didn’t put much thought into coaching until he was offered the job last week. He got a taste of what it might be like last season, as he spent the whole year around the team, working with players in the meeting room, but his focus was solely on getting back on the field.

Few players eat and breathe the game like Miller does, and at 34 years old, he imagined playing a few more seasons. It was a hard six months trying to find a second, third and fourth opinion, and after exhausting all options, there wasn’t a single doctor willing to clear him to play.

“Offering me the position, it shows he has a lot of faith in me and probably more faith in me than I do in myself.”– New special teams co-ordinator Mike Miller said of Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea

“Basically it came down to when they said not even surgery was going to let me step back on the field,” Miller said. “We talked to a lot of specialists around North America and none of them were willing to give me the clearance to get back on the field.”

He added: “It was definitely mentally tough, for sure. My whole career I’ve always been able to play through injuries and find a way to stay on the field. And last year, that was just completely out of the cards, once we kind of figured out what was going on with me.”

Miller hasn’t put any expectations on himself for his first year in coaching. He’s not even sure how well he’ll perform the job, though head coach Mike O’Shea, who started his post-playing career as a special teams co-ordinator in Toronto, has shown a lot of confidence in him.

“Offering me the position, it shows he has a lot of faith in me and probably more faith in me than I do in myself,” Miller said of O’Shea. “I didn’t expect to be offered this role, at all. It was very shocking when it did come about. He definitely put me at ease saying you know the game, you know where to put guys, you know what they need to do and you see it on film when there’s an issue and you know where we went wrong.”

“Obviously, I’m looking forward to learning more from him, you know, coming from being a head coach but also coming from the special teams, as well. I’m looking forward to learning more in how to be successful at it.” Miller said he’s received a lot of support from his teammates. It won’t be an easy transition, and maybe even an awkward one at times. He’s up to the challenge and looks forward to starting a new chapter in the game.

“A lot of the guys are very excited for me, excited I’m still going to be part of the organization,” Miller said. “I don’t know who it will be more odd for.”

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jeffkhamilton