Happy warriors
Bombers still merry band of brothers in season full of drama, losses
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/10/2009 (5844 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
It was a odd scene, to be frank, especially when held up against the backdrop of the entire Winnipeg Blue Bombers season.
There they were in their final practice before tonight’s matchup with the Edmonton Eskimos, bouncing all over the turf at Canad Inns Stadium, laughing, joking and clowning around like a Pop Warner team on a sugar high. The jocularity continued in the locker-room afterward as music blared and a number of players eagerly conducted interviews rather than hiding from the folks with the cameras and notepads.
All of this left anybody watching it unfold with a rather obvious observation: This is a 4-8 football team, still desperately attempting to salvage their campaign?
Just imagine if the Bombers could win consecutive games for the first time in 2009…
"We’re fighting to get on a roll and get more good stuff happening here," said linebacker Ike Charlton. "We’ve tried to keep an even keel in here, but we know this is our job and if we don’t perform, they’ll bring somebody else in.
"The thing about this locker-room is guys want to be here. Yes, we’ve had some bad games and there’s been a lot of stuff going on, but the guys like each other and it shows.
"And so another win and guys will start feeling even better about themselves. It’s contagious. It’s like the interceptions that come in bunches. Hopefully, we can get a couple more wins and put ourselves in a position to make the playoffs."
Now, if all this seems rather incomprehensible, given the wackiness of 2009, consider this: Should the Bombers knock off the Eskimos and then see the B.C. Lions lose tonight to the Saskatchewan Roughriders, and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats do the same in Calgary against the Stampeders, then this absolutely confounding team would not only hold the last playoff spot, but would actually be just two points out of second in the East.
(We’ll give you a moment here to recover from that last paragraph…)
"That’s been the great thing about our locker-room: It’s been almost the same all year," said head coach Mike Kelly.
"Within our building, we have really kept a level head for the most part. Our guys continue to believe. There’s been no sense of panic. There’s been no rift between one side of the ball or the other. It’s been a bunch of people who really believe in each other and trust each other. We’ve created a good atmosphere here."
The Armstrong Affair, Spygate, the Stefan Lefors tale, Pacman, the Simpson Saga, blowout home losses… and a spot in the post-season?
What’s the old saying about that which doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger?
"We had two players who decided to quit on their teammates," Kelly said, referring to, but not mentioning, the names of Derick Armstrong and Barrin Simpson. "That’s it in a nutshell. That’s their individualistic approach and that’s what we’re trying to change here, that no one is bigger than the team.
"All those things got spectacularized, exaggerated. It is what it is, and so we’ll just move on and keep going about our business. But it has been a quiet week and it’s been kinda nice."
"Nice" isn’t the term we’d use. We’ll call it just plain weird in a year that has provided more plot twists than a season of Lost.
"We have a lot of good guys in this room," added long-snapper Chris Cvetkovic. "I mean, the three specialists here (waving his hand to include kickers Alexis Serna and Mike Renaud) are usually the ones ostracized. Usually, nobody talks to us. But people even like us this year."
ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca
