Humble pie on the menu

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/07/2010 (5636 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Welcome to the new Bomberland — the considerably more subdued, much less controversial home of the Blue Bombers. And a place where humility is expected and conceit is strictly verboten.

Case in point, we give you quarterback Buck Pierce, a man who threw for two TDs and rushed for almost 100 yards and another score in last Friday’s 49-29 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Asked to grade his performance Pierce gave himself a six out of 10.

Yes, six. S-I-X.

"I go back to all the plays I missed…" he began, the lament clear in his voice. "There were some times I had the opportunity to make some plays and I didn’t."

Further, we give you the handful of veteran players who — obviously already in sync with their new head coach’s low-key personality — opted not to do the ceremonial Gatorade shower-thing in the wake of the Paul LaPolice’s first win as a boss. And then there was LaPolice following practice Monday. When told of Pierce’s rather-harsh assessment of his own play, the coach suggested that his QB’s cadence needed to be better and that on one of his impressive runs he had Brock Ralph wide open for a long score.

Tough room? Heck, these guys could make Stalag 17 look like Club Med.

"I hope all our players have raised expectations," explained LaPolice. "I hope they all say, ‘I was about a six’ because there’s a lot of room for improvement.

"The one thing I have told our players is we should not celebrate the average play. The unbelievable play should look average. So, we don’t do the first-down marker (where a receiver gets up and indicates first down with his arm) after a hitch. We don’t catch a curl and jump up and down and wave to the fans. They can celebrate, but it better be a tremendous play. It better be an unbelievable one-handed diving catch or if we sack the quarterback… Don’t jump up and do all those things because we’ve got to raise our expectations."

Now, let’s not paint the picture that it’s all doom and gloom in Bomberland with LaPolice constantly cracking the whip and fining players who show any personality.

Far from it. He had the team’s video guy put together a highlight tape from the win over the Ticats to show the troops before practice Monday and then put that ‘W’ to bed while gearing up preparations for the Toronto Argonauts this week.

And so while LaPolice may be the youngest head knock in the CFL, he can also be as old school as they come.

Knowing that now, we asked about those touchdown dances Milt Stegall, Arland Bruce, Robert Gordon and the receiving gang used to do back in his days as offensive co-ordinator here. LaPolice smiled before offering this take:

"That was big Milt and all that stuff. The funny thing about all that is I went to Khari (Jones) one time and said, ‘Geez, that’s really good. Milt’s getting the guys before the game to talk right outside my office.’ He said, ‘What are you talking about? They’re getting their touchdown dance ready.’ Hey, when it’s not your candy store you can’t control those things so you kinda let it go. Those things are fun, but we want to act like we’ve been there before.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Thursdays

Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter.

Sign up for Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

"(Teaching humility) is a process," LaPolice continued. "You have to keep going with it and hammer away because we have to be humble. We’re measured by this week, not by last week. I heard Buck out on the field when one of the kids asked him, ‘Where was your dance?’ And he said, ‘Ahhh, we don’t really do that around here. That’s not our thing.’"

Maybe, maybe not. But a grade of six out of 10?

"We should feel good about the victory, but we can’t be satisfied with mediocrity, either," Pierce explained. "Our goals have to be set high. Every single coach and player in our locker room wants more than just winning the first game.

"But we are excited, yes. It’s a good feeling to walk around town right now and hold your head high. The key is understanding that we have a long way to go and many, many more steps to take."

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca