Too close for comfort

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/09/2010 (5537 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s thrown out there as a complimentary statement; clichéd words of encouragement suggesting one stay the course and keep the eye on the prize.

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

But when someone says “This team is really close” — is the message actually a positive or a negative? If a club like the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, struggling through a five-game losing streak heading into the second half of the season, almost wins a game or shows signs of improvement (minus the results on the scoreboard), is that team really “close,” or is it just not good enough?

It’s like the pretty girl in high school who says she likes you but just wants to be friends. There’s nothing wrong when you’re hanging out at the mall or catching a movie together but when it comes to accelerating the relationship by parking the car at Lover’s Point at the end of the evening — forget about it, mister.

Something doesn’t feel right.

Close, but not quite.

“I hate it, I hate it,” Bombers head coach Paul LaPolice said when asked what he thinks of the “this team is close” phrase. Winnipeg (2-7) takes on the Saskatchewan Roughriders (6-3) in the Banjo Bowl at Canad Inns Stadium today (noon, TSN, CJOB).

“I’m not interested in us being a good football team that’s close — I did not sign up for that,” he continues. “We want to be a team that can compete at a high level. I know I don’t have a lot of patience; I know you have to have patience at times (with these things), but I don’t really take that well.

“I’m proud of those guys and all that stuff, and things haven’t gone our way, but when people tell you ‘Ah, you’re doing a great job’… I cringe at that.”

Others on the Bomb Squad have a different reaction to the “close” description.

The corner people talk about? It’s about to be turned.

“The thing is… I see it. We’re a good team,” quarterback Steven Jyles said. “We believe in each other and we know that we’re a better team than what our record shows. All we can do is just keep coming out and fight.”

That positivity is positively the thing you’d expect players to say. As safety Ian Logan points out, players can’t dismiss the “this team is close” line — as that would indicate that the towel is being thrown out, as well, and if that were the case, then the games would already be lost before the teams hit the field.

“We’re barely losing games, we’re fighting to the end… at least we’re not getting blown out,” Logan said. “There is progress. Every week we’re making fewer and fewer mistakes. We’re coming together, and we feel we’re just a big play away from turning this around.

“You can’t give up, you never give up. We’re close… really close.”

Last word to LaPolice, who is starting to feel some heat for the club’s longest losing streak since 1999 (Dave Ritchie lost seven in a row that year):

“We’ve performed well this year, but lost football games. The name of the game is to win football games. (It’s) not OK to be close enough. The only statement we want to make is we want to win.”

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca