RB Lumsden runs to Stamps and away from 3-7 Bombers

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/09/2010 (5533 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MAKE no mistake, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers desperately wanted Jesse Lumsden in their colours.

Head coach Paul LaPolice called the former star running back during negotiations to spell out what his role would be in Winnipeg. Assistant GM Ross Hodgkinson played high school ball with his dad, Neil. In fact, it was Neil who approached Hodgkinson during a Bomber visit to Hamilton last month to plant the seed that his son was still very much interested in playing football.

So maybe today the Bombers feel a little spurned by the latest developments after being informed by Lumsden late Wednesday he wasn’t coming here and is likely headed to the Calgary Stampeders.

Maybe they truly believe the notion that money wasn’t a factor — although if you pile it up high enough, it sure can become one — and that Lumsden is headed for the home of the national bobsled team in Calgary so he can pursue his other sporting passion without jetting all over the country.

“I’ve always said players decide where they’re going for three reasons: 1. money, 2. location and 3. what they perceive as their play-time situation,” Hodgkinson said.

“I have a lot of respect for Jesse Lumsden, based on the fact he called me and he had a very frank conversation with me. He’s a very smart man and he’s made his decision for the right reasons. I said, ‘You made a decision I don’t like, but you made a decision I understand and I respect.’

“You can only do what you can do to change someone’s thought process.”

True enough. But consider this while discussing the theory of whether dough was a factor in Lumsden’s decision: A player on the roster of the Grey Cup champion will earn an additional $24,500 this season.

For those of you who may need reminding, the Stamps are 9-1 and in first place in the West. The Bombers, impressive as they were in the Banjo Bowl, are still 3-7 and in the cellar of the East.

Now perhaps Lumsden’s decision was based solely on opportunity and location and financial terms truly weren’t a factor. To that point, a source said Thursday the Stamps were thrilled to get Lumsden at “a bargain rate.”

But what happened in these negotiations has played out here before in the last few years and will likely continue through the winter until the Bombers establish themselves as a flagship franchise again, not one that has had one winning season in the last six years.

So in the meantime, here’s the Bombers’ sales pitch, courtesy of LaPolice as delivered to Lumsden:

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“I told him this is a good organization, an organization that is going in the right direction. That’s our motto to any player we’re going to talk to going forward: that this is a good place run by good people.”

Good approach, that. But until the Bombers get it right again — until that 3-7 record is reversed — they are going to have to live with this reality in future dealings with free agents: money talks, mottos walk.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca