‘Swaggerville’ not an arrogant group: coach

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/08/2011 (5265 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE ‘Great Tightrope Walk of 2011’ has started.

Football was a secondary topic at Canad Inns Stadium Tuesday and coach Paul LaPolice chose his words very carefully when asked on how he feels about the biggest Bombers branding initiative — a defence-run ‘Swaggerville’ craze that involves the selling of T-shirts from the trunks of cars — to hit Polo Park since ‘Unfinished Business’ earned an ‘incomplete’ a few years back.

The well-balanced LaPolice needs one of those long poles because he has a fine line to walk now: One that has him trying to turn the sound down on the stereo while being careful not to kill the party. He also doesn’t want the cops (or others) to show up and wreck things, either.

Question from one reporter: There’s a fear brewing that you’re going to bring something on to yourselves by all of this. What would you say to that?

“I would say we’re a humble football team,” LaPolice responded. “Those guys like to have fun on the field and we will compete — we are not an arrogant group. We are a very humble group.”

The coach went on to share how Tuesday was one of the best practices of the year, how the success of a 5-1 record has not found its way into the players’ heads, and how the B.C. Lions — the next club up on the Bombers docket — are a “tremendous football team.”

Note: The Lions have one win and the Bomber players weren’t selling shirts at the start of the season. Another question from the floor: Can you see, even though you don’t see it that way, how other teams might see (Swaggerville) as arrogance?

“Um… I don’t know. I can’t speak for other teams,” LaPolice said. “From our standpoint, from the people I’ve talked to, they say we play hard and fast, and play physical. And that’s what we want to do.”

How do you feel about guys selling T-shirts?

“You know… as long as I get one, I guess,” he said. “Yeah… I think that’s part of the fun with the fans and all that stuff… absolutely the message is we are a focused football team.”

LaPolice isn’t a superstitious guy, but he’s probably not too keen on having this new variable come into his football equation. He’s not one for the extracurricular stuff away from the park, either, and those facts cause one to wonder just how welcoming he is to the distraction of the off-field business mined from ‘Swaggerville?’

His answers suggest he’d rather not open that door.

TWO BUCKS: As mentioned in these pages following the Winnipeg win over the Eskimos, Buck Pierce has been on quite a roll since Week 4 in Toronto. In his last three games, Pierce has gone 57-of-74 for 727 yards with six touchdowns and one interception. His completion percentage during that span is a blistering 77 per cent.

That’s a remarkable improvement from the first three weeks, where Pierce sputtered on a 42-of-76 clip (55 per cent completion rate), throwing for just 465 yards with two touchdowns and four picks.

The Bombers pivot remains near the bottom on the CFL starting quarterback list in terms of yards (1,274, only Toronto’s Cleo Lemon has less), but Pierce’s efficiency rating (95.4) is third in the league, behind Edmonton QB Ricky Ray (108.1) and Montreal QB Anthony Calvillo (106.6).

After the first three games, Pierce was last among starters with a 60.5 per cent efficiency rating.

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca