Blue Bomber notebook

Posted: 1:00 AM CDT Monday, Jul. 16, 2012

A chastened Winnipeg Blue Bombers defensive back Jovon Johnson said Sunday he regretted his televised soliloquy on TSN Friday night, in which he boasted to a sideline camera what a fierce defender he is even while his team was getting shellacked 35-0 at the time by the Edmonton Eskimos.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/07/2012 (4923 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“At that point in the game, it was something that I shouldn’t have done,” Johnson told reporters after practice at Canad Inns Stadium on Sunday. “But honestly, it was a joke. It was something that (Edmonton) coach (Kavis) Reed always said to us when he was (Winnipeg’s defensive co-ordinator). It was definitely taken the wrong way, but at that point of the game, being down whatever we were down, I shouldn’t have said it. That’s why I made the apology (on his Twitter account over the weekend).”

After making an interception in the third quarter, TSN cameras found Johnson sitting on the Bomber sideline, and as the cameras rolled, Johnson proclaimed: “If you want to keep your job, stay away from 2 (his number). There’s a reason I was defensive player of the year (in 2011).”

Johnson was roundly criticized in the Twitterverse over the weekend for making such a personal boast at a time his team was so badly struggling.

“ë “è “è

CHAD Simpson says he’s ready, but Bombers head coach Paul LaPolice isn’t so sure.

The Bombers running back practised with the first-team offence on Sunday for the first time since he went down in training camp with an undisclosed injury that sounds a lot like a knee. And then Simpson emerged from the practice field and promptly declared himself ready to play as early as this Wednesday in Toronto against the Argos.

“I’ll be ready to go,” said Simpson, “if given the opportunity.”

Starting Winnipeg tailback Bloi-Dei Dorzon hasn’t been bad through three games when he’s been given the chance — he’s averaging 4.5 yards per carry, but has only carried the ball 24 times.

Still, the Bombers coaches have made clear they want to see what Simpson, a bona fide former NFLer, can do when he’s healthy.

The problem is it doesn’t sound like that time has come yet, even if Simpson thinks it has.

“He’s healthy in one direction, how about that?” said head coach Paul LaPolice. “He can run straight ahead. But usually a hole doesn’t work out that way in games… We’ll see — we’re going to practise him (today) and we’ll see how he is.”

Winnipeg Free Press
Chad Simpson — Winnipeg Free Press Chad Simpson

— Wiecek

Find a mirror

“We talked about looking internally. I said I was very hard on our coaching staff yesterday and I was hard on myself about, you know — are we teaching this the right way? Have we communicated that? Did we practise it? — to really put the onus on us internally. And then today, we did the same thing with the players.”

— Bombers head coach Paul LaPolice on what he told his team on Sunday after they returned to practice for the first time since getting shelled 42-10 by the Edmonton Eskimos Friday night

Whatever

“It’s a brand-new whatever it was. And whatever it was is fine.”

— Bombers running back Chad Simpson, who took some first-team reps at practice on Sunday for the first time since injuring himself in training camp, speaking in code about his injury because the Bombers never disclosed what it was