Keeping up for new adventure

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This article was published 16/02/2016 (3523 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The dots are easy to connect and Jeff Keeping will gladly help anyone interested to draw the lines that brought him to Winnipeg and the Blue Bombers.

He is 33 and on the back nine of an 11-year Canadian Football League career. He played with and for Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea, and Keeping and his wife and two young sons were looking for one more adventure in the three-down game.

And so when the Bombers came courting last week with a chance to pack up and head west to play a veteran/leadership role with the club’s young Canadians on the offensive line, the Uxbridge, Ont., product was eager to listen.

“Why am I a Bomber? It’s pretty straightforward, to be honest,” Keeping said Monday from Toronto during a telephone interview. “Free agency was coming up and I know that people — media, fans alike — don’t expect a guy who has been with one club for his whole career to leave. But for me and my family right now, we are extremely excited to be coming to Winnipeg.

“First and foremost, coach O’Shea was a huge factor in my decision. I spent my first three years as a teammate (of O’Shea’s with the Toronto Argonauts) and actually played defence for two of those three years, so we worked hand in hand… He took me under his wing back then, just as a couple other guys did — Jude St. John and Chad Folk — and taught me how to be a pro. I was coached by him when he did special teams with the Argos, and I think it’s a unique opportunity to come and play for him.

“We feel refreshed and excited to try something different. I’ve had a yearning to play in one of those football markets.”

The Argos have undergone a makeover this winter, with receiver/return Chad Owens (Hamilton Tiger-Cats), quarterback Trevor Harris (Ottawa Redblacks), kicker Swayze Waters (Carolina Panthers of NFL), linebacker Greg Jones and running back Curtis Steele (Saskatchewan Roughriders) all exiting, as well as both Keeping and defensive tackle Euclid Cummings heading to Winnipeg.

At the same time, Toronto has added O-linemen Josh Bourke (Montreal Alouettes) and Corey Watman (Saskatchewan), defensive tackle Brian Bulcke (Hamilton), defensive back Keon Raymond (Calgary Stampeders) and ex-Bombers kicker Lirim Hajrullahu.

The Argos and southern Ontario, meanwhile, are all Keeping has known dating to his high school days and college career at Western Ontario (he signed with the Alouettes as a free agent in 2008, but missed the entire season with a knee injury and returned to the Argos the following season).

But change can be good, as the old saying goes, and Keeping’s versatility — he has played guard, centre, tackle, fullback and defensive end — still makes him a good fit for a Bombers team looking for all the talent it can get, especially if a guy comes with a Canadian passport.

“I feel good about the move,” said Keeping. “There’s a comfort factor where you get into a groove and are doing the same thing. But playing with the Argos the last few years, nothing’s really been the same. It’s been all about change. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited about getting to practice in that stadium and getting to use those facilities. I like what that team has done to put together some key pieces.

“I’m coming in there in a support role. It’s a good opportunity for me… there’s some great young players on the O-line that I think I can help in a support role and push them to get their best game out. I’ll come in and support Sukh Chungh, Matthias Goossen and (Patrick) Neufeld. Injuries happen and if that kind of situation comes into play, I’ll be ready to go.”

Keeping and his wife, Marcia, have two sons — Bowen, who turns three next month, and Cormac, born little more than a month ago. And so while uprooting a young family isn’t always easy, Keeping said the chance to play for O’Shea made the move a no-brainer. Of course, all this also works two ways: with O’Shea desperately in need of wins heading into the final year of his contract, there is that win-or-else pressure percolating.

O’Shea knows what he’s going to get from Keeping on a daily basis. And vice-versa.

“It’s his passion… there’s a gravitational pull to him,” Keeping said of his new/old coach. “He cares about this game, about this league, the players and coaches so much that guys really get inspired by that. It’s that same-old cliché, but guys want to run through the wall for a guy like that.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait