ONE UP ON BUD: HOW COACH MIKE O'SHEA PASSED THE BLUE BOMBERS LEGEND
Let’s start today with a Bud Grant story that I’ve probably told here before.
With Grant now falling to No. 2 on the all-time Blue Bombers list for regular-season victories as a head coach, behind Mike O’Shea, it’s worth re-telling.
It was early in O’Shea’s time in Winnipeg, and Grant was in town for the unveiling of his statue outside the stadium.
I wanted to get his take on O’Shea, who hadn’t exactly got off to a great start. Whatever Grant said would make for an attention-grabbing headline and story.
I got the legend alone for a few minutes and asked if he’d met the new coach of the Bombers.
He said yes, he had.
So I asked the kind of open-ended question that I’ve been trained to ask, the kind that’s almost fool-proof, guaranteed to get a usable answer: “What did you think?”
The legend looked right at me with those steel blue eyes of his and came back with three words.
“That’s your job.”
I was speechless. Defeated, even.
At 89, the man was as sharp as ever, knew exactly what I was after and wasn’t about to let me have it without working for it myself.
I related this story to O’Shea in the days leading up to Saturday’s Banjo Bowl.
His reply: “I’m not that smart.”
Maybe not, but he’s got one on Bud now, the 26-21 win over Saskatchewan giving him 103 to Bud’s 102.
There’s no point in asking O’Shea about his place in franchise history. He’ll treat that line of questioning like he treated ball carriers when he was a middle linebacker: with disdain.
He did manage a few words, post-game, getting a touch sentimental, even, with his wife, Richere, standing at the back of the room.
“There’s just so many people that have been here for a huge chunk of it, that make it very easy every single day, not only to be successful but just to come to work every single day,” O’Shea said. “My family’s been there for all of it. The 60-something losses that they feel, too. It is what it is. Over time these numbers just add up.
“But I don’t think we’re a numbers-based team. We’re a process-based team and we’ve got a whole basement full of people that are all-in on the process. And the outcomes, they just happen.”
Previously, O’Shea has said his name doesn’t even belong in the same breath as Grant’s, when you look at the late legend’s years in the NFL.
And he does remain two Grey Cup championships shy of Grant’s four.
But it’s no small feat to top Grant’s win total.
Blue Bombers All-Time Coaching Victories
Regular Season
Head Coach Seasons Games W-L-T Win% Grey Cups
So with the Bombers on a bye week, let’s revisit some of the things his players and fellow coaches have said about O’Shea leading up to his milestone moment.
Defensive coordinator Jordan Younger
Younger played with O’Shea in Toronto, played under him there when O’Shea coached special teams and has coached next to him in Winnipeg for six seasons.
“This is a game where some head coaching styles tend to be abrasive. Do-what-I-say kind of style,” Younger said. “With Mike O’Shea it’s just teach. ‘I’m going to just show you what you did wrong, show you how you can do it better.’ And as long as you’re putting the work in and getting better each week, he’ll stay with you.
“That type of loyalty in this game, that type of willingness to be patient, is different. That patience has paid off over time.”
Asked about O’Shea’s reluctance to talk about himself, Younger wasn’t surprised.
“This is a team thing to him,” he said. “Everything revolves around us and we. And when you make it about his individual accomplishments, he feels like it takes away from what we as a group accomplish. I understand that it’s worth celebrating. It’s a hell of an accomplishment. But we won’t talk about it much.”
Offensive coordinator Buck Pierce
Pierce is the longest-serving member of O’Shea’s staff, joining the team as running backs coach in 2014, O’Shea’s first at the helm.
As the possibility of win No. 103 approached, Pierce talked about the human side of his boss more than the football side.
“More of a mentor,” Pierce said. “You learn a lot of football, you learn a lot about people. He cares about people. He’s helped me and my family tremendously.”
Pierce has had chances to go elsewhere, but O’Shea is one of the reasons he’s stayed in Winnipeg.
“It keeps coming back to I’m happy… and just the type of atmosphere it is here. Win or lose, we know what to expect.”
Defensive end Willie Jefferson
Since coming to Winnipeg in 2019, Jefferson has become a team leader.
Like Pierce, he sees his head coach as much more than a football mind.
“I absolutely love Coach O’Shea,” Jefferson said. “He has stepped into a father-figure role for me. Off the field, all his advice, his leadership, the way that he carries himself… he carries that over from his family to the players, too. He treats all the players like they’re his kids, per se. He doesn’t push us that way, he just kind of leads us that way.”
Not that O’Shea isn’t demanding. Every successful coach is.
But he combines an old-school mentality with a current approach.
“He’s never been one of those guys that cusses you out on the sideline, cusses you out in practice, comes at you, yells in your face, like the old-school, harsh coach,” Jefferson said. “But you still want a coach that holds you accountable, that pushes you, that wants you to be the best on and off the field, wants you to grow as a man. He shows you.”
While O’Shea is not known for his motivational speeches, one does stand out for Jefferson: what O’Shea told his team before the 2019 West Final in Saskatchewan.
It was a reference to the Vikings, who would burn their boats when landing for a battle. With no way to get home, they knew they had no choice but to conquer.
“Burn the ships,” is how Jefferson recalled the stirring message. “We were on a roll, and we’re just going out there to do what we had to do and we’re not worried about the way back. You can just look at him in his eyes, in his face, and just tell how motivated he is.”
Quarterback Zach Collaros
Collaros last week echoed what Jefferson said about his coach: that his impact extends beyond the walls of the football facility.
“His attitude, the way he carries himself, the way he leads every day, are things that I try to emulate,” Collaros said. “Not just here, but at my home. Trying to set a good example for my family. I’ve been around some really good people, and he’s probably at the top of that list.”
The quarterback related the story of asking for time off when his grandmother died during training camp last year.
“It was no issue at all,” Collaros said. “He said something along the lines of, ‘This is what I’m here for. Things like this. I can tell she was very special to you.’ He doesn’t just treat me that way because I’m the quarterback. He treats everyone the same way.”
Earlier this season, when O’Shea was about to pass Grant in the number of games coached, Collaros was even more effusive in his praise.
“One of the best coaches I’ve ever been around, if not the best coach,” he said. “I love him to death. Fiercely loyal. Crazy competitive. Can also bring you into his office and talk you through a hard time you’re having. He’s just the ultimate coach, the ultimate communicator. And I’m very, very fortunate to have spent so much time around him in my career.
“He’s just a deep thinker. It’s cool to be around.”
Receiver Drew Wolitarsky
A chat with Wolitarsky last week produced a story about O’Shea spending hours teaching rookie lineman Liam Dobson how to drive a couple years ago.
The coach would pick Dobson up early in the morning and help him put in the hours to get his driver’s license.
“That’s just above and beyond,” Wolitarsky said.
As for the impact O’Shea has had on him, Wolitarsky points to the art of being a leader.
“He kept me on that track and taught me how,” Wolitarsky said. “And sometimes he’d have a hard conversation with me about my role and not maybe saying something when I should have. Pressing me to be a better leader and a better person and a better man.”
Defensive lineman Jake Thomas
The longest-serving Bombers player, Thomas joined the team two years before O’Shea took over, continuing to lose those first two seasons but seeing first-hand how O’Shea’s way turned the franchise around.
“He’s a man of strong core values,” Thomas told me. “He’s a leader of men. Year-in, year-out, guys would always run through a wall for him. He’s just so authentic. He’s not sugar-coating anything. He’s not trying to hide anything. He is who he is.”
Thomas, who played his 200th game for the franchise on the weekend, says his coach has a knack for knowing what buttons to push.
“He can get fired up,” he said. “For the most part it’s just nudges in certain directions.”
Offensive lineman Pat Neufeld
Neufeld also arrived in Winnipeg before his coach, in a late-season trade from Saskatchewan. But his first games in blue and gold came in O’Shea’s first season.
The No. 1 thing O’Shea has instilled in the locker-room, Neufeld says, is the deep appreciation players have for their teammates.
That sentiment shows through on the rare occasion O’Shea talks about his own playing days.
“It’s the biggest reason why we’ve had success in the last five or six years, because of how much we care about each other,” Neufeld said. “And that comes from him. You can see how much it means to him. He continually talks about that: all the inspiration you need is the guy next to you, knowing the sacrifice they put into this crazy job that we do.”
Wins are the byproduct.
Saturday’s historic one cemented O’Shea’s status.
“Legendary,” is how Neufeld put it, post-game. “Can’t say enough great things about him as a leader. I wouldn’t want to have another head coach.”
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2024-09-14T10:47:57Z dg43tfdfdgfd