There is gratitude and appreciation in Mike O’Shea’s voice. And his ever-present but understated confidence, too.
And yet, not long after jotting his signature onto a three-year contract extension to remain in Winnipeg with the Blue Bombers – news that has been universally hailed everywhere in Bomberland – there is more than a hint of frustration still lingering from the Grey Cup loss to the Toronto Argonauts.
All that, and some of the administrative challenges which come in every offseason, hardly had O’Shea with his feet up on his desk puffing on a stogie to celebrate his contract extension. Nor did he feel in the mood to take a step back for a big-picture view of what he has helped build since being named the Blue Bombers head coach in December of 2013.
Still, in a wide-ranging, hour-long chat with bluebombers.com – an abridged version of which follows – the 52-year-old proud product of North Bay, Ont. offered up some honest opinions on everything from the 2022 Grey Cup, the highs and lows that come with the coaching profession, to life in Winnipeg, to how travel can serve as an escape.
Question: OK, so now that the contract is done – and understanding it’s always about living in the moment and the Grey Cup loss still stings – can you take a step back and burst with pride and what you’ve helped build here over the years?
Mike O’Shea: It’s pretty pleasing to see. But I would say ‘bursting with pride’ would be an overstatement for me, especially right now. This last loss still stings, and it taints things. That’s the unfortunate reality, and I said it at the last press conference – you wear the losses harder than you enjoy the wins. So, ‘pride’ – at least, right now – would be a stretch.
Q: You’ve made it quite clear a loss like that can stick forever. Is that the nature of your gig and the nature of professional sports? Why can’t you still enjoy the good times, the back-to-back Grey Cup championships?
MOS: Why? Because you get fired when you lose. Nobody cares what we did two years ago. Now, I’m not worried about being fired after just signing a new contract. but if you’re asking why coaches in general tend to think that way, it’s because Jason Maas was the head coach in Edmonton and has a winning percentage close to the .600 range (39-33) and he gets canned. This is why coaches take the losses harder. It’s the adage, ‘What have you done for me lately?’
You run into people around town who tell you how pleased they’ve been with the last bunch of years, but when does that wane? If you keep this staff together, I don’t think it wanes, in fact I think it gets better. But what if for some reason the record doesn’t reflect that?
I’ve always said there are reasons why you win and lose every week and we evaluate all of them. So a general question: why do winning staffs sometimes lose their jobs? I don’t know… it’s because someone grew impatient. Why do coaches wear the losses heavy? Because of all that.
Q: This is where I would say, ‘Coaches know this when they sign up for the job…’
MOS: But I don’t know that coaches really understand this when they sign up for a job. I honestly don’t know that, especially the ones that played – and I’m not trying to segregate two different coaching backgrounds.
Q: Geez, I don’t want to say that’s emotionally unhealthy but, man…
MOS: It is unhealthy. That’s a good word. It has me crusty and it’s probably going to take me until training camp not to be crusty.
Q: You’ll wear it that long?
MOS: Probably. You’ll need to see the guys back in the building and showing up and each other’s company and being back on the practice field. Just watching their interactions, that will bring back some joy. I don’t want it to take that long, but I’m being realistic.
That’s what it’s going to take.
Back to ‘this is what you signed up for’… I honestly don’t know if that’s true. Maybe that’s just me, but I don’t think it is.
Q: There will always be those outside pressures every year though, right? In 2019 it was the shadow of long drought hovering above. In 2021 it was the pressure of going back-to-back. Then this past year it was notion of going after three in a row. Is that part of why coaches don’t enjoy the wins as much, because there will always be something else providing the pressure?
MOS: Yup. Exactly. Look, I don’t want to sound like Debbie Downer here. This isn’t probably what people want to hear. But it’s what I’m honestly feeling right now. I don’t mean it to sound like this.
Q: Hey, we like honest answers. Let me ask you this: even though you spoke of your commitment to the Blue Bombers when asked about it during Grey Cup week, until the deal was signed a lot of people were concerned you may be considering leaving. So, you must understand a lot of reaction to this news has been ‘thank goodness he’s staying and that he likes it here.’
MOS: I do like it here, even when it’s -30. The sun is shining through my window. I love the passion the fans have for our team. It’s incredible. It’s incredible what people relay to you on a daily basis when you’re out and about. It truly is. It’s not like that in most markets.
Q: I’ll build on that a bit, if I can. You had been here during your playing days once or twice a year. People here often say you’ve got to live here to get it. Clearly you and your family get it now, right?
MOS: When we got here the city was a little bit of a mystery. I’m curious by nature and I enjoy driving around and figuring the city out. Then, over the course of time you meet people that help give you a perspective on their view of the city and why they feel the way they do about the great things this city has to offer that most people travelling through would never get a taste of.
The city is not the business. I don’t know if that makes sense.
Q: Expand on that…
MOS: To me, this city stands alone and easily stands up on its own. Even if you take the business aside, the business that brought me here and the transient part of it, I think this city stands on its own. I really do. And that’s coming from an outsider who has been here nine years now. There’s lots of great things. Now, I don’t get to enjoy some of the summer – which is so fantastic here – because my off time is the winter, and it is a different city in the winter. There’s lots to do in the winter and I do get out and enjoy a lot of the things Winnipeg and Manitoba has to offer.
Q: I go back to that call you had in (2010) when Jim Barker was coaching the Argos and he caught you in that moment when you were in a commute in Toronto while working in the medical sales industry and offered you a coaching job. So, what’s the ‘high’ from coaching that keeps you doing it, compared to stepping away and going back to medical sales or any other possible aspirations? I’m sure you’ve had other opportunities.
MOS: The highs are just being able to witness the players coming together as a team.
Q: You often talk about that, about your favourite moments, even as a player, being watching others celebrate. Does that still serve as the biggest high?
MOS: It’s not just the celebration, it’s the interaction. It could be any interaction. It could be tough interactions, too. But seeing them come together during a course of a season, those moments on the practice field or in the stadium are pretty cool.
Q: If I asked you to give me an example of that, would one be that moment when Jake Thomas gets the Grey Cup from the commissioner at the 2019 Grey Cup? Is that what you mean? Are there specific moments that jump out or is it the collection of them?
MOS: What’s interesting is different things strike me differently. It could be something that happens in warm-up or practice where a couple of guys are doing something you don’t expect that’s ridiculous, but they don’t care because they just feel so comfortable.
It could be how two guys react when they make a play in the pre-season, and they don’t even really know each other yet. It could be the appreciation one player shows another for something they did. It could be how one player holds another accountable and you see a guy change. It’s not all just high-fives and handshakes.
It’s when the young guys come in and don’t quite get it and the vets take them under their wing and spend more time with them and you see how the conversations change the young guy from when he’s there for rookie camp and you say, ‘OK, he gets it now’ and he gets it because he’s been spending so much time with a vet who gets it.
Those moments… for me there’s an interesting emotional response when I get to see those things happen and I realize how hard these guys are working to try and become that team. I don’t think I take ‘pride’ in that necessarily, because I’m not sticking my fingers into any of that. I just have an appreciation of that. I’m grateful for the guys we have in the building and how hard they work at it.
Q: Is there a ‘high’ you get from the Xs and Os? A scheme, an adjustment, something above the high from those moments you talk about? Like, if you implemented something that led to a punt block, or you see Buck Pierce and the offensive staff come up with a wrinkle on offence that works or something on defence you, Richie Hall and his staff come up with?
MOS: I enjoy that. But I’m more pleased for the staff member who generated this idea and was creative. It’s like Hannibal from ‘The A Team’ when he said he loved it when a plan came together.
Q: What are the things that help you escape, then? You have mentioned before in conversations that you like to travel. Do you need to physically escape now to help put the Grey Cup behind you?
MOS: What I’m realizing is it’s not idle travel with me, because then I’m just thinking about football anyway. I need to be thinking about something else and I’m trying to discover this more this offseason. I think I have an idea about it. Sometimes it’s about experiencing something new that you have to pay attention to the entire time, so that didn’t give me time to think.
The idea of going somewhere serene, somewhere geographically beautiful, would certainly do wonders, but I don’t know if it would get me there completely. I’m realizing I have to immerse myself in something that requires my attention to get my attention off football.
Q: Do you mean a trip to a historical site or city, then? Something like that?
MOS: Yes. A place where there is stuff I need to take in, where I’m constantly reading the information in front of me and contemplating it in that moment. Once again, I’m naturally curious and that stuff keeps the other things at bay for a little while. That’s where the mental break comes in for me.
Q: Is that ‘mental break’ coming soon, then?
MOS: It is. Again, maybe this doesn’t sound as upbeat as it should. I don’t mean it to be that way. It’s just the cycle we’re in business-wise makes this an odd time for me right now. Everything is still so raw. Like I said, it’s going to take a while for that to go away.
So, let me say just how grateful I am for the Bombers and the fans and for Winnipeg. We really have built something terrific here.
