TBURGESS

I'm not in either end of the spectrum. I like some choices. I dislike others. I agree with some of what we've done. I disagree with a lot. I've followed this team since the 60's. I remember what it was like to go to the stadium expecting to win every game. I know what it's like to expect to lose every game. I was ecstatic when we were 5-1 out of the gate. I hoped I was wrong and we'd finally turned things around. I was disappointed when it turned out not to be true. I've had season tickets in Winnipeg, Calgary and BC. I went to 9 out of 10 Grey Cups in the 80's and 90's. I watched us win a cup in BC place and lose one in Calgary. I'm a fan of football in general and the Bombers in particular.

You're right -- taking the contrarian point of view toward every decision the club makes is a real fan. Fans come in all types from Kool aid chuggers who can't ever see anything bad to those who can't see anything good and everywhere in between. From those who can't afford season tickets to those who can afford to go to games even in other cities. From those who vote with their wallets to those to show their displeasure to those who buy anything Bombers including pigeon poop jersey's. From the sunshine, lollipops, rainbows and unicorn set who 'feel sorry for people who can't see just how good we will someday be' to the pessimistic Eyeore's who can't understand how we will ever win another game. All are fans. In a perfect world, they'd all be treated with the same respect.

and do you understand why that was? You know how undesirable a place you are for coaches when the average head coach gets 2 or 3 seasons before being fired and coordinators are lucky to get 1? Which proven coordinators do you suppose would want to come here if we fired the ones we have this year? You guys know that the lack of stability in the coacing and GM ranks is the reason guys like Stubler decided not to come here? No, I don't know that Stubler decided not to go to Winnipeg based on the lack of stability, and you don't either. Stability when you're winning is great. It's bad when you're losing. It creates an atmosphere of losing and it's incredibly hard to turn that around. Giving coaches more time to screw up doesn't make Winnipeg a better choice for other coaches. A winning team with a winning attitude makes it easier to sign coaches and players. Win or be replaced is better than we'll keep you around no matter what.

Buying season tickets isn't what makes a person a fan.

It's short sighted and doesn't take into account the starting point, and it's part of the reason why we've had this 25 year drought. Too many people have been fired because the instant results weren't there, or the team took a slight step back. All these knee jerk reactions because people only looked at wins and losses has done more damage to this team than anything. IMHO: Berry shouldn't have been fired when he was. PLAP was fired at a dumb time, they should have gotten rid of him and Mack during the previous off season when the replacements didn't all have jobs. Other than that, I can't think of anyone who was fired who didn't deserve to be. The real problem is that we continually hire inexperienced people to do jobs they've never done before for cheap. Most of them don't work out and we end up doing the same thing over again. Any time we hire an experience person, it's someone that no other team wanted for good reasons. Again, I expect they are cheaper than the experienced guys with good records. We've been looking for the next great young HC since Mike Riley since he left in 1990. If we really want to turn the Bombers losing ways around, spend the bucks on experienced people who already know what they are doing and have good reputations.

That sounds counter intuitive to me. If we lack talent across the board the sensible thing to do is get the best player out there. I'd make sure someone is going to play in the CFL this year but it doesn't matter what position. We used a canadian in the secondary all year, an upgrade there would be great, we need an upgrade on DL more than we need OL if you ask me, we used a linebacker most of the year, an upgrade there would be great. If there's a star type receiver that would be great, if there's an OL that'd be fantastic too. About the only position you don't need to worry about is RB and qb. Good teams are built from the lines out. If we don't upgrade our O line, it will be more of the same next year. Our QB will get beat up. Our RB will need to make yards on his own. Our receivers will have to run short routes because we won't have time to complete the long ball. We'll end up hoping that other teams fail so we can sneak into the playoffs. I'd like to see us pick up a D lineman but I'm hoping that one of our NFL DL's will be available. but we used 3 americans on the OL at times this year and it still sucked. If we upgrade another NI position and have the ability to play 3 imports on the OL we can improve it that way. In this day and age you don't have to hold to the antiquated thinking that you must play 5 NIs on the OL. I would suggest that improving the american content of the Ol would do more to make the line better than drafting an OL. Take the best NI in the draft and I don't care what position he plays. Quite frankly, we need to upgrade both the NI's and the Imp's on the O line. We used 3 Americans on the O line and still sucked. That's hardly a reason not to take our best shot at upgrading the NI O lineman. We don't have 3 starting grade NI O lineman now, no way we are finding 5 starting grade NI O linemen this off season. That being said, it would be a great way to use 5 NI's, if we had them. I suggest improving the import content across the board is better than looking for 3 starting import O lineman, especially considering how badly our O line was starting 3 of them. When we get to the point that we have a good starting 7 NI's, then take the best player no matter what. Until then, we need to fill the spots we NEED to upgrade RFN. Draft a couple each year. Dump the ones who don't work out within 3 years. Rinse and repeat until we have a solid O line with a couple of guys in the pipeline.

To a point, yes. No one is happy with the record or how the team played this year, and no one should be. Not the fans, not the management. But this group is not responsible for 25 years of futility and shouldn't be blamed for that. The question in my mind comes down to this. Did they do enough this year to keep their jobs. In that, you have to take into account the team / players they were given and where they are now. Personally, I'm dissapointed with the lack of new impact imports that were not brought in. Fixing the Canadian talent on this team is going to take time, and I can accept that. Recruiting imports should be where the staff is making their bread and butter. That area should be fixable in a shorter time period. I will give this group (Walters / O'Shea) at least one more season before I start calling for the winds of change. Did they do enough to keep their jobs? Great question. My take: Miller / Walters / O'Shea - Yes, barely. Some missteps, but generally OK. Nothing spectacular, but nothing to get fired over. MB / Etch / Tracey - Nope. We all know the problems, so no need to rehash them. Time to find better replacements, starting the day after our last game.

Too focused on wins and losses? You can't be too focused on wins in professional sports. It's what defines the team and the players and the coaches as winners or losers. O'Shea and company can only be blamed for this year's results, but this years results are no where near good enough. 8th in a 9 team league. Only beating the expansion team in points. Only beating 1 western opponent. Not winning since some time in August. These are all things that this group of management, scouts, coaches and players have to take blame for. You need to start comparing our team to the other teams in the league instead of last years, 'one of the worst teams in Bombers history' team. The only comparison that matters is how they play against the other teams.

Continuity is only good if you've got the right folks in place. Often the HC will have to pay with his job for an 8 or 9 game losing streak especially since we haven't won since August. OC/DC/SC jobs are always in jeopardy when teams miss the playoffs. It's not premature to fire coaches who aren't doing a good job as long as their are better replacements available. HC's usually get a chance to turn things around and a chance to change out coordinators to do it. GM's usually get at least one chance to fire an HC before they lose their jobs. I'd change all of our coordinators in the off season if I were O'Shea / Walters. MB's got the excuse of a rookie starting QB and a horrible O line. Etch doesn't have any excuses. He got the players he wanted to play his style of defense.

That sounds counter intuitive to me. If we lack talent across the board the sensible thing to do is get the best player out there. I'd make sure someone is going to play in the CFL this year but it doesn't matter what position. We used a canadian in the secondary all year, an upgrade there would be great, we need an upgrade on DL more than we need OL if you ask me, we used a linebacker most of the year, an upgrade there would be great. If there's a star type receiver that would be great, if there's an OL that'd be fantastic too. About the only position you don't need to worry about is RB and qb. Good teams are built from the lines out. If we don't upgrade our O line, it will be more of the same next year. Our QB will get beat up. Our RB will need to make yards on his own. Our receivers will have to run short routes because we won't have time to complete the long ball. We'll end up hoping that other teams fail so we can sneak into the playoffs. I'd like to see us pick up a D lineman but I'm hoping that one of our NFL DL's will be available.

Bad decision IMHO. Absolutely nothing to be gained by starting Willy and there's valuable experience to be gained by starting Marve and giving him the first team reps this week. Anyone want to bet that Willy plays the whole game unless he gets injured?

Take the best O lineman available at #2 who will most likely be in the CFL this year. It's our biggest need. Our NI talent isn't at a level where we can take the best player. regardless of the position he plays.

Toronto at 6-9 only has to lose to Montreal & Hamilton. Honestly, although very unlikely, Toronto going 1-2 and BC going 0-3 down the stretch isn't the most unlikely thing in the world. More likely than the Bombers winning out.

Doug Browns idea isn't that stupid. If we could get a 1st round pick or a starting NI O lineman for either Brohm or Marve, I'd make the trade. (I doubt the other GM's would go for it). I agree that it's Willy's team and that he should start if he's healthy, but I'd also like to see more of Marve so I see both sides of this argument.

One game and folks think other teams will be lining up to sign Brohm? He's a journeyman 30 year old QB who hasn't started and won a game in 7 years (His last college start) and he's got a broken thumb on his throwing hand. No CFL team is going to bring him in to compete for the starting QB job. Bidding war? Hardly. He'll take what he can get if he wants to continue to play football.

You didn't mention the Willy trade. Walters has done something that other GMs couldn't - get us a QB. That alone gives him an A in my books. Any of Collaros, Willy or Burris would have been a huge upgrade over last year. Walters couldn't make a bad choice at QB unless he decided he didn't want any of them.

If only the media had access to the assistant coaches. That's the problem. That's a different problem.

This type of depth chart is exactly what I want to see for the rest of the season. Younger guys getting a chance to prove they belong or to play themselves off of the team. I hope we've got a couple of receivers to take Bryant's and Kelly's spots next game.

I'd like to know what the options were. Someone in the media should have directly asked the question. My guess is that the only option was PR. If O'Shea offered the IR, then Grigsby would get a full paycheck this week which means he'd be an idiot to turn it down.

Worst idea yet.

Playing a new guy in place of a vet to see what we have for next season is exactly what I want the Bombers to do with the rest of the season. January's play has gone way down hill this year. I wouldn't be against replacing him with someone younger and cheaper next year.

Can someone give me a link to find the rule that you can't sign a player who was released after the trade deadline? (Just post the rule here if that's easier) I know you can't trade anyone, but once a player is cut, they aren't under contract and teams can sign players after the trade deadline. I guess was wrong about Smith. After watching him late last year, I thought he'd be a good one. I still think he's better than Brohm.

[sarcasm on] Asked and answered eh? Well that's it then. It can never be asked again, otherwise it's thought of as bitching. [/sarcasm Off] I'd love to know what the coordinators have to say for themselves. It's not about the media having a right to know... It's not good leadership for O'Shea to have to gag his coordinators in case they don't say the same things he would. Good leadership is selling your managers (Coordinators) that you are on the right course and having them to sell it to their people. Get buy in, and you don't have to worry what your coaches might say. In short you don't have to control the message yourself if your people believe in it.

maybe if fans could ask the questions but with our media here, you'd get nothing interesting at all. You may not understand it cuz you live out there in BC but the media here are pathetic and you'd learn absolutely nothing new from them if they were to speak with the assistant coaches. Can say what you want out there on the west coast but don't think you can truly understand unless you live here. That's absolute hogwash. I can and do truly understand, not because I live or lived in Winnipeg, but because I watch the media scrums and read the Winnipeg papers online. The only thing I can't do from out here on the coast is go to the practices. Most around here don't do that either,

Why the reporters aren't allowed to talk to the coordinators is a valid question. I'd like to know what they have to say... Wouldn't you?