Wiecek Article: Pressure Mounts On And Off Field For MOS

[Noeller]

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/football/bombers/snappy-hed-373580051.html#st_refDomain=t.co&st_refQuery=/QmAbKLelGf

He’s got a football team counting on him.

And he’s got a city of frustrated football fans counting on him.

But it wasn’t until our discussion this week turned to the wife and three children that are also counting on him that it became clear just how much weight Mike O’Shea feels pressing down upon him right now as he heads into what is a make-or-break season for the beleaguered Winnipeg Football Club.

Make no mistake — one of two things is going to happen in 2016: either the Blue Bombers are going to make the playoffs for the first time since 2011, or the head coach — and probably a few others in the Bombers front office — are going to be looking for a new job.

And it’s that latter prospect, and what it would do to his young family, that this week brought tears to the eyes of one of the most feared linebackers the Canadian game has ever known.

Yes, you read that right: Mike O’Shea cries. And yes, it was uncomfortable to watch — and not just because it was happening in a crowded restaurant.

"I’m getting emotional now and I’ll tell you why," the Bombers head coach said over lunch this week. "I’ve got a great family. They really do a good job in making their dad feel comfortable at work…

"They’re doing more than holding up their end."

The question heading into this season is whether O’Shea can now hold up his end of a family bargain that saw his wife, Richere, and the couple’s three children — Michael, 16,  Ailish, 13 and Aisling, 10 — leave the only home they ever knew in southern Ontario in 2014 to follow O’Shea to Winnipeg so he could fulfill his dream of being a pro football head coach.

It was a bold move for a young family that O’Shea had gone to extraordinary lengths to protect from the itinerant pro football lifestyle. Indeed, O’Shea says he played his entire 16-year CFL career with just two teams in Toronto and Hamilton — turning down, he says, more lucrative offers to play in Western Canada — precisely so he wouldn’t have to uproot his family.

So moving to Winnipeg was a big thing for the entire O’Shea family. And now that they’ve finally settled in — his son is on high school football and hockey teams, his daughters are competitive gymnasts, the family spent the entire winter here, save for a week-long Bombers cruise — the idea that they’d have to move again this year because O’Shea’s head coaching dream turned into a nightmare weighs on the man of the house.

Don’t misunderstand — he says he is at peace with the fact 2016 is the final year of his three-year contract with the Bombers and there is going to be no contract extension on offer until there are first some winning results on display.

Head coaches who go 12-24 in their first two seasons don’t get contract extensions and O’Shea accepts that.

What troubles him  more, however, is that he cannot insulate his family from the uncertainty. "I’ve just realized recently that my kids really do follow all that stuff (on social media)," said O’Shea. "So it’d be naive for me to think they don’t know about the contract or lack thereof. All of that stuff — they understand...

"And that comes as bit of a shock to me — that they know more maybe than I want them to."

Now make no mistake: O’Shea is not unique. Almost every head coach in pro sports also has a team at home that is counting on him.

And O’Shea is not complaining, either. I dragged this stuff about his family out of him because it interests me to know how a guy in the spotlight copes with the vagaries of chronic job insecurity when those lights are turned off and the house is quiet and it’s just you alone in the dark with your thoughts.

The answer, it seems, is you spend a lot more time worrying about how it will affect those around you than you do about how it affect yourself.

The good news for O’Shea is that while there is no room for error in 2016, he will have by far the best team he’s had in Winnipeg with which to work.

Off-season free agent signings in Weston Dressler and Ryan Smith will make the receiving corps spectacularly better. A defensive line rid of underperformers and bolstered by some other free agent acquisitions, including Canadian Keith Shologan, will be better. The signing of all-star kicker Justin Medlock gives some much needed consistency to special teams. The Canadian content overall will be deeper, including a ratio changer at running back in Winnipegger Andrew Harris.

And, most important, with a proven backup QB in Matt Nichols behind a proven starting QB in Drew Willy, the Bombers are deeper at quarterback this year than they’ve been in a decade.

So the team around him has changed. But has O’Shea?

He admits to making mistakes in his first two years as Bombers boss, but they’re mostly detail stuff rather than big-picture. And so, for instance, O’Shea takes full blame for that blocked field goal in 2014 that cost the Bombers a win against Saskatchewan — poor scheme, he says — but he doesn’t see much in his general approach that needs to change.

He rejects a popular criticism that he should hold individual players more accountable — either on the sideline or before the microphone — and he says it’s simply not true he worries too much about players liking him and not enough about them fearing him.

"I can’t deny I still want to be one of the guys," says O’Shea,  "but that doesn’t mean I want them to be my buddies... I’d love to still be playing…

"But for 16 years, I watched what works and doesn’t work with a coach. And what doesn’t work is a lack of authenticity. I’m just not that guy who’s going to publicly display some player getting in (trouble)...I’m not going to put on a show."

And so while the team around him in 2016 will look different, don’t expect O’Shea to look different. And that includes the shorts he wears on the sidelines during games — which have filled both my mailbox and the Bombers mailbox with emails of complaint from fans.

The shorts are comfortable, he says. And they’re practical, he says. But as we’re walking out towards the parking lot, he also admits the shorts are here to stay for another reason. "If I stopped wearing them now," he tells me, "people would think it was because they complained."

You want to see stubborn? Try those shorts on for size. And then text me a picture on your Blackberry, something O’Shea also clings to.

"This phone works fine," he says. "What do I need an iPhone for?"

The man is who he is, in other words. And for all the worry about his family and his team and the upcoming season and what a very uncertain future holds, he says that, yes, he is willing to die on that hill.

"I would just die quicker," he says, "if I pretended to be someone I’m not."

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

 

[Noeller]

I've always believed that this guy is the coach we've been desperately looking for, for so long. Best coach since Ritchie, by a mile. I understand that the results aren't there, and if that continues, he'll be gone. Having said that, I think he's going to be one of the all time great coaches one day, and if we let him go now, it'll be a huge mistake. 

In the end, here's hoping the results come fast and furious to start the year and they lock him in with a 3 year extension.....

[TBURGESS]

O'Shea is just another in a long line of Bomber rookie HC's that's in over his head. Comparing him to Dave Richie, our last good HC is a joke. Richie was a GC winning HC with 5 years experience, who'd never missed the playoffs when we hired him. He missed the playoffs in his first year as a Bomber HC then made them for 4 straight years including a GC run. We were 7-10 in 2000, but 5 of the wins were in the last 8 games and we lost one of them by a single point. O'Shea's has a .333 winning percentage, most of his wins are in the first half of the seasons, hasn't made the playoffs yet, lost more games in his second season than his first even tho he had a better backup QB and hasn't even won 2 games in a row for more than a year. 

O'Shea won't change and that's part of the problem. He believes he's right even tho the results say otherwise. He won't hold his players accountable. He won't get rid of under performing players. He'll make excuse after excuse for sub-par play. He won't even change the way he dresses because then people will think it's because they complained? Really? 

[Mike]

7 minutes ago, TBURGESS said:

O'Shea is just another in a long line of Bomber rookie HC's that's in over his head. Comparing him to Dave Richie, our last good HC is a joke. Richie was a GC winning HC with 5 years experience, who'd never missed the playoffs when we hired him. He missed the playoffs in his first year as a Bomber HC then made them for 4 straight years including a GC run. We were 7-10 in 2000, but 5 of the wins were in the last 8 games and we lost one of them by a single point. O'Shea's has a .333 winning percentage, most of his wins are in the first half of the seasons, hasn't made the playoffs yet, lost more games in his second season than his first even tho he had a better backup QB and hasn't even won 2 games in a row for more than a year. 

O'Shea won't change and that's part of the problem. He believes he's right even tho the results say otherwise. He won't hold his players accountable. He won't get rid of under performing players. He'll make excuse after excuse for sub-par play. He won't even change the way he dresses because then people will think it's because they complained? Really? 

Nothing in this piece really says any of that.

[TBURGESS]

8 minutes ago, Mike said:

Nothing in this piece really says any of that.

Quote

He rejects a popular criticism that he should hold individual players more accountable...  he doesn’t see much in his general approach that needs to change... 

You don't think that means he believes he's right?  I submit Kuale and Hurl as examples of players who weren't performing that he wouldn't get rid of and he made excuses for. 

[Mike]

3 minutes ago, TBURGESS said:

You don't think that means he believes he's right?  I submit Kuale and Hurl as examples of players who weren't performing that he wouldn't get rid of and he made excuses for. 

You don't really know how accountable he holds players. I've been critical of him hanging onto Kuale as well, but that's one instance and it was two years ago. Hurl wasn't as bad as everyone thinks, although he is a popular whipping boy. We'll see where he fits in this year.

[TBURGESS]

11 minutes ago, Mike said:

You don't really know how accountable he holds players. I've been critical of him hanging onto Kuale as well, but that's one instance and it was two years ago. Hurl wasn't as bad as everyone thinks, although he is a popular whipping boy. We'll see where he fits in this year.

I know that he doesn't hold his players publicly accountable and you really don't know if he holds them privately accountable.  Kuale was one example, not the only example... how about Romby Bryant and Greg Peach?

[Mike]

7 minutes ago, TBURGESS said:

I know that he doesn't hold his players publicly accountable and you really don't know if he holds them privately accountable.  Kuale was one example, not the only example... how about Romby Bryant and Greg Peach?

I do, but I won't bother getting into it because I know you won't buy into anything related to that anyways without proof.

[Stickem]

Far better talent to work with....improvement in the coaching ranks...it's totally up to Mike now...NO excuses....I expect to see a far different result than we have been witnessing the last few years...With all of the changes, I'm optimistic for sure....now O'Shea has to deliver.

[Noeller]

I am still really skeptical of Lapo as OC, but hope to God he can find a way to keep Drew Willy upright. Do that, and we're in every game...

[Mr Dee]

1 hour ago, TBURGESS said:

Comparing him to Dave Richie, our last good HC is a joke. 

Since Dave Ritchie, not compared to Richie..

and hasn't even won 2 games in a row for more than a year. 

Unlike you, who hasn't failed to mention this in every second thread for more than a year..

He won't hold his players accountable.

Not that we know...

He won't get rid of under performing players.

Except the ones they got rid of..

He won't even change the way he dresses because then people will think it's because they complained? Really? 

The way he dresses? Really? Petty complaint.. 

 

[MOBomberFan]

I miss my Blackberry. Way to stick to your guns O'Shea!

[Fatty Liver]

1 hour ago, Noeller said:

I've always believed that this guy is the coach we've been desperately looking for, for so long. Best coach since Ritchie, by a mile. I understand that the results aren't there, and if that continues, he'll be gone. Having said that, I think he's going to be one of the all time great coaches one day, and if we let him go now, it'll be a huge mistake. 

In the end, here's hoping the results come fast and furious to start the year and they lock him in with a 3 year extension.....

One thing to consider, compared to most HC's O'Shea has been a coach for a relatively short time period since retiring as a player in 2009.  Most coaches are failed players who would have joined the coaching profession at the bottom rung in their early 20's after their playing careers were terminated by lack of skill or injury. 

O'shea is 45 and he got his first job in coaching when he was 39 after a lengthy 16 year professional career.  There are exceptions to be sure but for the most part head coaches have 15-20 years of apprentice coaching in their pocket before they get a shot at the big job.  O'Shea is a very inexperienced coach no matter how you look at it.

[Noeller]

Some will laugh, I'm sure, but the biggest thing I got out of this article was "That's a man....that's what every guy should strive to be"...

[Noeller]

1 minute ago, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

One thing to consider, compared to most HC's O'Shea has been a coach for a relatively short time period since retiring as a player in 2009.  Most coaches are failed players who would have joined the coaching profession at the bottom rung in their early 20's after their playing careers were terminated by lack of skill or injury. 

O'shea is 45 and he got his first job in coaching when he was 39 after a lengthy 16 year professional career.  There are exceptions to be sure but for the most part head coaches have 15-20 years of apprentice coaching in their pocket before they get a shot at the big job.  O'Shea is a very inexperienced coach no matter how you look at it.

and man I'd hate to be the team that gave him the experience so he could become a legend in Toronto........like, sick to my stomach....

[rebusrankin]

What evidence is there that MOS is poised to become an all-time great coach? Just to compare, Wally was 22-13-1 in his first two years and Matthews was 23-8-1. Hugh Campbell was 20-10-2. MOS is 12-24.

[Noeller]

Not for nothing, but I'd be curious to compare the rosters of all those teams...see who had what to work with.

[Mr Dee]

What evidence? The evidence is more testimonial than record-backing, but there is belief. Belief that with a better lineup, there will be better performance. Better performance should translate into more wins..and better records. We want them for our team, not for future OShea teams.

 

[kelownabomberfan]

58 minutes ago, MOBomberFan said:

I miss my Blackberry. Way to stick to your guns O'Shea!

I agree. The old ways are the best ways.  That's why I type out every post on my IBM Selectric and have my secretary post it on the website. 

[kelownabomberfan]

43 minutes ago, Noeller said:

Not for nothing, but I'd be curious to compare the rosters of all those teams...see who had what to work with.

Yeah I would like to see what Don Matthews would have done with Brian Brohm.

[rebusrankin]

I'll ask it again, point blank Noeller, what has MOS done to make anybody think he's going to be an all-time great coach?

[kelownabomberfan]

7 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

I'll ask it again, point blank Noeller, what has MOS done to make anybody think he's going to be an all-time great coach?

I wonder how many times Bud Grant cried during an interview? That being said if Grant were interviewed by Wiechek he would probably break down in tears at how far the quality of journalism has fallen in Winnipeg since his era.  "I knew Vince Leah. Vince Leah didn't wear earrings!!"

[sweep the leg]

The shorts issue is arguably the stupidest head coach related issue of all time.  I loved his answer to it. Keep them just to spite the complainers is exactly what I would do.  

[iso_55]

4 hours ago, Noeller said:

I've always believed that this guy is the coach we've been desperately looking for, for so long. Best coach since Ritchie, by a mile. I understand that the results aren't there, and if that continues, he'll be gone. Having said that, I think he's going to be one of the all time great coaches one day, and if we let him go now, it'll be a huge mistake. 

In the end, here's hoping the results come fast and furious to start the year and they lock him in with a 3 year extension.....

No, don't agree. He wasn't ready having never been a DC. Only been coaching for a few years in Toronto. Why would it be a mistake for him to be let go?  Why would we regret it? If he wins somewhere else, I don't care. If the Bombers make the playoffs, he will get an extension. If he doesn't then he'll be let go. This is a cutthroat business. Results are everything.

The only thing I hope is

2 hours ago, Noeller said:

I am still really skeptical of Lapo as OC, but hope to God he can find a way to keep Drew Willy upright. Do that, and we're in every game...

So, that means if the Bombers struggle you'll only throw LaPo under the bus? From your comments O'Shea walks on water & is a coaching superstar. Coaching is a collaborative effort; a team within a team. if one fails they all do & he is the guy who hired his assistaants. He has to win, bottom line. This is it as he has some tools to work with. I feel for his family as he knows with each loss the chances of him coming back here next year are reduced. Tough life.... I just hope guys like Wiecek & Friesen remember that before they rip into him this season.

[iso_55]

1 hour ago, kelownabomberfan said:

I agree. The old ways are the best ways.  That's why I type out every post on my IBM Selectric and have my secretary post it on the website. 

I guess you could say you mail it in.