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Published Nov 18, 2025 • Last updated 1 day ago • 4 minute read
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Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea. Photo by Kevin King /Winnipeg SunArticle content
It turns out dealing with the media is a piece of cake for Mike O’Shea, at least compared to dealing with his mother.
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“I just got off the phone with her,” the Blue Bombers head coach said as he stepped behind the microphone on Tuesday. “She was giving me hell about something.”
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Exactly what he was getting hell for never did get cleared up.
But it wasn’t for signing yet another three-year contract extension to stay in Winnipeg.
While moving closer to his original home in North Bay, Ont., may have been a bonus to taking a job in Toronto – O’Shea called those things “perks” – he says he didn’t feel any family pressure.
What he did feel was the pull of Manitoba’s magnetic passion for football, an environment he’s helped create by turning the Bombers around.
This franchise was a punchline 12 years ago, mired in the CFL’s longest Grey Cup drought and struggling to get people in the seats at a glitzy, new stadium, when O’Shea came on board.
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Nine straight playoff appearances, five trips to the Grey Cup and two championships later, it sold out an entire season for the first time in modern-day history.
“We’ve built something pretty damn special here, so you’d like to continue that,” O’Shea said. “The season didn’t work out the way we wanted, but there’s still a lot of growth to be had and a lot of legs left in it.”
O’Shea is usually Mr. Humility, so it was striking to hear him refer to what the Bombers have done as a “top five, historic” accomplishment.
As tempting as former teammate, good friend and Argonauts GM Mike (Pinball) Clemons may have made the Toronto gig – O’Shea wouldn’t say if Clemons threw a kitchen sink full of cash at him – the Manitoba capital still feels right for the 55-year-old.
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“It’s a good organization,” he said. “Darn close to being the best organization in the league right now, for a long period of time. We’ve had a lot of good players who have put a lot into this. They’ve stuck around. A lot of loyalty from the players.
“That kind of continuity is pretty damn important. Loyalty is important.”
We’ve called O’Shea loyal to a fault in this space. You get the sense that trait extends beyond his players and coaches, into a community where he and his family have sunk some serious roots.
It seems like his kind of town.
I don’t mind saying that like Bud Grant before him, he’s this town’s kind of coach, too.
“Oh, there’s just so much to enjoy,” O’Shea said. “We’ve carved out a very nice place here in the community. Our kids really cherish that and respect that. The friendships that we’ve made in the community, how important a role the Bombers play in our province, not just our city, it’s very appealing.”
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It sounds like not even a potential promotion could usurp all that.
Ottawa may have lured Ryan Dinwiddie away from Toronto with the dual coach/GM role, but apparently a similar deal for O’Shea wouldn’t have swayed him.
Not that he even acknowledged Clemons offered him his own title.
“I’m always interested in growth,” O’Shea said. “But I’ve never been interested in power. Power is not the be-all and end-all. It would always be a team effort, a group of people trying to advance our team.”
Whether this team can advance over the next year or two is up in the air like a wobbly pass into double coverage.
The Bombers look like a team in decline, with age catching up to it in key areas.
With 37-year-old Zach Collaros going into the final year of his deal and no heir apparent, it certainly doesn’t look like they have a three-year plan at quarterback.
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“You don’t think we do?” O’Shea said. “You might not understand all our plans yet. Which is fine.”
In the next breath, O’Shea said he and GM Kyle Walters, fresh off signing his own three-year extension, had yet to meet to begin mapping out a plan for next year’s roster.
But the coach does seem to realize the job in front of him is enormous.
Getting to the top is one thing. Staying there, they’ve already found out, is an even snarlier animal.
“We’ve got to be better this year and I’ve got to play a bigger role in that,” O’Shea said. “I’ve got to make sure we get back on track. That’s a big challenge, to try to figure out how to re-set it and get going again. Expectations are extremely high, and we shouldn’t lower them.”
Maybe that’s what Mrs. O’Shea was so mad about: Not seeing her son in Sunday’s Grey Cup.
paul.friesen@kleinmedia.ca
X: @friesensunmedia
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