There certainly must have been an allure for Mike O’Shea to start fresh somewhere else — not just somewhere else, but a place where he is a franchise legend — and of building/repairing a Toronto Argonauts organization coming off a substandard season.

And, undoubtedly, there were familial ties, too, what with so many family and friends based in North Bay and southern Ontario.

Ultimately, though, O’Shea scribbled his name onto a three-year contract extension to remain with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers because his fingerprints are already all over a franchise which has posted nine consecutive double-digit win seasons, which appeared in five consecutive Grey Cups from 2019-24 with two titles and — yes — which needs to get some work done to return to a place among the Canadian Football League’s elite.

“It feels great. It was a good decision,” began O’Shea on Tuesday when addressing the media for the first time since his return was announced by the club via its social media channels last Friday. “There’s obviously a whole pile of reasons (for returning), but we’ve built something pretty damn special here, so you’d like to continue that.

“The season didn’t work out the way we wanted, but I think there’s still a lot of growth to be had and a lot of legs left in it, so that, family, all sorts of things, but I wanted to be here.”

You can watch the entirety of O’Shea’s press conference here:

And here are three key takeaways from the session:

1 THE ARGONAUTS VISIT

O’Shea visited with the Argonauts last week, including meeting with former teammate Mike ‘Pinball’ Clemons, Toronto’s GM, on what was essentially a fact-finding mission. The Argos brass was reportedly willing to bend/reshape their football operations department to his liking but he opted to stick with the known commodity that is his relationship with the Blue Bombers, which began way back in December of 2013.

O’Shea called his interactions with the Argos as ‘very professional, terrific’ and classified his visit as ‘me looking at an opportunity’ as he was working on an expiring contract with the Blue Bombers.

“I think it’s a whole pile of things,” he added. “I mean, I’ve got a long history with Pinball and he’s one of the most respected players ever in the CFL, not just as a player, but as a human being. What he does for not only the CFL but for the community and for probably Canada at large or anybody he meets for that matter, so he’s a pretty special human being.”

Family is massively important to O’Shea — his mom still lives in North Bay, and he’s got friends and relatives in southern Ontario — but after almost a dozen years in Winnipeg, he’s got significant roots here, too. Asked whether his mother, who is in her late 70s, would want him closer to him he pointed out that she drove to Winnipeg for a visit by herself at the end of August. Plus…

“She would never… I mean, from the time I was very young there were a lot of decisions I was in charge of making,” he said. “That’s just the way my mom and dad raised me. ‘Here’s the information, you’ve got to make a decision.’ A good conversation, always, but you’re in charge of making your decisions. She would never do that. She’s a great mom like that.”

And to the notion — reported by The Toronto Sun — that his family didn’t want to leave Winnipeg, he added this:

“When you’ve got adult kids, they’re part of the discussion, you include them in the discussion. But the entire family would be 100 percent behind whatever I chose to do. So, it’s my decision, ultimately. They’re going to be scattered around or move around or do their own things, too. I’m not going to say to them, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa… I’m sitting here. You should stay.’ That would never be a part of it.”

2 JOB TITLES/POWER

The Ottawa RedBlacks lured head coach Ryan Dinwiddie away from Toronto at the end of their season by adding the GM title to his new gig in the capital. To that end, O’Shea made it quite clear an increase in responsibility beyond coaching doesn’t offer that great an appeal right now.

He was to meet with GM Kyle Walters right after the media session to discuss offseason plans. Walters also signed a new three-year extension and will hold a press conference on Wednesday.

“I’m always interested in growth, but I’ve never been interested in power,” he said. “Power is not the be-all and end-all. I’ve always wanted to do things as a group, as a team, and figure out how to make decisions together with people that know what they’re doing, and how do we advance this? But having absolute control of something has never been anything I’m interested in.

“Whatever the titles would be, would be irrelevant. No matter what we were doing, it would always be a team effort, a group of people trying to advance our team.”

3. THE RETOOL

The Blue Bombers finished fourth in the West Division at 10-8 but after a 3-0 start were just 7-9 in their final 16 games, including the Eastern Semi-Final loss to the Montreal Alouettes. Winnipeg was 40-10 in the regular season from 2021-24 and 21-15 over the last two years.

The expectations here remain sky-high and to that end there were several occasions on Tuesday when O’Shea said, ‘we weren’t good enough.’

“So that’s a big challenge, to try to figure out how to re-set it and get going again,” he said. “That’s a big challenge.”

“We weren’t good enough last year; we’ve got to be better this year, and I’ve got to play a bigger role in that. I’ve got to make sure we get back on track to what we want to do.”

“… We were 10-8 and not good enough. Made the playoffs and we were not good enough. Expectations are extremely high, and we shouldn’t lower them. So, we’ve got to get back to playing a little better football and get back to advancing through the playoffs.”

O’Shea would not detail where things stand with his assistant coaches publicly — he insisted he needed to talk to them first — reiterating his meeting with Walters regarding all things was to begin after the media conference.

Asked specifically about Brady Oliveira, a pending free agent this winter who said at his season-ending presser he owed it to himself to see what might be out there, O’Shea said:

“We always talk about him as being the best back in the league. All the things he can do for the team, in terms of not just running the ball but he’s a terrific receiver and his protection is impeccable. The community stuff, obviously he’s so engrained in our community and what he does for, his own personal pursuits, the causes that he supports, but also how much he’s out there helping everybody else, too. I think he’s the best back in the league. I love his style. So obviously I would like to have him back.”