{"id":165569,"date":"2025-09-24T06:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T06:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/165569\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T06:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T06:55:08","slug":"you-could-feel-the-passion-mike-oshea-calls-nathan-rourkes-criticism-of-cfl-rule-changes-fantastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/165569\/","title":{"rendered":"‘You could feel the passion’: Mike O’Shea calls Nathan Rourke’s criticism of CFL rule changes ‘fantastic’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo: Winnipeg Blue Bombers<\/p>\n

Mike O\u2019Shea is the head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers but it appears he\u2019s a big fan of Nathan Rourke, who is currently giving chase in the West Division standings as the franchise quarterback for the B.C. Lions.<\/p>\n

The CFL announced a number of rule changes <\/a>that will be rolled out over the next two years, including the shortening of the field, modifying the rouge, moving the goalposts to the back of the end zone, and adapting a new play clock. Rourke ripped the announcement, calling the changes \u201cgarbage.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201c(Rourke) was fantasic. You could feel the passion coming right through the TV,\u201d O\u2019Shea told Derek Taylor on 680 CJOB<\/a> on Monday night. \u201cI\u2019m a purist, I like the game the way it is. It\u2019s exciting, it\u2019s stood the test of time. There\u2019s things about our game that are so unique, that make it so special.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Shea admitted that he\u2019s yet to read through the details of all the changes and the league\u2019s reasoning behind them, saying he only received the brief on Monday and he\u2019s currently focused on helping his team prepare to face the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Regardless, the 55-year-old native of North Bay, Ont. made it clear some rules are non-negotiable for him, saying he\u2019d \u201cnever be in favour of eliminating the rouge.\u201d He also pointed out that by moving the uprights to the back of the end zone, the CFL will mostly eliminate missed field goal returns. Trey Vaval, the team\u2019s rookie returner, set a league record this past week when he recorded 199 missed field goal return yards in a 26-18 win over the Ottawa Redblacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Shea said he wasn\u2019t consulted on any of these changes, though he acknowledged that some of the affected elements are debated each year in rules committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn general, when changes are affecting your ability to do your job or affecting your job, you would like to have a say in it, for sure,\u201d said O\u2019Shea. \u201cSome of these ideas \u2014 people have been talking about the rouge for a long time. It\u2019s part of a whole offseason discussion almost every year, which drums up discussion about the CFL, creates debate and is probably good for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Shea also expressed concern about what the changes to field dimensions, which will be implemented in 2027, might mean for U Sports and amateur football across the country. The six-time Grey Cup champion played collegiately at the University of Guelph and was inducted into the school\u2019s Hall of Fame in 2007.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are the budgets like for these U Sports teams to change everything? I don\u2019t know,\u201d said O\u2019Shea. \u201cHopefully, there\u2019s money going to these programs, then \u2014 minor football. What do you do with all these fields across Canada? Where\u2019s the thought into that?\u201d<\/p>\n

U Sports released a statement on Monday saying the organization will spend the coming weeks and months speaking with stakeholders<\/a> about possible changes down the road, though it remains unclear if any or all of the CFL\u2019s rule changes will be adopted.<\/p>\n

Winnipeg team president and CEO Wade Miller told\u00a03DownNation that the field dimensions at Princess Auto Stadium, which is shared between the Blue Bombers, Manitoba Bisons, and the CPL\u2019s Valour FC, won\u2019t be a problem locally<\/a> as all lines are painted-on and the uprights can be moved easily. It\u2019s unclear if this is also the case at other shared venues.<\/p>\n

However, one thing seems sure: Nathan Rourke and Mike O\u2019Shea would be much happier if the CFL continued playing on a 110-yard field.<\/p>\n

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers (7-7) will host the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (9-5) at Princess Auto Stadium on Saturday afternoon with kickoff slated for 3:00 p.m. EDT. The Tiger-Cats defeated the Edmonton Elks last week with a walk-off field goal<\/a>, while the Blue Bombers bested the Ottawa Redblacks despite completing only three passes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The weather forecast in Winnipeg calls for a high of 22 degrees with sunny conditions. The game will be broadcast on TSN and CTV in Canada and CFL+ internationally. Radio listeners can tune-in on the Ticats Audio Network and CJOB 680 in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Winnipeg Blue Bombers Mike O\u2019Shea is the head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers but it appears…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-165569","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}