WINNIPEG \u2014 Mike O\u2019Shea\u2019s mom didn\u2019t try to convince him to move closer to his hometown.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Shea spoke to the media on Tuesday and explained why he signed a three-year extension last week to remain head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers through the 2028 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s obviously a whole pile of reasons, but we\u2019ve built something pretty damn special here, so you\u2019d like to continue that,\u201d O\u2019Shea said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe season didn\u2019t work out the way we wanted, but I think there\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The father of three adult children, two of whom live in Winnipeg, just finished his 11th season with the Blue Bombers and leads the franchise in coaching wins (117-77 record).<\/p>\n
A native of North Bay, Ont., O\u2019Shea met early last week with Toronto Argonauts general manager Mike (Pinball) Clemons about that team\u2019s head-coaching vacancy after Ryan Dinwiddie moved on to the Ottawa Redblacks.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Shea, 55, wouldn\u2019t get into details about the meeting or say if an offer was made. The Bombers had given the Argos permission to speak with him. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m on an expiring contract, I\u2019ve got a few opportunities to explore, I should explore them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Shea has strong ties to the Argonauts, Clemons and Ontario.<\/p>\n
The Hall of Fame former Toronto linebacker played with Clemons, whom he described as a \u201cpretty special human being.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Shea\u2019s widowed mother, who\u2019s in her late 70s, still lives in North Bay. The parents of his wife, Richere, also live in southern Ontario. <\/p>\n
He said his mother doesn\u2019t need his help \u2013 she drove to Winnipeg at the end of the summer \u2013 and she never tries to influence his decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the time I was very young there were a lot of decisions I was in charge of making,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just the way my mom and dad raised me. \u2018Here\u2019s the information, you\u2019ve got to make a decision.\u2019 A good conversation, always, but you\u2019re in charge of making your decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CFL\u2019s longest-serving head coach was asked if he\u2019d ever want to be a general manager, a title Dinwiddie also has with the Redblacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always interested in growth, but I\u2019ve never been interested in power,\u201d O\u2019Shea said. \u201cPower is not the be-all and end-all.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019d rather make decisions with input from knowledgeable people.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving absolute control of something has never been anything I\u2019m interested in,\u201d O\u2019Shea said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bombers also announced last Friday that GM Kyle Walters signed an extension. He\u2019s meeting with the media on Wednesday to talk about his own three-year deal through 2028.<\/p>\n
Winnipeg reached the playoffs for a ninth consecutive season with double-digit wins (10-8), but had to cross over to the East Division and lost the semifinal to the Montreal Alouettes.<\/p>\n
It halted the club\u2019s string of five straight Grey Cup appearances, which included victories in the first two in 2019 and \u201921.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Shea noted one appeal to staying in Winnipeg was its fans. The team sold out every home game this season, extending that full-house run to 14 games dating back to August 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great sporting city, the fans are unbelievable,\u201d O\u2019Shea said. \u201cI\u2019ve always said they\u2019re highly educated, they show up in droves.\u201d<\/p>\n
DISAPPOINTED IN ONE FAN<\/p>\n
O\u2019Shea wasn\u2019t impressed with one CFL fan, who took a photo of him in the Toronto airport when he was about to fly back to Winnipeg.<\/p>\n
It was posted on social media last Wednesday, sparking speculation about O\u2019Shea\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
The team announced that O\u2019Shea and Walters were staying two days later, but without contract details.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Shea said the fan actually came up to him in Winnipeg, which hosted the Grey Cup on Sunday, and said he was the one who snapped the photo and it went viral.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot my favourite thing,\u201d O\u2019Shea said. \u201cPeople don\u2019t understand how much of an issue they can create for their own self-serving purposes. It\u2019s kind of sickening, really.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those issues are on the personal and professional level, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAcross the board,\u201d O\u2019Shea said. \u201cThere\u2019s no thought when somebody snaps something and posts something. They have no thought for somebody else\u2019s sanity. It\u2019s all about themselves and you\u2019d like that to change.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 18, 2025.<\/p>\n
Judy Owen, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINNIPEG \u2014 Mike O\u2019Shea\u2019s mom didn\u2019t try to convince him to move closer to his hometown. O\u2019Shea spoke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-292161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292161","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=292161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}