![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Mike-O-Large.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThere certainly must have been an allure for Mike O\u2019Shea to start fresh somewhere else \u2014 not just somewhere else, but a place where he is a franchise legend \u2014 and of building\/repairing a Toronto Argonauts organization coming off a substandard season.<\/p>\n
And, undoubtedly, there were familial ties, too, what with so many family and friends based in North Bay and southern Ontario.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, though, O\u2019Shea 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 \u2014 yes \u2014 which needs to get some work done to return to a place among the Canadian Football League\u2019s elite.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels great. It was a good decision,\u201d began O\u2019Shea 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. \u201cThere\u2019s obviously a whole pile of reasons (for returning), but we\u2019ve built something pretty damn special here, so you\u2019d like to continue that.<\/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
You can watch the entirety of O\u2019Shea\u2019s press conference here:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
And here are three key takeaways from the session:<\/p>\n
1 THE ARGONAUTS VISIT<\/p>\n
O\u2019Shea visited with the Argonauts last week, including meeting with former teammate Mike \u2018Pinball\u2019 Clemons, Toronto\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Shea called his interactions with the Argos as \u2018very professional, terrific\u2019 and classified his visit as \u2018me looking at an opportunity\u2019 as he was working on an expiring contract with the Blue Bombers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a whole pile of things,\u201d he added. \u201cI mean, I\u2019ve got a long history with Pinball and he\u2019s 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\u2019s a pretty special human being.\u201d<\/p>\n
Family is massively important to O\u2019Shea \u2014 his mom still lives in North Bay, and he\u2019s got friends and relatives in southern Ontario \u2014 but after almost a dozen years in Winnipeg, he\u2019s 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\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cShe would never\u2026 I mean, from the time I was very young there were a lot of decisions I was in charge of making,\u201d he said. \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. She would never do that. She\u2019s a great mom like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
And to the notion \u2014 reported by The Toronto Sun \u2014 that his family didn\u2019t want to leave Winnipeg, he added this:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got adult kids, they\u2019re 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\u2019s my decision, ultimately. They\u2019re going to be scattered around or move around or do their own things, too. I\u2019m not going to say to them, \u2018Whoa, whoa, whoa\u2026 I\u2019m sitting here. You should stay.\u2019 That would never be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
2 JOB TITLES\/POWER<\/p>\n
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\u2019Shea made it quite clear an increase in responsibility beyond coaching doesn\u2019t offer that great an appeal right now.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m always interested in growth, but I\u2019ve never been interested in power,\u201d he said. \u201cPower is not the be-all and end-all. I\u2019ve 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\u2019re doing, and how do we advance this? But having absolute control of something has never been anything I\u2019m interested in.<\/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
3. THE RETOOL<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The expectations here remain sky-high and to that end there were several occasions on Tuesday when O\u2019Shea said, \u2018we weren\u2019t good enough.\u2019<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Mike-O-4-Large.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that\u2019s a big challenge, to try to figure out how to re-set it and get going again,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a big challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t good enough last year; we\u2019ve got to be better this year, and I\u2019ve got to play a bigger role in that. I\u2019ve got to make sure we get back on track to what we want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 We were 10-8 and not good enough. Made the playoffs and we were not good enough. Expectations are extremely high, and we shouldn\u2019t lower them. So, we\u2019ve got to get back to playing a little better football and get back to advancing through the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Shea would not detail where things stand with his assistant coaches publicly \u2014 he insisted he needed to talk to them first \u2014 reiterating his meeting with Walters regarding all things was to begin after the media conference.<\/p>\n
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\u2019Shea said:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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\u2019s a terrific receiver and his protection is impeccable. The community stuff, obviously he\u2019s so engrained in our community and what he does for, his own personal pursuits, the causes that he supports, but also how much he\u2019s out there helping everybody else, too. I think he\u2019s the best back in the league. I love his style. So obviously I would like to have him back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There certainly must have been an allure for Mike O\u2019Shea to start fresh somewhere else \u2014 not just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-292307","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\/292307","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=292307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}