Mike O\u2019Shea touched down in Calgary last week in the midst of a chinook \u2014 a warm wind blowing down the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains that sent the temperature soaring to 17 C.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to explain to people who don\u2019t come out here often,\u201d O\u2019Shea said during the 2026 CFL Winter Meetings. \u201cWhen you show up in town and there\u2019s a chinook coming through, it\u2019s amazing. It\u2019s unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last time many CFL fans saw the Winnipeg head coach was back on Nov. 1 when Montreal quarterback Davis Alexander<\/a> dashed to the sideline to shake O\u2019Shea\u2019s hand after the Alouettes eliminated the Blue Bombers in the Eastern Semi-Final.<\/p>\n RELATED \u00a0<\/p>\n The defeat snapped Winnipeg\u2019s streak of five straight Grey Cup appearances and denied the Bombers the chance to compete for a title in front of their home fans at Princess Auto Stadium.<\/p>\n In the weeks that followed, O\u2019Shea, general manager Kyle Walters and the rest of the staff conducted an exhaustive post-mortem on a team that came up short when it mattered most.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, we started slow,\u201d O\u2019Shea said of falling behind 25-6 by halftime in the Eastern Semi-Final. \u201cWhat sticks with me most is coming out after the half and giving ourselves a real opportunity. In sports, when you sort of crap the bed like that in a game, it does take some guts and some resiliency to come out and try to change it.<\/p>\n And we did that.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not trying to just look at it through rose-coloured glasses. We weren\u2019t good enough, but I certainly appreciated the work the guys did in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n The game, in many ways, mirrored the 2025 season for the 10-8 Bombers \u2014 flashes of brilliance marred by inconsistency and stretches of mediocrity.<\/p>\n Mediocrity is not a word many would use to describe the Bombers since O\u2019Shea arrived in town in late 2013. And stretches of mediocrity, after so many years of the opposite, do not go over well in football-mad Manitoba.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s awesome to have expectations,\u201d O\u2019Shea said. \u201cEarly on, when we first started, expectations were pretty low among the fan base. In our first news conference, many years ago, we tried to change those expectations \u2014 it just took us longer than we probably expected.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, the expectations are super high, and that\u2019s where they should be.\u201d<\/p>\n In hopes of meeting and even exceeding those expectations, the Bombers hired Tommy Condell last month as offensive coordinator<\/a>. Condell moves to Winnipeg after spending the last two seasons as the offensive coordinator in Ottawa with the REDBLACKS.<\/p>\n
\u00bb\u00a0CFL.ca\u2019s top 30 pending free agents<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0MMQB: 5 key pending free agent extensions<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Bombers extend kicker <\/a>Sergio Castillo<\/a>, punter <\/a>Jamieson Sheahan<\/a>
\u00bb Willie Jefferson<\/a>, Bombers agree to one-year extension<\/a>
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