Mike O'Shea

They both happened during, I guess, the FIFA World Cup delays at BMO Field.

The Bombers are the 14th ever crossover team, and crossover teams are 5-8 in the history of of the league Winnipeg actually crossed over to Montreal last year and lost and there's also some recent playoff history between Winnipeg and Toronto with Toronto and Nick Arbuckle beating the Winnipeg Blue Bars in 2024 at the Grey Cup in vancouver and then in 2022 those argos and robbie smith and he knocked muamba beating the winnipeg blue bombers in regina at the great cup there so there actually is some playoff history between these two teams it's the argos fifth time in six years hosting a playoff game and they have a very good record in that history 33 17 and one And you know what? This time last year, all the talk was the Argos, you know, trying to sell themselves to Mike O'Shea.

Come turn this team around.

And now Mike O'Shea, as a Winnipeg Blue Popper, goes to Toronto against Mike Miller, the first year head coach.

And all eyes are on quarterbacks this week.

Chad Kelly gets the big extension.

That's the ultimate question.

How many guys have we seen do very well off the bench? But once they get the full week, it doesn't seem to translate.

From what I glean from hearing him in interviews...

Michael Shea loves being a coach.

He likes being on the field, hands-on, leading the players and involved that way.

And I don't know how comfortable he would be in that front office role.

Think about the great defensive players that you've seen in your lifetime.

And I think back to Rodney Harding, to Mike O'Shea, Don Moen, Kevin Iben, Reggie Pleasant, Adrian Smith, Orlando Steinauer, Byron Parker, Carl Brazley, Wyndham McManus.

You're probably thinking of some other guys too.

Think about those amazing defensive players.

So despite the fact that Ryan Dinwiddie has a, you know, still two years left on his existing contract.

And I'm, we don't, I don't know what the dollar figure is, but one presumed to sign him from Toronto that they gave him, you know, a pretty good salary at all of that, that if the red blacks decide to move on, that Mike O'Shea from Winnipeg would be an option of coming to Ottawa.

So that one's been out.

That was out there last year, and then he ended up re-signing in Winnipeg, and Ryan Dinwiddie signed here.

They were the best of the West for a long time.

And Michael Shea is from North Bay, obviously has a history, played with the art.

So if you look back, and how often do we look at where are the connections? Mike Morreale played three seasons, three separate seasons, but three seasons with Mike O'Shea in Toronto.

So there's a history.

You'd be hard-pressed to go through the 18-game schedule and pick out more than one or two games where they played close to a complete 60.

So I have a very hard time making a big pound your fist on the table saying, this is still the Winnipeg Blue Bombers under Mike O'Shea.

Everyone fears them.

I'm not sure that they do.

I guess they were getting him into the playoffs.

You've got people covering the Bombers that were doing deep dives after the game, trying to figure out who Michael Shea starts.

But today, Caleros wasn't taking any reps at practice.

And Derek Taylor, the play-by-play guy of the Bombers, he said if he doesn't take reps on day one, he's never started again.