New Bombers coach O'Shea doing everything possible to control the message

 

So I decided to stop in and take a peek at Camp O’Shea, Monday, get the season’s first whiff of pigskin and sweaty O-linemen.

 

Upon first glance, nothing stood out about the methods of the new sheriff in Blue Bomberville, the usual training camp sights and sounds greeting me: large men grunting, coaches barking and the occasional whistle interrupting the festivities.

 

In the middle of it all stood the man charged with turning this leaky vessel around, holding a piece of paper and wearing a T-shirt and shorts, even as a chilly, wind-aided rain pelted the last half hour of the proceedings.

 

There would be no rain jacket or pants for Mike O’Shea or his coaching staff.

 

Muzzles, on the other hand, have already been deployed.

 

Ripping a page from ex-coach Mike Kelly’s book — the one copy that hasn’t been burned, I suppose — O’Shea has banned his assistant coaches from doing interviews.

Not just on Monday, not just this week, not just during training camp — but for the entire season.

 

If you eventually want answers from offensive co-ordinator Marcel Bellefeuille about why his air attack sucks like a shop-vac, sorry, you’re out of luck.

 

If down the road Gary Etcheverry’s confusing defence is confounding his own players more than the opposition, well, we won’t be able pick his brain about that, either.

 

New running backs coach Buck Pierce? Muzzled.

 

The always smiling Marcus Howell, the pride of St. James? Off limits.

 

Part-time magician and O-line guru Bob Wylie? He felt guilty even saying hello to one wag on Monday.

 

It’s a startling bit of control freakishness in the normally accessible world of three-down football. Rare, if not unheard of.

So, what gives, coach?

 

“It wasn’t hard to come up with that,” O’Shea explained to the dunces taking notes. “My decision was easily just to control the message, and make sure you’re only hearing one voice and only one opinion. That way there’s no confusion for the players.”

 

Control the message? Good lord, I’m having a flashback.

 

Wasn’t that one of Kelly’s mantras in that gong show of a 2009 season?

 

But not even The Professor went this far in his war with the inked-stained wretches of the press. He only wanted to mimic the NFL by limiting his co-ordinators to one day of access per week.

 

O’Shea doesn’t want his hired help to utter a peep from now until November.

 

“I’m trying to serve the players as best I can,” he continued. “If it comes from me, and only me, then they can come into my office and talk about that with me. They don’t have to worry about talking to their position coach and then the co-ordinator and then myself about three different interviews that were done after a practice or a game. It’s important.”

 

Ah, I’m starting to see where the seed for this petty notion was planted.

 

If that bit about players answering to mixed messages from their coaches sounds familiar, it’s because it is: it happened here during last season’s train wreck.

 

Head coach Tim Burke one week deferred the decision about who to start at quarterback to co-ordinator Gary Crowton, leading to Justin Goltz feeling “betrayed” and Pierce throwing up his hands wondering who was calling the shots.

 

“Watching from afar for the last bunch of years... it was an easy decision, I’ll put it that way,” is all O’Shea would say.

Curiously, no other CFL head coach has found it necessary to make that easy decision.

 

Former Montreal boss Marc Trestman implemented a ban to deflect from the hiring of controversial assistant Jeff Reinebold early in the 2012 season, but it was short-lived.

 

Kent Austin runs an airtight ship in Hamilton, but doesn’t have a problem with his assistants opening their mouths in front of a microphone.

If you hire assistants with the same philosophy, what’s the issue?

 

A strong leader, and by all accounts O’Shea is one, should have no trouble with this concept.

 

It’s not like Bellefeuille and Etcheverry are prone to flapping their gums wildly in the breeze. Both have been head coaches. They know the drill.

 

Muzzles are fine for pit bulls.

 

They don’t look so good on people.

paul.friesen@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @friesensunmedia

 

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2014/06/02/new-bombers-coach-oshea-doing-everything-possible-to-control-the-message

Apparently, Friesen did the "FULL FRIESEN" on Mike O. and it resulted in a typical bomber reaction. A veritable lockdown.

How did that work out for Maggot Kelly?

No problem with Wpg Media. Jimbozo Bell has already told O'Shea that Bob Irving is his official media caddy and all info goes thru CJOB BOB.....

Most of the other radio outlets just wanna have fun and send reps to the game (a la Ace Burpee, Philly, Bunkhouse Buk (Wheeler), etc.

The FP is the official newspaper of the Bombers and have money invested in the team . . . they don't wanna rock the boat too much so guys like Tait, Campbell, etc. serve the purpose of unofficial house organs (as opposed to the official one, Bob Irving)

Lawless is the wild card at WFP as he's got the columnist license and also has the 2 hour daily radio gig at TSN. He can get a ton of digs in at the Bombers, and if they flail like last year I'm sure he'll GO NEGATIVE!

TV stations in town all have significant investment/interest in bomber games. CTV is part of Bell/TSN so they simply do smile 'n giggle reports. CBC hardly does sports, but Mitch Peacock goes to all press conferences and usually gets as many questions in as Lawless or Sara O.

CKND has Shoeless Joe - they don't do much other than hi-lites and a bit of grief.

The Wpg boards are usually more favourable to the bombers than unfavourable, especially their own JeffBannon.com site.

So in essence Friesen is the only one with Billy the Kid status, Lawless lurking about for interesting angles (so far his top one is Jeff Rabb being rebuffed by the Bomber board)

CJOB - the bomber radio rights-holder is usually 90% favourable to the team (understood) and the only time Irving gets mean or nasty is during play by play when things go to heck in a hand-basket. After the losses he's usually found trying to talk people down off the ledge.

Did anyone get lost 2-3 sentences into this? It was like trying to read a tolkien novel for the first time..

Did anyone get lost 2-3 sentences into this?

 

 

Yes, and I think it was the author.

 

Apparently, Friesen did the "FULL FRIESEN" on Mike O. and it resulted in a typical bomber reaction. A veritable lockdown.

How did that work out for Maggot Kelly?

No problem with Wpg Media. Jimbozo Bell has already told O'Shea that Bob Irving is his official media caddy and all info goes thru CJOB BOB.....

Most of the other radio outlets just wanna have fun and send reps to the game (a la Ace Burpee, Philly, Bunkhouse Buk (Wheeler), etc.

The FP is the official newspaper of the Bombers and have money invested in the team . . . they don't wanna rock the boat too much so guys like Tait, Campbell, etc. serve the purpose of unofficial house organs (as opposed to the official one, Bob Irving)

Lawless is the wild card at WFP as he's got the columnist license and also has the 2 hour daily radio gig at TSN. He can get a ton of digs in at the Bombers, and if they flail like last year I'm sure he'll GO NEGATIVE!

TV stations in town all have significant investment/interest in bomber games. CTV is part of Bell/TSN so they simply do smile 'n giggle reports. CBC hardly does sports, but Mitch Peacock goes to all press conferences and usually gets as many questions in as Lawless or Sara O.

CKND has Shoeless Joe - they don't do much other than hi-lites and a bit of grief.

The Wpg boards are usually more favourable to the bombers than unfavourable, especially their own JeffBannon.com site.

So in essence Friesen is the only one with Billy the Kid status, Lawless lurking about for interesting angles (so far his top one is Jeff Rabb being rebuffed by the Bomber board)

CJOB - the bomber radio rights-holder is usually 90% favourable to the team (understood) and the only time Irving gets mean or nasty is during play by play when things go to heck in a hand-basket. After the losses he's usually found trying to talk people down off the ledge.

Did anyone get lost 2-3 sentences into this? It was like trying to read a tolkien novel for the first time..

 

 

I got lost before that. 

Friesen is like a watered down, less intelligent, less attractive version of Gary Lawless.

No such thing as that - unless you wanna bring up Mike Kelly!!! lol

 

Apparently, Friesen did the "FULL FRIESEN" on Mike O. and it resulted in a typical bomber reaction. A veritable lockdown.

How did that work out for Maggot Kelly?

No problem with Wpg Media. Jimbozo Bell has already told O'Shea that Bob Irving is his official media caddy and all info goes thru CJOB BOB.....

Most of the other radio outlets just wanna have fun and send reps to the game (a la Ace Burpee, Philly, Bunkhouse Buk (Wheeler), etc.

The FP is the official newspaper of the Bombers and have money invested in the team . . . they don't wanna rock the boat too much so guys like Tait, Campbell, etc. serve the purpose of unofficial house organs (as opposed to the official one, Bob Irving)

Lawless is the wild card at WFP as he's got the columnist license and also has the 2 hour daily radio gig at TSN. He can get a ton of digs in at the Bombers, and if they flail like last year I'm sure he'll GO NEGATIVE!

TV stations in town all have significant investment/interest in bomber games. CTV is part of Bell/TSN so they simply do smile 'n giggle reports. CBC hardly does sports, but Mitch Peacock goes to all press conferences and usually gets as many questions in as Lawless or Sara O.

CKND has Shoeless Joe - they don't do much other than hi-lites and a bit of grief.

The Wpg boards are usually more favourable to the bombers than unfavourable, especially their own JeffBannon.com site.

So in essence Friesen is the only one with Billy the Kid status, Lawless lurking about for interesting angles (so far his top one is Jeff Rabb being rebuffed by the Bomber board)

CJOB - the bomber radio rights-holder is usually 90% favourable to the team (understood) and the only time Irving gets mean or nasty is during play by play when things go to heck in a hand-basket. After the losses he's usually found trying to talk people down off the ledge.

Did anyone get lost 2-3 sentences into this? It was like trying to read a tolkien novel for the first time..

 

 

Well a lot of effort had to go into the nicknames.  I mean, turning "Jim" to "Jimbozo"?  Brilliant!

Dave Dickenson talks to the media all the time & continues to do so now. Last year, Rick Campbell the DC did as well. Rick Stubler hasn't talked to the media here yet. But I don't think he is very chummy with the media as it is. In all the years he's coached in the CFL I've never seen any interviews with him or read any of Stubler's  quotes. Knowing the Calgary media & the way they cover the team they probably don't know who the other coaches are anyway. 

 

 

Apparently, Friesen did the "FULL FRIESEN" on Mike O. and it resulted in a typical bomber reaction. A veritable lockdown.

How did that work out for Maggot Kelly?

No problem with Wpg Media. Jimbozo Bell has already told O'Shea that Bob Irving is his official media caddy and all info goes thru CJOB BOB.....

Most of the other radio outlets just wanna have fun and send reps to the game (a la Ace Burpee, Philly, Bunkhouse Buk (Wheeler), etc.

The FP is the official newspaper of the Bombers and have money invested in the team . . . they don't wanna rock the boat too much so guys like Tait, Campbell, etc. serve the purpose of unofficial house organs (as opposed to the official one, Bob Irving)

Lawless is the wild card at WFP as he's got the columnist license and also has the 2 hour daily radio gig at TSN. He can get a ton of digs in at the Bombers, and if they flail like last year I'm sure he'll GO NEGATIVE!

TV stations in town all have significant investment/interest in bomber games. CTV is part of Bell/TSN so they simply do smile 'n giggle reports. CBC hardly does sports, but Mitch Peacock goes to all press conferences and usually gets as many questions in as Lawless or Sara O.

CKND has Shoeless Joe - they don't do much other than hi-lites and a bit of grief.

The Wpg boards are usually more favourable to the bombers than unfavourable, especially their own JeffBannon.com site.

So in essence Friesen is the only one with Billy the Kid status, Lawless lurking about for interesting angles (so far his top one is Jeff Rabb being rebuffed by the Bomber board)

CJOB - the bomber radio rights-holder is usually 90% favourable to the team (understood) and the only time Irving gets mean or nasty is during play by play when things go to heck in a hand-basket. After the losses he's usually found trying to talk people down off the ledge.

Did anyone get lost 2-3 sentences into this? It was like trying to read a tolkien novel for the first time..

 

 

Well a lot of effort had to go into the nicknames.  I mean, turning "Jim" to "Jimbozo"?  Brilliant!

 

Maggot Kelly was a bit underwhelming though.

 

 

 

Apparently, Friesen did the "FULL FRIESEN" on Mike O. and it resulted in a typical bomber reaction. A veritable lockdown.

How did that work out for Maggot Kelly?

No problem with Wpg Media. Jimbozo Bell has already told O'Shea that Bob Irving is his official media caddy and all info goes thru CJOB BOB.....

Most of the other radio outlets just wanna have fun and send reps to the game (a la Ace Burpee, Philly, Bunkhouse Buk (Wheeler), etc.

The FP is the official newspaper of the Bombers and have money invested in the team . . . they don't wanna rock the boat too much so guys like Tait, Campbell, etc. serve the purpose of unofficial house organs (as opposed to the official one, Bob Irving)

Lawless is the wild card at WFP as he's got the columnist license and also has the 2 hour daily radio gig at TSN. He can get a ton of digs in at the Bombers, and if they flail like last year I'm sure he'll GO NEGATIVE!

TV stations in town all have significant investment/interest in bomber games. CTV is part of Bell/TSN so they simply do smile 'n giggle reports. CBC hardly does sports, but Mitch Peacock goes to all press conferences and usually gets as many questions in as Lawless or Sara O.

CKND has Shoeless Joe - they don't do much other than hi-lites and a bit of grief.

The Wpg boards are usually more favourable to the bombers than unfavourable, especially their own JeffBannon.com site.

So in essence Friesen is the only one with Billy the Kid status, Lawless lurking about for interesting angles (so far his top one is Jeff Rabb being rebuffed by the Bomber board)

CJOB - the bomber radio rights-holder is usually 90% favourable to the team (understood) and the only time Irving gets mean or nasty is during play by play when things go to heck in a hand-basket. After the losses he's usually found trying to talk people down off the ledge.

Did anyone get lost 2-3 sentences into this? It was like trying to read a tolkien novel for the first time..

 

 

Well a lot of effort had to go into the nicknames.  I mean, turning "Jim" to "Jimbozo"?  Brilliant!

 

Maggot Kelly was a bit underwhelming though.

 

Kelly Savalas never caught on!  btw - Maggot was Kelly Savalas' character on the great mid 60s movie THE DIRTY DOZEN. You wouldn't want to know what Maggot was all about but I'm sure you can look it up!!! 

 

 

 

 

Apparently, Friesen did the "FULL FRIESEN" on Mike O. and it resulted in a typical bomber reaction. A veritable lockdown.

How did that work out for Maggot Kelly?

No problem with Wpg Media. Jimbozo Bell has already told O'Shea that Bob Irving is his official media caddy and all info goes thru CJOB BOB.....

Most of the other radio outlets just wanna have fun and send reps to the game (a la Ace Burpee, Philly, Bunkhouse Buk (Wheeler), etc.

The FP is the official newspaper of the Bombers and have money invested in the team . . . they don't wanna rock the boat too much so guys like Tait, Campbell, etc. serve the purpose of unofficial house organs (as opposed to the official one, Bob Irving)

Lawless is the wild card at WFP as he's got the columnist license and also has the 2 hour daily radio gig at TSN. He can get a ton of digs in at the Bombers, and if they flail like last year I'm sure he'll GO NEGATIVE!

TV stations in town all have significant investment/interest in bomber games. CTV is part of Bell/TSN so they simply do smile 'n giggle reports. CBC hardly does sports, but Mitch Peacock goes to all press conferences and usually gets as many questions in as Lawless or Sara O.

CKND has Shoeless Joe - they don't do much other than hi-lites and a bit of grief.

The Wpg boards are usually more favourable to the bombers than unfavourable, especially their own JeffBannon.com site.

So in essence Friesen is the only one with Billy the Kid status, Lawless lurking about for interesting angles (so far his top one is Jeff Rabb being rebuffed by the Bomber board)

CJOB - the bomber radio rights-holder is usually 90% favourable to the team (understood) and the only time Irving gets mean or nasty is during play by play when things go to heck in a hand-basket. After the losses he's usually found trying to talk people down off the ledge.

Did anyone get lost 2-3 sentences into this? It was like trying to read a tolkien novel for the first time..

 

 

Well a lot of effort had to go into the nicknames.  I mean, turning "Jim" to "Jimbozo"?  Brilliant!

 

Maggot Kelly was a bit underwhelming though.

 

Kelly Savalas never caught on!  btw - Maggot was Kelly Savalas' character on the great mid 60s movie THE DIRTY DOZEN. You wouldn't want to know what Maggot was all about but I'm sure you can look it up!!! 

 

You mean TELLY Savalas?

 

Recap of Monday's Coach's Show…CJOB 7pm audio vault:

 

-Pleased there is improvement in learning after 2 days.

 

-They are looking for effort and 'buy in' Are they capable? and are they willing to study, watch film and do what's necessary to do what's necessary. He feels they can teach them further if they are willing.

-Players have to be in shape…they have to adapt to the time clock and field size. Over the year their body will deteriorate, so they have to stay in shape.

-Split practices with shorter breaks in between are better to 'stay warm' and need less time to get warm for the next session. Better to recover and more time off their feet.

 

-Kickers - Pat Tracey in charge and logs everything. Their final decision still will be factored by more than stats (think ratio and NI depth) Pronounces Lirim's name as Hi-ru-la-hu

-long snappers - Sean Blake, a talented LS and Ian Wild is a great LS who makes plays after he snaps, a talented football player who 'gets' the game and could play anywhere, fun to watch, getting reps at MLB

 

Brett Carter - unfortunate to be on a game roster last year, a mistake (my word) and couldn't be used as a non-counter, that's how his situation played out

Nick Moore - go to receiver, works very hard..even when he's not the target rec.

Don Unamba - he's here because they had to have an uamba of some sort in the lineup, having lost Muamba and Mulumba….ok that part's not true, but he is considered athletic and 'foot-smart'…learns quickly and is noticed.

​Max Hall - ahead of last year because he's had more time now…even has picked up in arm strength, can make more throws, more comfortable.

 

RBs - impressed with their individual abilities, but is waiting for game action to see separation

 

Doesn't feel the looming work stoppage is affecting the work ethic at all, they're focused, and this is like an 'escape' for them.

 

Loves the energy of training camp, finds it fun and exciting and believes it helps in the team acting together and caring for each other.

 

** The Coach"s Show with Mike O'Shea will be ten times better than past shows, even with the same lame callers, …..for now anyways.

 

** The Coach"s Show with Mike O'Shea will be ten times better than past shows, even with the same lame callers, …..for now anyways.

Agreed.  I could listen to Bob and Mike talk football everynight!

 

 

** The Coach"s Show with Mike O'Shea will be ten times better than past shows, even with the same lame callers, …..for now anyways.

Agreed.  I could listen to Bob and Mike talk football everynight!

 

 

Yeah, Bob knows what, and how to ask…and Mike knows his stuff and what he wants.

Must be a relief not hear Timbo stumble through questions with answers that were sometimes worse than the questions.

Tim Burke is a very good asst. Coach but he is an example of what O'Shea wants to keep away from a microphone and a loaded question.

Apparently, Friesen did the "FULL FRIESEN" on Mike O. and it resulted in a typical bomber reaction. A veritable lockdown.

 

How did that work out for Maggot Kelly?

 

No problem with Wpg Media. Jimbozo Bell has already told O'Shea that Bob Irving is his official media caddy and all info goes thru CJOB BOB.....

Most of the other radio outlets just wanna have fun and send reps to the game (a la Ace Burpee, Philly, Bunkhouse Buk (Wheeler), etc.

The FP is the official newspaper of the Bombers and have money invested in the team . . . they don't wanna rock the boat too much so guys like Tait, Campbell, etc. serve the purpose of unofficial house organs (as opposed to the official one, Bob Irving)

Lawless is the wild card at WFP as he's got the columnist license and also has the 2 hour daily radio gig at TSN. He can get a ton of digs in at the Bombers, and if they flail like last year I'm sure he'll GO NEGATIVE!

TV stations in town all have significant investment/interest in bomber games. CTV is part of Bell/TSN so they simply do smile 'n giggle reports. CBC hardly does sports, but Mitch Peacock goes to all press conferences and usually gets as many questions in as Lawless or Sara O.

CKND has Shoeless Joe - they don't do much other than hi-lites and a bit of grief.

The Wpg boards are usually more favourable to the bombers than unfavourable, especially their own JeffBannon.com site. 

So in essence Friesen is the only one with Billy the Kid status, Lawless lurking about for interesting angles (so far his top one is Jeff Rabb being rebuffed by the Bomber board)

CJOB - the bomber radio rights-holder is usually 90% favourable to the team (understood) and the only time Irving gets mean or nasty is during play by play when things go to heck in a hand-basket. After the losses he's usually found trying to talk people down off the ledge.

What was the controversy last season involving Bob Irving?  I cant remember...but I recall being amused.  Wasn't it that Lawless broke a story and Irving went on a rant or something?  I remember someone calling into H&L to ask Gary what he thought of Irving's whining and Gary was very gracious.

I know Irving was getting tired of the whole  "need to look at the game film and analyze what went wrong"  excuse after every single week.....

The last thing i will say about this topic is... 

 

i dont know how much actual information we would gain from interview positional coaches. Just saying but... one of our media members didn't know about the canadian ratio a while back, they didn't know that the aussie kicker would qualify as a non import, i'm not even sure they know anything actually. Just pretend they do more often than not.

 

Irving, Tait ok,maybe those guys but guys like friesen and even penton, man, what are you gonna ask the DC for example.. how can they ask the DC a legit question when they themselves have very little clue about what is actually going on.

 

i couldn't imagine some of the questions these guys would get... honestly, you'd be better off having fans off this site asking the coaches questions, at least here you got guys like JBR, and got ok, i'll stroke his ego, MIKE, and guys like this who actually understand the game and probably could come up with something better to ask these guys.. what would a friesen question to lets say etcheverry be? or the special teams coach, what would he actually ask them, i'd imagine not much cuz the guy really doesn't have a clue about  football. Hard to take some of our media guys seriously when they think they are experts on everything. Seriously, rapid transit, politics, bombers, jets, they think they know it all, But really.. the truth is they don't and it's pretty obvious. 

Penton is pretty good. We don't always agree, but he's definitely a thinker.

 

Top 3 Bomber guys in my mind right now are Tait, Bauming and Penton.

 

Irving would be up there but he just doesn't push the volume of coverage that those three do.

 

Apparently, Friesen did the "FULL FRIESEN" on Mike O. and it resulted in a typical bomber reaction. A veritable lockdown.

 

How did that work out for Maggot Kelly?

 

No problem with Wpg Media. Jimbozo Bell has already told O'Shea that Bob Irving is his official media caddy and all info goes thru CJOB BOB.....

Most of the other radio outlets just wanna have fun and send reps to the game (a la Ace Burpee, Philly, Bunkhouse Buk (Wheeler), etc.

The FP is the official newspaper of the Bombers and have money invested in the team . . . they don't wanna rock the boat too much so guys like Tait, Campbell, etc. serve the purpose of unofficial house organs (as opposed to the official one, Bob Irving)

Lawless is the wild card at WFP as he's got the columnist license and also has the 2 hour daily radio gig at TSN. He can get a ton of digs in at the Bombers, and if they flail like last year I'm sure he'll GO NEGATIVE!

TV stations in town all have significant investment/interest in bomber games. CTV is part of Bell/TSN so they simply do smile 'n giggle reports. CBC hardly does sports, but Mitch Peacock goes to all press conferences and usually gets as many questions in as Lawless or Sara O.

CKND has Shoeless Joe - they don't do much other than hi-lites and a bit of grief.

The Wpg boards are usually more favourable to the bombers than unfavourable, especially their own JeffBannon.com site. 

So in essence Friesen is the only one with Billy the Kid status, Lawless lurking about for interesting angles (so far his top one is Jeff Rabb being rebuffed by the Bomber board)

CJOB - the bomber radio rights-holder is usually 90% favourable to the team (understood) and the only time Irving gets mean or nasty is during play by play when things go to heck in a hand-basket. After the losses he's usually found trying to talk people down off the ledge.

What was the controversy last season involving Bob Irving?  I cant remember...but I recall being amused.  Wasn't it that Lawless broke a story and Irving went on a rant or something?  I remember someone calling into H&L to ask Gary what he thought of Irving's whining and Gary was very gracious.

 

Totally taken out of context

 

Gary broke the story that Garth Butchko recommended that Joe Mack be fired.

Irving ranted on twitter that he thought it was unprofessional that the leak came from the board.

Listener thinks Irving was upset he didn't break the story first.

 

Totally taken out of context

 

 

Gary broke the story that Garth Butchko recommended that Joe Mack be fired.

Irving ranted on twitter that he thought it was unprofessional that the leak came from the board.

Listener thinks Irving was upset he didn't break the story first.

 

Pretty much exactly how it went. Knuckles was mad at how unprofessional the organization was. It appeared the board was leaking the story so the Bombers would have no choice but to can Mack.

The last thing i will say about this topic is... 

 

i dont know how much actual information we would gain from interview positional coaches. 

Next to none...except for two areas.  Getting accurate player assessments during training camp, which is not an issue if the HC is staying on top of everything.  Tough to do with 80 bodies but not impossible.  OShea seems to have a decent handle on it.  Not every HC has in the past though.

 

And writing stories about the coaches themselves.  I like that stuff.  Bellefeuille's wrong-side-of-the-tracks childhood, Wylie's penchant for magic tricks, that's great stuff.  And all the reporter has to do is request an interview.  I have no doubt it would be granted.  What OShea is saying is that if you want to talk to a coach about a player, he and only he is going to be that coach.  Want to talk to a coach about that coach?  I doubt that would ever be an issue.

 

Of course that's not what this spiteitorial was ever about.  Page views by implying controversy.  Easier than page views by having quality journalism.  Lazy hack.

Irving has been known to take issues with members of the BOD from time to time, never really says names (actually doesn't ) but does from time to time let people know that he thinks there are some members on the BOD who are in it for themselves. ( my best guess is he's referring  to Asper as Asper has been there a while now and this goes back a bit now with Irving and the BOD )

 

I thought i recalled Bob mentioning something relating to how can people who are fans of the team and always let their emotions get in the way of business actually know what's best for business.

 

Not exactly that but.. pretty much. 

 

Made it sound to me that it was obvious he was talking about Mr Asper.

 

I'm not sure how far CJOB's archives go back but.. if it does, i'm sure irvings rant on the BOD can be found, it was one of those "rants" irving does every so often about different things going on in the sports world, like a 60 or 90 second clip discussing the random events of the week relating to sports.

All of the local sports media ranted about the BoD leak - even Lawless joined a few days after he broke the story.

 

 

Totally taken out of context

 

 

Gary broke the story that Garth Butchko recommended that Joe Mack be fired.

Irving ranted on twitter that he thought it was unprofessional that the leak came from the board.

Listener thinks Irving was upset he didn't break the story first.

 

Pretty much exactly how it went. Knuckles was mad at how unprofessional the organization was. It appeared the board was leaking the story so the Bombers would have no choice but to can Mack.

 

Yes, thats it.  That refreshes my memory.  I love Irving but I do recall feeling he was off-base in his rant.  I think Gary's position was well, you can be critical of a leak but its his job to coax the leak out.  I also recall (though I cant remember why) that Irving was more mad that it came from TSN rather than CJOB as one would suggest Irving's reaction would be different if, say, Asper sent him a text with the same info.  irving wouldnt have sat on it.

 

Also, if I recall wasnt the issue that by that point Garth was lame duck anyway?  That when it came down to him wanting Mack fired, it was too late to save himself?

All of the local sports media ranted about the BoD leak - even Lawless joined a few days after he broke the story.

I think lawless' position was "ofcourse the leak is indicative of a dysfunctional BOD but Im still going to coax out info and report it."  Either way, when someone bad mouthed Irving to Gary, he was very gracious in his response and actually put over CJOB and Irving stronger than I would have guessed.

Irving did not say anything negative about Lawless. His rant was aimed directly at the BoD.

Lawless writes/says some questionable things from time to time but he would never be dumb enough to bad mouth Bob Irving on the radio... Irving is a legend arond these parts and Lawless respects that