Blue Bombers' recent success a testament to strong culture and leadership

REGINA - Culture is a word that is relatively easy to define, yet can be incredibly difficult to establish and often even harder to maintain.

Every organization aspires to build it, yet occasionally struggles to either find the personnel, the right coaching staff or the proper management team to go with it.

Combining all of those elements is no easy task, even for the most astute or experienced team builders.

Otherwise, everyone would do it.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who are seeking a third consecutive Grey Cup title on Sunday at Mosaic Stadium against the Toronto Argonauts, have taken major strides during the past decade to cultivate a culture that each and every club in the nine-team circuit is trying to mimic.

In this case, imitation really is the most sincere form of flattery.

The gold standard has been set and the formula isn’t necessarily as complicated as one might expect, with one crucial caveat at its core.

“Eventually you get that high level of ownership that we have and it’s always better when other people share ownership,” said Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea, who put his team through the paces on Friday afternoon at Leibel Field, with quarterback Zach Collaros moving around pretty well on the injured right ankle that has generated plenty of attention since Sunday’s West Division final. “Always. In any business. Not just (football). If the people that work in the business take pride and have ownership in the business, the business does well.

“My role in it is overblown. We’ve got a great group of leaders that handle all of that. They’re the ones that create what goes on in the room and the vibe around the team. They’re the ones responsible for integrating new players and once again, it’s very easy for a guy to come into our building. They can come in, they can relax and be themselves and figure out how they’re going to fit in.”

Leadership is an essential piece to this complex puzzle and they certainly do their part when it comes to setting expectations and holding their teammates accountable.

“It takes the right leaders who are workers. The culture that you want should always be based on work,” said Bighill. “We have leaders and veterans that love the process of working. If you don’t have that, you’re going to have inconsistencies.

“When you have good football players that can work and play ball, that sets the tone for all of the other guys coming into the building. They understand what it takes because they see the guys on the field that are balling and making plays - and then they see how much work goes into making those plays, that is how you build culture. That’s the reward for the work he puts in and I want that. That becomes the expectation and you don’t have to talk about it. People now just start to do it.”

Although O’Shea is loathe to accept the credit for playing a vital role in the culture-building process, his players tell a much different story.

“First and foremost is (O’Shea’s) integrity as a man and the way that he treats us as men first and he cares about us as people,” said Neufeld. “When things are going wrong, he makes sure that the person is okay first. That goes a long way in a business where guys can get sloughed off and sent to other places. That care goes into how we treat our teammates and that’s the biggest thing.

“It’s accountability. It’s veteran guys stepping up and taking care of the locker room and taking care of what’s happening with our team. Leadership is not just a captain’s job. It’s a totality job. We’ve done a pretty good job of building a strong, huge and diverse group of leaders on our team.”

There are ample factors that have allowed the Blue Bombers to get to this point and it certainly didn’t happen overnight.

Plenty of folks will tell you it was an arduous process, one that included a Grey Cup drought of nearly three decades before the wins began to pile up again in 2019.

The Blue Bombers took some big swings in free agency, attracting tackle Stanley Bryant from the Calgary Stampeders, Andrew Harris and Adam Bighill from the B.C. Lions and once some of those foundational pieces were in place, Willie Jefferson and Jackson Jeffcoat arrived on the scene a few years later to augment the defence and Jermarcus Hardrick came on board to bolster the offensive line.

In 2019, Collaros came onto the scene in a late-season trade and he’s done a lot of leading, a lot of winning and filling up his trophy case with consecutive Most Outstanding Player awards.

Although Harris joined the Toronto Argonauts in free agency this season, the Blue Bombers have found that fine line between maintaining the importance of continuity while also integrating other pieces in the fold.

One of those pieces this season was receiver Greg Ellingson, who has a previous connection to Collaros from their time together with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and is set to appear in his sixth Grey Cup this weekend.

“The past couple of years, you always noticed the work that they put in. The hard work and how they played, the physicality they bring to the football game is something that is relevant to every CFL team and it’s noticeable,” said Ellingson. “Being here just kind of put a stamp on that. The hard work that goes on behind the doors that you guys don’t always see is why you see that on game day (with) how fast and how physical this team is.”

Building an incredibly strong culture has made Winnipeg both a free agent destination and a place where some veterans have taken a hometown discount to remain in the fold.

“It’s the philosophy that he’s built and the atmosphere that he’s built that is conducive to guys wanting to stay here,” said Neufeld. “You see it in free agency when we don’t lose a lot of guys. Guys really want to play here and the guys stay here for a long time. It is a business but when guys make a sacrifice to stay here for less money or for whatever situation, it’s helped us over these years.”

That can be an awfully fine line to straddle in professional sports, where cashing in on past success often breaks up teams that have the potential to do something special over a longer period of time.

“You can’t be flipping the locker room every single year and expect everyone to understand what you want. Continuity is a big part of what we have,” said Bighill. “Honestly, it’s great that people see us that way (as the gold standard), but we look at it as ‘this is how we operate.’ This is business for us.

“In our room, we just figured out that we know what it takes to win and that doesn’t change week to week or year two years. Let’s just go do it.”