BOMBERS EXCITED FOR CFL SEASON-OPENER

Players eager to get back on gridiron for actual game for first time in 621 days

A common theme among Winnipeg Blue Bombers players Tuesday was they were trying their hardest to contain the excitement and emotion that was welling up inside them just two days before their first CFL season-opener in more than two years.

They were trying, but they weren't really succeeding.

“I try to keep emotions out of it when it comes to football, but I'd be lying to you if I said I wasn't excited,” Bombers receiver Nic Demski said after the team held a closed practice at IG Field.

“I've got some butterflies talking about it right now because it's different — usually you don't have this long of a gap between games. I just can't wait to go out there and fly around and play some football again. Going out there and catching the ball, going out there and making a play … the whole aspect of football, it just gets me excited.”

Demski, a 27-year-old Winnipegger, will get to watch as the organization raises the 2019

Grey Cup banner at IG Field, in front of 30,000-plus fans, before the team kicks off the season against the Hamilton Tiger-cats.

It will be the first game in 621 days for the teams — the Bombers beat the Ticats 33-12 in the 2019 CFL championship game — and will be a moment to cherish for all those who love Canadian football.

The league was unable to play in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2021 season has been delayed by two months and shortened from 18 to 14 games.

“I'm over here trying to hold back excitement because we don't play the game until Thursday,” defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat said. “But I'm extremely excited. Back to playing ball. It's been a longtime off, way too long. It's just exciting to get out there and we're gonna get to play Hamilton again. It's gonna be fun.”

Even the veteran players admit they are anxious heading into Game 1. There were no pre-season games this year and training camp activities were limited because of COVID-19 protocols. No one really knows how things are going to go in the season-opener, against the team most prognosticators have picked to win the Grey Cup in 2021.

“I'm a little bit nervous, but nervous just means that you're ready,” veteran safety Brandon Alexander said. “It's been a while since we've been out there and put on pads and just gone out there and played. There's a little bit of butterflies starting to set in, just being so real that it's about to come in two days. There's definitely a lot of excitement going on and I just can't wait till we get out there and it's time to go.”

Bombers coach Mike O'shea is never a fan of distractions and works hard to keep his players from getting too high or too low at any point during a season.

But even he admits this is a bit of a different situation.

“Well, I hope they don't look at me too closely, because I'll be fired up myself,” O'shea said.

“I think part of my job as a head coach is to just keep making them aware that it will be an emotional event, obviously, stepping on the field for the first time in a long time, to play the game you love with your teammates you care deeply about. So, couple that with seeing fans that have been waiting a long time for this, it's going to be emotional and one of those things that you just have to make sure we temper that.”

The significance of this game is not at all lost on O'shea, who is Canadian and has been in the CFL as a player or a coach since 1993.

“Well, I mean it is the first game of the 2021 season and it's been, obviously, a long time — 600-plus days — since a CFL game has been played,” O'shea said. “And it's also the first major sporting event with a lot of fans, basically a full barn allowed, in Canada, really.

“So, it's big not just for the CFL but for Canadian sports fans.”

The Bombers will take on a different quarterback Thursday than they faced in the 2019 Grey Cup game.

Jeremiah Masoli, who was having a most outstanding player-type season before he got hurt in 2019, was replaced by Dane Evans as the Tiger-cats quarterback for the latter half of the season.

Evans did a fine job himself, but Masoli won the training camp competition and will start in Game 1 against the Bombers.

He's slippery and elusive and strong enough to throw while in the clutches of a defensive lineman. And that makes him very tough to play against.