Bombers bucking trend, turn to backup Goltz
WINNIPEG — Standing in the shadow of the goalposts, Buck Pierce re-enacted a scene witnessed countless times over his nine-year Canadian Football League career.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback insisted he is healthy and ready for action — in spite of the latest calamity, a tender abdomen from a helmet to the gut in a 35-19 loss last week to the Toronto Argonauts.
Different stadium, same old story for a player with a medical chart thicker than the Calgary White Pages.
“My sense is that I would be physically able to play this week,” Pierce muttered Thursday after practice at the palatial Investors Group Field. “So it’s out of my hands.” The situation is out of Pierce’s hands and so is the ball. As the winds of change gust through this prairie metropolis, the Bombers have tapped Justin Goltz as the starter for tonight’s clash with the Calgary Stampeders.
All signs point to Bo Levi Mitchell making his first start at quarterback for Calgary, adding intrigue to a game where the visitors are favoured by 5.5 points in spite of their third-stringer likely lining up under centre.
(What does that say about the home side?)
The sense in these parts is that Pierce has played through much worse than this abdominal issue, but the Bombers want to see whether Goltz can finally give Winnipeggers what they’ve been so desperately craving for all these years. Stability at quarterback. “I’m a teammate first, and that’s what I’ll be,” a stonefaced Pierce said. “Am I happy about it? No I’m not. But I want to make sure we go out there and win the football game.”
Bombers head coach Tim Burke chuckled when told of Pierce’s declaration of physical well-being. Yes, this is a recording. “Buck will tell you he’s healthy,” Burke said. “The trainer says he’s not. Buck would tell you as long as he’s breathing that he’s healthy. I mean, he’s that kind of guy. He’s tough. He wants to go out there and he wants to play. He would play with a broken arm.”
And so Goltz steps in to make his first start since the 2008 season with Occidental College.
After five years of longing for an opportunity, the time has finally arrived for the six-foot-five, 210-pounder to prove he’s the man to lead the Bombers back to the land of respectability.
“I’m well aware of how badly this city wants a quarterback to take over, how badly they want a guy to come in and be consistent and win,” Goltz said. “I want to be that guy.
“But if that’s going on in the back of my mind while I’m out there playing, I probably wouldn’t be as successful as if I’m just out there trying to do my job. So I’m fully aware of the expectations of all the people out there, but at the same time, I can’t take that out with me on the field.”
Coming onto the field in relief of the injured Pierce last week, Goltz impressed, completing 13of-15 passes for 170 yards in the second half.
“Very intelligent,” Burke said, offering up a free scouting report on the new starter. “Obviously height is a nice thing for a quarterback seeing over the line. He runs really well. He’s got a strong arm.
“It will be interesting, because he has the ability to extend plays by running around ... As a defensive coach, I know my biggest nightmares have always come with scrambling quarterbacks. Because once they start scrambling, the play breaks down. Receivers are going every which way, and your coverage tends to break down. That’s when a lot of big plays happen.”
Life as the third-stringer on a Winnipeg team going nowhere proved a tough slog for a big-play quarterback like Goltz.
He never considered quitting, but ...
“There were times when I was here in years past when I was wondering how I could possibly provide for family or how I could be a great father if I was continuing on the path of not being promoted to the guy or the back up or anything like that,” said Goltz, who signed a new contract with the Bombers over the winter.
“There’s a lot less stress, a lot less anxiety on me now. I have a beautiful wife. A beautiful son. I’m able to go home and see him every day.
“The timing of everything has been perfect.”
Exuding confidence, not cockiness, this 25-year-old said the time is perfect to formally introduce himself to a football-mad community dying for a quarterback to take the ball and run with it.
“You don’t want to put unrealistic expectations on yourself,” he said. “This is professional football. We’re all grown men. One guy isn’t going to come in and change the world.
“But at the same time, one guy can have a significant impact on how a team perceives him and possibly on how a team goes out there and plays ...
“I thought I would be a little more nervous than I am. I’m going out there and playing football. This is what I’ve been working for a long time. “It’s finally here.” Perhaps, this game is the kickoff to the post-Pierce era in Winnipeg. Or not.
Stay tuned.