FATHERHOOD HAS BOMBERS QB ON HIGH ALERT
There is the prospect of delayed CFL training camps at the very least, a wiped-out season at the very worst.
The prospect of reduced paycheques if the season is, for example, cut in half.
But Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback Zach Collaros has something else weighing heavily on his mind as the coronavirus pours through the world’s defences like the mother of all blitzes.
The soon-to-be mother he’s married to.
“With my wife being so close to giving birth, and our grandparents and other grandparents that we love, we’re just trying to follow the rules and trying to help,” Collaros said Thursday, on the phone from his home in Aurora, Ont. “I try my best to not bury my head in the news, and try to control what I can here in our little home. It’s been a little stressful.
“We’re not special in that regard. Everybody’s feeling it.”
Collaros and his wife, Nicole, are expecting their first child in less than three weeks.
That’s always an exciting time for a couple. A little anxious, too.
Having that child during what could well be the peak of a pandemic that’s putting all kinds of pressure on hospitals has Collaros a little more stressed than your average father-to-be.
“You want everything at the hospital to be working efficiently and well,” he said. “We’ve been assured from our OB and doctors that wing of the hospital won’t be affected. You just want the baby to be healthy, Nicole to be healthy, and that’s all I really care about.
“I’m always the one that’s worried about something. I try to be prepared as I can be. I’m a worst-case-scenario thinker. It’s never not on my brain.”
That’s why when he comes home from the store, he’ll shed his outer layer in the garage and toss it straight into the washing machine.
“If my wife wasn’t so pregnant, I really wouldn’t care,” he said. “We’re too close.”
Collaros started getting nervous about COVID-19 in January. That’s the last time his parents were up from his native Ohio. When they’ll be able to come back, nobody knows.
While Nicole’s parents live nearby, the couple plays it safe and doesn’t mingle with them anymore.
“That’s the other part of the human element,” Collaros said. “This is our first child, so we want to share it with our family. Until anybody figures out what’s going on, we don’t know how or when that’s going to happen.”
Nobody knows how or when training camps are going to happen, either.
But that seems like a minuscule detail to the 31-year-old. Family isn’t.
His sister is an emergency room doctor in Wheeling, W. Va., so there’s another thing to worry about, in addition to his own parents.
“Not being close to my family has been tough,” Collaros said.
“Just because I’m a very protective person. I like to be in control. Not being there to monitor everything has been hard for me.
“I’m really just driving my wife crazy.”
Collaros laughs at himself occasionally, relating how for a month now he’s been repeatedly telling his wife to wash her hands.
He’ll work off some stress by going for a run, as he did just before our conversation. The spring air feels good in his lungs.
Other than that, it’s a pretty strict regimen. No straying from the game plan.
“We’ve done our part here,” he said. “We’ve been pretty locked away for two weeks. Everybody I’ve talked to throughout the process says once the baby comes it’s going to be your whole world. I’m really excited for that. We both are.
“And if we’ve got to be in the house and not see people for a little bit, you do what you gotta do.”
The hard part is having all that time to think. And read. Encouraging news one minute, a doomsday article the next.
Joining the Bombers at the October trade deadline and learning the offence in time to lead the team to its drought-busting Grey Cup championship was a walk in the park compared to this.
The only correlation: Collaros is always ready with an audible.
He’s even considered the unlikely scenario of having to deliver the baby in their home.
Wouldn’t you know, their neighbour happens to be an emergency medical technician.
“She’s like, ‘We’ve got four kids, you’ll be fine,’” he said, chuckling. “We have that contingency plan, too.”
COLLEGE-TYPE CFL SEASON COULD WORK
The talk of a shortened 2020 CFL season has begun, based on the continuing restrictions forced by the pandemic.
The question is, how many regular season games does it take to make for a meaningful campaign?
“We play a lot of games as it is,” Collaros said. “College plays, what, 11 or 12 games? And that’s a proper championship when you win down there. The bottom line is guys want to play.
“And guys want to make their money, too. That’s another factor. Nobody really knows what’s going to happen on that end.”
Presumably, reducing the season would mean reducing players’ paycheques.
And while quarterbacks like Collaros wouldn’t necessarily feel the pinch, others would.
“You hear it, for sure,” he said. “It’s become just the reality we’re living in right now, because it’s such an unknown. Guys are just being more conscious of spending, and waiting anxiously to hear what’s going to happen.”
After leading the Bombers to the 2019 Grey Cup title, Collaros signed a two-year contract that reportedly calls for an average salary of $445,000, plus bonuses for playing time.
That puts him in the middle of the pay scale for starting quarterbacks.