Tim Burke’s lost cause
Head coach holds out hope that Winnipeg’s dismal season won’t be his legacy
T his week, Tim Burke, attempting everything to improve the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ fortunes, met with a sports psychologist who has NHL experience, hoping to get some motivational ideas for his slumping team.
On his way out of the restaurant, Burke ran into his realtor, advising her he might require her services, again, in the weeks ahead. Burke is nothing if not honest and you can’t make this stuff up. Yes, he’s the interim head coach of the Bombers. Yes, his contract expires after this season. And yes, the Winnipeg condo he calls home was purchased and isn’t a rental. At least the real estate market in the southern Manitoba city is prosperous.
“She told me I’d make money,” Burke said with his deadpan sense of humour. “I’d rather keep my job than make money.”
Burke, the Alouettes’ former defensive co-ordinator who won consecutive Grey Cups with Montreal, spent almost three decades as an assistant in the U.S. collegiate ranks. He then came to the Canadian Football League, spending portions of six seasons as a defensive co-ordinator — all with the hope of one day becoming a head coach.
He applied for the Winnipeg job in 2010 that ultimately went to Paul LaPolice. Burke returned to the Als, only to depart following the season, knowing his dream wouldn’t be realized in Montreal.
He interviewed last winter at Saskatchewan, although it was obvious the Roughriders always were going to hire Corey Chamblin. And Burke appeared destined for Hamilton until Tiger-Cats’ president Scott Mitchell, at the last minute, hired George Cortez. That’s worked out well, hasn’t it?
And then in late August, on a Saturday afternoon after the Bombers had lost the night before, at home, by three points to British Columbia, general manager Joe Mack announced the firing of LaPolice. Burke, at age 58, was named his replacement. Be careful what you wish for. In five games under Burke, the Bombers have four losses, including a 52-0 evisceration at Regina in his debut, along with a 44-3 pasting at Calgary during which some of his players were caught on camera cracking jokes and laughing.
Winnipeg also lost by a point to the Riders, Saskatchewan kicking a final-play field goal after Burke punted late in the game rather than attempting what should have been a routine field goal. The rookie head coach later admitted he goofed.
Winnipeg, which meets the Als Monday afternoon at Molson Stadium, has been outscored 162-71 under Burke and sits last in the East Division, at 3-10, all but mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. Winnipeg was 2-6, a deceiving record, at the time of the change, having lost its opening four games, all on the road, and forced to play most of the season without its injured starting quarterback, Buck Pierce.
Those closest to the scene swear LaPolice had lost the players, even as far back as last season, when the team staggered to the Cup finale following a 7-1 start.
“In a perfect world, I would have got one of the two jobs I interviewed for in the off-season,” Burke said. “I would have been able to start from scratch, start from the ground floor and try to develop the team that way. This is not the way I wanted to become a head coach.
“Firing a guy in mid-season, how many times does that work?”
If it doesn’t this time, it’ll be Burke who takes the fall, his head coaching resumé potentially beginning — and ending — at 10 games, his legacy tied to this sorry outfit. And Burke is too good for that, a highly respected co-ordinator whose teams have reached the Grey Cup in each of the last four seasons.
Potentially complicating the issue is the fact the Bombers are a community-owned franchise. In other words, it won’t necessarily be GM Mack who decides Burke’s fate. And if Mack isn’t retained, something that seems virtually certain at this point, Burke might as well be fitted with a blindfold and given a smoke.
The loyal foot-soldier — Burke refused to move into LaPolice’s vacant office and received no pay increase — who was backed into a corner when Mack came calling, could be forced to pay the ultimate price.
And don’t think that hasn’t crossed Burke’s mind.
“Of course I worry about my future,” he said. “I’m worried, if things don’t get better here, that’ll be what people think of me as the head coach ... this is his resumé ... he’s responsible for whatever the record is and he couldn’t improve the team. I worry about that.
“Maybe I won’t get another headcoaching opportunity and this will be my legacy, that he didn’t do a good job or they didn’t get better,” Burke added. “That’s your legacy and you’ll never get another chance. That’s the trouble when you become the interim head coach. You’re thrust into the situation that’s there and you’ve been judged by that situation.”
Burke, a native of Kansas, has had only two jobs in his life — labourer and football coach. And the former was a means to the latter, he admitted.
“I remember my grandparents had a colour TV. I remember sitting there (in the 1960s) watching a college game with Alabama and seeing Bear Bryant on the sidelines and thinking that I wanted to be like him someday,” Burke said. “I want to be that guy. I’ve always known I wanted to be a coach and wanted to be a head coach.”
Assuming control of the Bombers halfway through the season, Burke’s changes have been more cosmetic. He changed the team’s practice routine, making workouts shorter, more intense and competitive —- a trick he learned from Montreal boss Marc Trestman. Burke couldn’t change the playbook, instead attempting to alter the way Winnipeg’s maligned and challenged offence operates, playing to the players’ strengths.
And he was quick to instill and impose discipline on a team that was crying for such. Burke has been known to lose his temper and swear, occasionally. Instead, he established some rules and guidelines that must be adhered to. Otherwise, players will be fined and released. It’s that simple.
“I’m a common guy who gets along with people and has discipline,” he explained. “Be positive, have discipline, tell it like it is, be straightforward. What you see is what you get. I don’t try to hide who I am.”
The win-loss ledger probably won’t be pretty when all is said and done this season for Burke and the Bombers. Instead, he’s attempting to keep them motivated and ensure they play hard. Come November, he’ll argue that he never lost the players, they believed in him, that he was organized, handled his assistants and even, imagine this, got along with the media. Will that suffice?
“If we can just get this thing turned around at the end, maybe there’s a chance that I could continue ... if there’s some sort of resurrection of the program at the end,” Burke said. “Where will I be next year? Who knows? I might be unemployed for a year. I might be digging ditches for a year. All I know is football and manual labour.”