BIGHILL THE `ROCK' ON WHICH BOMBERS BUILT THEIR SUCCESS
Tough-as-nails linebacker found a home while leading Winnipeg to Grey Cup glory
His teammates call him Biggie, a play on his last name and also a comment on his penchant for making impactful plays.
His head coach just calls him “The Rock.”
“He's a rock, absolutely. A big one. Big rock,” Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Mike O'shea says of middle linebacker Adam Bighill.
So, what do you do with a big rock?
You use it as a building block, as a foundation for success.
Bighill, who turned 34 on Sunday, has been with the Bombers for the last four seasons.
All he has done is lead the team to two Grey Cups and a 14-3 record so far this season, while taking home two CFL most outstanding defensive player awards (in 2018 and 2021).
Considering his performance in Winnipeg and the leadership he's shown with the Bombers, that “rock” may one day turn into a statue.
“He's the guy ... he's the guy,” Bombers safety Brandon Alexander said in the lead-up to Saturday night's 40-32 loss to the B.C. Lions in Vancouver. “There's so much he can do and there are not a lot of linebackers that are built with the makeup of Adam Bighill.”
Bighill starred with the Lions for six seasons.
The future hall of famer took time to reflect on his remarkable four-year stint in Winnipeg in a one-on-one interview with Postmedia.
He now calls the Manitoba capital home, along with his wife Kristina and sons Liam, Adam, Jr., and Beau, who was born in Winnipeg. He stars with the Bombers and works as a private wealth adviser with Wellington-altus.
“I don't know how much more you can say about him,” O'shea said.
“We probably haven't talked about him enough this year. He's so versatile, a good leader, incredibly smart, and then there's this ability to cram more work into a day than most people can. He's been incredible for us.”
Bighill's relationship with O'shea predates his time in Winnipeg.
The two met in 2011, when Bighill was a 22-year-old rookie with the Lions and O'shea was a special teams co-ordinator with the Toronto Argonauts.
“Out of nowhere, he came over and talked to me,” Bighill said.
“We weren't even in the same organization and I was only a special-teams player. I didn't even know who he was. I didn't know he was a hall of fame guy, I didn't know he was a leading tackler, didn't know he played middle linebacker.
“He just came up and said, `I really like the way you play the game.' It all kind of started there.”
Bighill remembered that well when the Bombers began courting him in 2018.
He had just played a season with the New Orleans Saints of the NFL and was looking to lay down some roots back in Canada.
Bighill was the CFL'S most outstanding defensive player with B.C. in 2016, but for some reason, the Lions weren't willing to show him the money.
“When Ed Hervey took over as general manager there, I had already known how he had run his teams in Edmonton. He doesn't really think about paying the linebacker position because he thinks they're a dime a dozen,” Bighill said.
“I just knew I wasn't going to get a very good offer from B.C.
“Not only that, but coming back just before the season, a lot of salary cap was spoken for. I gave them a bit of a benefit of the doubt there, but they didn't really feel like they could make me an offer.”
He's not exactly bitter about that, but certainly doesn't agree with Hervey's position on linebackers.
“To the level of quality and detail I think I play the game at, you can't find a linebacker at dime-a-dozen (rates) who can come in and do what I do,” Bighill said.
On May 19, 2018, Bighill signed a one-year deal with the Bombers, with money certainly being a contributing factor.
Little did he know it would end up with him finding so much success, building a life after football, and finding a home for his family.
“I signed a one-year contract and the focus was on trying to come and win a Grey Cup with this team, but also get to know the team and the organization and the city,” Bighill said.
“I wouldn't call it a trial run, but it was more or less coming in and letting the chips fall where they may and seeing how it develops. You don't want to try to force things, so I came in with an open mind and a clean slate and a willingness to work and do my best to help the team win. That's where it started, and after the 2018 season, I could tell how close we were.”
Bighill re-signed for 2019 and the Bombers won their first Grey Cup in 29 years.
After the 2020 season was lost to the COVID -19 pandemic, they ran it back in 2021 for a second straight championship.
Bighill, now in his 10th CFL campaign, has recorded 70 tackles this year with a season-high nine in a 48-11 win over the Edmonton Elks.
For his career, Bighill has 809 defensive tackles, putting him seventh on the all-time list (O'shea is second with 1,151).
All this from a player who is undersized for a linebacker at 5-foot-10 and 219 pounds, and who had to battle every day as he grew up with a facial disfiguration due to being born with a cleft lip and palate. “I see how well he's able to take care of his body,” Alexander said. “He's able to go out there at the age he's at and still look like he's 25.”
A trip to Vancouver is always something special for Bighill, having called the city home for so many years.
“There are still a lot of fans out there who follow me, and when we're playing B.C., they support me and I appreciate that,” Bighill said. “I played six years there, won a Grey Cup, and made a lot of memories and friends.”
He also grew up in coastal Washington state, in Montesano, playing college football at Central Washington University.
But he's settled on the Prairies now, frigid winters and all, and wouldn't want it any other way.
“It's just been great,” Bighill said. “I've really enjoyed the relationships I've been able to develop and build here. The success we've had is a major reason why good things are continuing to happen.
“It was a good place to be, I could feel that right away. Being able to start some life after football as well, that afforded me a unique opportunity here in the city. It definitely played a factor in me moving my family here. That was a big deal.
“I could do this job anywhere in the country, but I really enjoy the people here that I get to work with.”
Bighill is just one of several foundational blocks upon which the Bombers are built.
It started with O'shea, who has been head coach since 2014, grew with the signings of running back Andrew Harris (now with Toronto), offensive lineman Stanley Bryant and receiver Nic Demski, and rose sky-high with the additions of defensive end Willie Jefferson and quarterback Zach Collaros in 2019.
Bighill calls the 2019 trade for Collaros the “crazy piece that has been the biggest wild card added to this whole mix.”
There's no doubt that's true, but all of the aforementioned players are great leaders who complement Collaros, mirror his work ethic, and perform consistently when the lights come on.
“I appreciate the way people go to work here and the way people focus on winning,” Bighill said.
“It wasn't like `Oh we have a game this week, we'll have a practice and we'll go have some fun.' It was more along the lines of, `Let's work on being the best we can be.'
“That was something that was very impressive, because there weren't as many guys doing that in B.C.
“Soon, you find out that it's a close group and everybody hangs out and everybody knows each other very well. It's a very unselfish room. Everyone knows the way you be successful is to be consistent with work. It was pretty cool to be a part of that machine, and then just add my ability, or my flavour, to the mix.”
Bighill and the Bombers arrived in Vancouver having already locked up first place in the West Division along with a bye to the West Final, which will be played at IG Field on Nov. 13.
The team is one win away from advancing to the Grey Cup for a third straight season, and if the Bombers get there, they'll surely be favoured to make it a threepeat.
It would put them in rarefied air as far as the CFL is concerned — no team has won three in a row since Edmonton won five straight from 1978-82 — and cement the legacy of players like Bighill as all-time legends of the organization.
“It's about continuity,” Bighill said. “You want to have a lot of the same veterans around who are good football players, who work, who are great for your locker-room and you think you have a chance to win with. We've been able to keep a lot of those guys here and that, to me, is the biggest key to success.”
Bighill could never have imagined all of this happening when he first joined the organization. He was just looking for a place to make a living playing football, not necessarily a home, nor a place in a city's sports history.
“What we've been able to do since 2018 is obviously the dream,” Bighill said. “We've been able to live it, which is pretty crazy. Football is kind of funny that way. Great things happen, but you never really know when and where they're going to happen. The way things play out is interesting. It's timing, it's everything coming together.
“The story has been fantastic.”