Some skilled position players in football would be ready to stage a coup. Well past the halfway mark of the CFL season, the league’s best running back is still without a touchdown. It’s a point of order that a younger Brady Oliveira may have raised to his superiors or perhaps even those of us in the press corps.
But standing in front of his locker, a signed Charles Roberts jersey hanging from his stall after Winnipeg’s 26-21 win in the Banjo Bowl on Saturday, a reminder of his goose egg glanced off of him like a missed tackle. “Of course, as a skilled position, it would be nice to find the end zone,” Oliveira said. But you don’t earn the kind of praise that Mike O’Shea dolled out post-game for being a one-trick, ego-driven pony.
“He’s one of the best players in our entire league, regardless of position,” O’Shea trumpeted after passing Bud Grant with his 103rd regular-season win. “He’s phenomenal. He can do it all for us.
” And “it all” is exactly what the Bombers have needed this season. In a year where offence hasn’t come cheap for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Oliveira has had to swallow some of his pride in the name of winning. That’s a difficult thing.
“Because just over the course of their careers up to that point, they touch the ball and they know they can score. From anywhere,” O’Shea said. “I would never say it’s easy.
But I appreciate his effort in getting to that point. The win is more important for him.” Oliveira’s touc.