Mike O’Shea’s mom didn’t try to convince him to move closer to his hometown.
O’Shea spoke to the media on Tuesday and explained why he signed a three-year extension last week to remain head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, lasting through the 2028 season.
“There’s obviously a whole pile of reasons, but we’ve built something pretty damn special here, so you’d like to continue that,” O’Shea said.
“The season didn’t work out the way we wanted, but I think there’s still a lot of growth to be had and a lot of legs left in it, so that, family, all sorts of things, but I wanted to be here.”
The father of three adult children, who also live in Winnipeg, just finished his 11th season with the Blue Bombers, leading the franchise in coaching wins (117-77 record).
A native of North Bay, Ont., O’Shea met early last week with Toronto Argonauts general manager Mike (Pinball) Clemons about that team’s head-coaching vacancy after Ryan Dinwiddie moved on to the Ottawa Redblacks.
O’Shea, 55, wouldn’t get into details about the meeting or say if an offer was made. The Bombers had given the Argos permission to speak with him.
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“I’m on an expiring contract, I’ve got a few opportunities to explore, I should explore them,” he said.
O’Shea has strong ties to the Argonauts, Clemons and Ontario.
The Hall of Fame former Toronto linebacker played with Clemons, whom he described as a “pretty special human being.”
O’Shea’s widowed mother, who’s in her late 70s, still lives in North Bay. The parents of his wife, Richere, also live in southern Ontario.
He said his mother doesn’t need his help — she drove to Winnipeg at the end of the summer — and she never tries to influence his decisions.
“From the time I was very young, there were a lot of decisions I was in charge of making,” he said. “That’s just the way my mom and dad raised me. ‘Here’s the information, you’ve got to make a decision.’ A good conversation, always, but you’re in charge of making your decisions.”
The CFL’s longest-serving head coach was asked if he’d ever want to be a general manager, a title Dinwiddie also has with the Redblacks.
“I’m always interested in growth, but I’ve never been interested in power,” O’Shea said. “Power is not the be-all and end-all.”
He’d rather make decisions with input from knowledgeable people.
“Having absolute control of something has never been anything I’m interested in,” O’Shea said.
“Whatever the titles would be, would be irrelevant. No matter what we were doing, it would always be a team effort, a group of people trying to advance our team.”
The Bombers also announced last Friday that GM Kyle Walters signed an extension. He’s meeting with the media on Wednesday to talk about his own three-year deal through 2028.
Winnipeg reached the playoffs for a ninth consecutive season with double-digit wins (10-8), but had to cross over to the East Division and lost the semifinal to the Montreal Alouettes.
It halted the club’s string of five straight Grey Cup appearances, which included victories in the first two in 2019 and ’21.
O’Shea noted one appeal to staying in Winnipeg was its fans. The team sold out every home game this season, extending that full-house run to 14 games dating back to August 2024.
“It’s a great sporting city, the fans are unbelievable,” O’Shea said. “I’ve always said they’re highly educated. They show up in droves.”
However, O’Shea says he wasn’t impressed with one CFL fan, who took a photo of him in the Toronto airport when he was about to fly back to Winnipeg.
It was posted on social media last Wednesday, sparking speculation about O’Shea’s future.
The team announced that O’Shea and Walters were staying two days later, but without contract details.
O’Shea said the fan actually came up to him in Winnipeg, which hosted the Grey Cup on Sunday, and said he was the one who snapped the photo that went viral.
“Not my favourite thing,” O’Shea said. “People don’t understand how much of an issue they can create for their own self-serving purposes. It’s kind of sickening, really.”
Those issues are on the personal and professional level, he said.
“Across the board, there’s no thought when somebody snaps something and posts something. They have no thought for somebody else’s sanity. It’s all about themselves, and you’d like that to change.”
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