Each week, Toronto Argonaut linebacker Mike O’Shea answers your
questions. To submit a question to Mike please send an e-mail to askoshea@cfl.ca.
Hey Mike,
How do you guys spend your bye weeks? Do you have lots of practices in Toronto or do guys get to go home and hang out with the family etc.?
Thanks,
Jonathan G. (Toronto, ON)
A: Let’s dispel the myth that a week off for a pro athlete is truly a week off. There are no scheduled practices for the coming week which affords healthy players the ability to travel back to where they are from. What does health have to do with it? Injured players may be required to stick around town and attend therapy sessions. Regardless of where any player is for the coming week, every player will work out and condition several times. Most pros view the two week period between games as a great opportunity to regain some strength and quickness and to recharge mentally for the second half of the season.
Mike,
Do you prefer tackling small shifty running backs like Charles Roberts and Stefan Logan or big power backs like Jesse Lumsden and Wes Cates?
Bill T. (Mission, BC)
A: I prefer going head to head with power backs simply because it is a better physical/body type match up. There is satisfaction from tackling both though. Scatbacks require patience and wits while with bruisers, brawn will do. Offensive players, in general, will think that they can beat anyone one-on-one so when you tackle a smaller quick back in space you can see their displeasure. Bottom line is that as a pro linebacker I get paid to execute my assignment and when a running back (BIG or small) comes into my assigned gap I need to tackle him. What I really prefer is to have 12 double blue jerseys gang-tackling a ball carrier because that means we are all flying around having fun, which will lead to victory.
Hi Mike,
Do you feel like there is a difference between having a guy with a defensive background (Stubler) as your head coach as opposed to a guy with an offensive background (Pinball)?
Sarah A. (Oakville, ON)
A: I do not feel the difference comes from which side of the ball a coach’s expertise lies. To be a pro football head coach, you have to be extremely well-versed in offensive, defensive and special teams systems. Throughout my 16 years, I have played for eight different head coaches and all have had a different style. Their style was shaped by their own football experiences; what worked and what failed, understanding the type of team they had at that moment, who was their biggest mentor, etc. By the time someone becomes a head coach, they have had decades of football experiences from which to form their own ideas of what a head coach should be.
Mike O’Shea enters his 16th CFL season in 2008. He is a
three-time Grey Cup champion and the captain of the Toronto Argonauts’
defence. He is the CFL’s all-time leader in defensive tackles by a
Canadian and is second all-time on the overall list. In 1999 he was
named the league’s outstanding Canadian player.
