Winnipeg Blue Bombers' head coach ready for start of season
Canadians learned the CFL will finally return on Aug. 5, which is the first action the league will have since the Winnipeg Blue Bombers won the Grey Cup in November 2019.
Now that there is a start date in sight, Bombers' head coach Mike O'Shea said he is ready to get the season underway.
"We're only a few weeks from getting together," O'Shea said on Friday.
O'Shea said he is extremely happy knowing that the start of the season is just around the corner and he added he is even happier for the fans, saying they have been waiting a long time for the league to return.
Even with the return of football just a few months away, O'Shea noted things will be different, such as more protocols at training camp and no exhibition games.
Despite the changes, he feels his team will be ready.
"Like most players understand, in a game situation when you're out on the field and the ball is about to get snapped, you probably don't hear the crowd and you don't hear them again until after the whistle blows," he said. "It's going to look different around practice, but play to play it will be relatively the same."
The coach said all the teams throughout the league will have to deal with the same situations when it comes to dealing with COVID protocols and it will be a learning process throughout the entire year.
"You have to be able to adapt very quickly. I fully expect our guys to be able to do that. We got a bunch of pros."
The CFL's season will be shortened for 2021 and will only feature 14 games.
The Bombers will have several players returning from the 2019 Grey Cup winning team and O'Shea thinks that will help the team get off to a good start.
"I do always value a veteran presence, and in this particular year it should prove its worth."
The Bombers' season will get underway on Aug. 5 as they welcome the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to Winnipeg.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.