There was an only-in-the-CFL moment midway through Tuesday’s Blue Bombers practice, when one of the players not suited up picked up a ball and began playing catch with three kids in the front row of the stands.
The boys were obviously thrilled. When they were done, I asked if they knew who the player was.
“One of the coaches?” one kid guessed.
Hardly.
They had just been playing catch with the CFL’s leading receiver and first star of the week, Greg Ellingson.
“That’s what I would be doing when I was a kid,” Ellingson said later. “That’s why I did it. If that’s me right now, I’d want to be tossing the ball with one of the guys on the field. And the fact they thought I was a coach, that’s cooler.”
There’s been no mistaking Ellingson’s role through the first third of the season, as he has quickly become the favourite target of quarterback Zach Collaros.
His 34 receptions and 518 yards are both tops in the league, while he’s tied for second with three touchdown grabs.
Ellingson is coming off a monster game in which he caught 11 of 14 passes tossed his way — seven of them second-down conversions — for 152 yards, as the Bombers knocked off Calgary, 26-19, to remain undefeated through six games.
The nine-year CFLer, though, treats adulation and accomplishments like defenders — he runs away from them.
“That’s a mentality you have to have, especially in football,” Ellingson said. “You can’t just keep looking at your success that you’ve already had. You have to focus on the week at hand. If you let what you’ve done in the past dictate that week, then you’re going to get content. And that’s something that’s dangerous.”
It was hard to see this coming for the product of Tampa, Fla.
At 33, Ellingson was coming off a 10-game, 34-catch season in Edmonton, his least productive since he was a CFL sophomore.
That didn’t dissuade the Bombers from pursuing him when the Elks let him go.
“He makes big catches, makes big plays. He’s been doing that for a number of years,” head coach Mike O’Shea said. “So when he becomes available, you see if he wants to show up here or not. You’ve gotta ask him. We’re thankful he said yes.”
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Even after Ellingson signed, third-year Rasheed Bailey was seen as the heir apparent to Kenny Lawler, who led the league last season and bolted for a big payday in Edmonton.
But Bailey has been conspicuous by his modest numbers: 18 catches, 166 yards.
With two grabs for just five yards against Calgary, Bailey acknowledges he’s getting antsy to get more involved.
“It does get to you sometimes,” he said. “I pride myself on being one of the spirits, one of the leaders of the team. And I do want it. If you don’t want it, you shouldn’t be out there. Everybody’s talking to me and letting me know that it’s coming. And I know it’s coming.
“And they say when it comes, it comes in bunches.”
A player who wears his heart on his sleeve, Bailey, 28, takes solace in knowing he’s still contributing as a blocker, route-runner and emotional leader.
“I had a lot of self-reflecting this past weekend and the overall goal and mission is to win a Grey Cup,” Bailey said. “The individual stuff happens. The one thing coach O’Shea always preaches, he always talks about putting your ego aside for the team. Your personal goals, all those things, all that goes out the window as soon as you step on the field.”
Ellingson reads from the same play book.
The Bombers are his fourth CFL team — he had a pair of 90-plus-catch seasons and a high of 1,459 yards and 12 touchdowns in Ottawa — and his reputation preceded him to Winnipeg.
“Now you don’t know until you get him in the building, but you do hear a lot about a lot of players around the league and how professional they are or how not professional they are,” O’Shea said. “He’s obviously one of those guys who takes his job very seriously, the way he trains in the off-season and the shape he’s always in. You see that year after year after year and you want those guys in your building.”
Ellingson’s work ethic and instant relationship with Collaros has helped quiet concerns about Winnipeg’s receiving corps.
At his age, he takes nothing for granted, training with the realization there’s always someone younger behind him who wants his job.
“That’s always the mentality that I have and always will have,” he said. “Until one day the wheels fall off.”
Right now they’re rolling, and so are the Bombers.
“It’s a blast when you’re winning.”
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