Alden Darby, Jr., had just come out of meetings the other day and was getting ready for another practice with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats when he was called upstairs.
For the second time in his CFL career, the defensive back had been traded to the Blue Bombers.
“Yeah, that’s pretty dope,” Darby said, Wednesday. “Now let’s go back and do what happened last year when I got traded. Win another Grey Cup.”
That’s the plan, which is why the Bombers reacquired the 30-year-old Darby to bolster a secondary rendered dangerously thin by injuries.
Darby was a West Division all-star last season, acquired from Toronto and quickly working his way into the starting lineup for the last nine regular-season games, the West Final and the Grey Cup.
The transition this time hit a little speed bump, Day 1.
“When he came in the meeting room today, he happened to be late,” head coach Mike O’Shea said. “A minute. The guys let him have it, too. It was good. Old times.”
That explains what Darby had told reporters minutes earlier, when asked if he’d had a welcome-back-to-Winnipeg moment.
“I’ve got to buy donuts today,” he said. “They know why.”
Teammates also know why he’s back.
A team with designs on a championship doesn’t go into the stretch drive and the playoffs without having its behind covered at every position.
Nick Taylor is the latest defensive back to be sidelined, out for the season with an Achilles injury.
If the trade sends a message to the rest of the team, that’s a bonus.
“I don’t think we have to send a message to anybody,” O’Shea said. “I’m pretty sure to a man our guys know that they’re all-in and so are we.”
Veteran O-lineman Pat Neufeld does.
“We’re all-in for this thing every year,” Neufeld said. “And it would be doing a disservice if we didn’t have that mentality.”
The Bombers secondary seems to be in flux every season at this time of year.
The unit already features some players that are greener than the turf.
“It’s nice to have a veteran to count on versus another young guy you’re just not sure of,” defensive coordinator Richie Hall said. “He’s got the ability to play all positions… he also understands. It’s like having another coach out on the field.”
Time will tell if, when and where Darby lines up.
Just lining up again will mean the world to him.
Too often in Hamilton he’d found himself on the outside, looking in, and it took a toll.
“And it wasn’t, to my knowledge, anything that I did wrong,” he said. “I still don’t know. I’m genuinely just happy to be here… picking up on things that I forgot or new things. This is a different team here than 2021.”
Many of his teammates are familiar, though.
The bond he formed in a relatively short time is a feeling he turned to the moment he was told about the trade.
“Winnipeg is a very close place to me, a close place to my heart,” Darby said. “There’s probably not a day goes by since I left this building that I haven’t talked to the guys here. They’re family. And I’ve built a serious bond, relationship, with all the guys on this field and this organization. So it was surreal.”
Darby left the two-time defending Grey Cup champs as a free agent last winter. There was only so much cash to go around.
And while things didn’t exactly work out in Hamilton, he has a chance to end the season on another high that only a championship can bring.
Suddenly, he’s gone from a 4-10 squad to one shooting for a three-peat.
“My gosh, I know,” he said. “One day at a time. Brick-by-brick. Each of us leaning on each other and working and just handling it game-by-game… and whatever the outcome is, we go 100% every single day.”
Presumably, that includes being on time for meetings.
The price of a few dozen donuts is a small one to pay to get back in the fold.
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