O’Leary: Nichols, Reilly two friends that will turn foe come kickoff

It was getting late on Friday night when Matt Nichols’ phone gave off that unmistakable high-pitched ringtone. He was getting a FaceTime call.

The line that pro athletes always throw out when they have to play against their friends goes something like: He’s a brother to me. I love spending time with him. But this week, until the game’s over, we’re not talking.

Mike Reilly’s face on the other end of that squeaky-sounding phone on Friday night was in direct violation of the playoff football pal code (PFPC, to those unfamiliar).

Reilly said the circumstances warranted a call.

“The first thing I said was, ‘This is not a football call,’” Reilly said. “I just heard you had your baby, so congratulations.”

Nichols and his wife, Ali, welcomed Parker Winnie Lou Nichols into the world Friday morning. She’s their second child, joining big sister Elliot.

Reilly said it took him back to a year ago, when he and his wife had their first child, a girl named Brooklyn, right after the playoffs had ended. Nichols had called him then to offer congrats.

“Just a couple of idiots out here having playoff babies,” Nichols joked. “We’re supposed to be the smart guys, quarterbacks.”

It’s been five years now that Nichols and Reilly have been linked together in the CFL. Their relationship is that strange one that quarterbacks often seem to find themselves in, competing for one job, but somehow forging a deep bond at the same time. Reilly went through it in BC with Travis Lulay, then got to enjoy the other side of it as a starter in Edmonton, with Nichols as his backup. Nichols was traded to Winnipeg mid-season in 2015, but that hasn’t stopped the phone calls, the texts and the marking of significant life moments over FaceTime; even if one is set to end the other’s season that week.

“it’s a weird thing where you want to beat the guy out but you’re also buddies with him,” Nichols said. “I think that right away we hit it off.”

“I think it started with Day 1,” Reilly said. “I moved (to Edmonton) right after I got signed in February (2013) and he was living (in Edmonton) full-time because he was getting over that ankle injury that he had at the end of 2012 and he was going through rehab, doing all that stuff.

“We were here every day and we’d go throw together and then we’d go watch film and work out. We hung out not just at Commonwealth, but around town. We’d meet up and go grab wings and a beer or something like that. His wife is from the Spokane area and we played college ball over there. My wife graduated from Gonzaga so we’re all Gonzaga fans. We’d all be watching Gonzaga in March Madness. We became very close before that training camp even started.”

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Nichols rehabbed his horrific ankle injury that winter, only to tear his ACL in training camp, battling Reilly for the starter’s job (“Other than him there was probably nobody more upset than me,” Reilly said). Reilly would go through a new kind of adversity, in learning the ropes as a full-time starter on a team that only won four games.

“We grew even closer because it was such a challenging year. We had a lot of great players on the team but there was a lot of stuff, just all sorts of things that made that year challenging,” Reilly said.

“Any time you’re losing it’s not easy but from Day 1 of training camp it was a great relationship, much like I had with Travis. The guy that’s on the field knew that he was going to have the support of the other guy no matter what and that guy was pulling for him, trying to help him out. It was that way during training camp. I would take reps and help him when he would come off and it was vice-versa when I was playing.”

“I went through a couple of injuries and he was a guy that was always there telling me to keep going and keep your head up, all of that,” Nichols said.

“I felt like I was the same for him when he was going through a tough year in 2013. I think when you go through tough times together that obviously can grow relationships. We played a lot of video games together, hung out on the road together. We stayed in Ottawa (in 2014), we were out there for like seven nights. We were roommates out there so we spent a lot of time together.”

And it went like that for 2.5 seasons. The Esks turned the corner in 2014, winning 12 games, but Reilly broke a bone in his foot before the playoffs. With Nichols’ wife going back to the States for the rest of the season, Nichols basically moved in with Reilly, sleeping on a blow-up mattress in his spare bedroom. The two of them entirely consumed football, watching film together and going over the playbook.

As much as they enjoyed that time together, they both knew it was limited. Like Reilly in BC, Nichols had a starter cemented in front of him in Edmonton.

“When I was with Travis, I remember telling him all the time, ‘Eventually we’ll be on a different team and we’ll have some great battles. But until that time comes I’m going to help you the best that I can,’” Reilly said.

“It was the same way with me and Matt. I knew it would come to this eventually, from the day we first started playing.”

Nichols got his opportunity quickly in Winnipeg. He started for an injured Drew Willy in the Banjo Bowl in 2015, leading the Bombers to a win and became the starter six games into the 2016 season. He’s been a huge part of the culture change that’s lifted Winnipeg to a 12-win season; the team’s best since 2001.

“He’s a winner,” Bombers coach Mike O’Shea said of Nichols. “All-encompassing, all those ideas that go around with winning, he’s got those.”

Those are traits that both quarterbacks developed in their time together in Edmonton.

“I said this since he came here and started, he’s that guy. He’s fiery as a competitor and he’s fearless,” Bombers running back Andrew Harris said.

“His preparation is the best I’ve seen. He’s here in the morning he’s one of the last guys to leave. His prep separates him and that toughness gives him the extra edge. I’m not surprised he’s going to play for this game and he’s going to play well and help us to win a football game.”

After two weeks of uncertainty around him and his injured left calf, Nichols was named the starter for Sunday’s game, putting the two close friends and former teammates against each other for the first time in the playoffs.

“I want him to be 100 per cent, completely,” Reilly said, recalling playing injured in the 2014 West Final. “I know what that feeling’s like.

“If I go out there and play against a team and we’re fortunate enough to win I want to be able to look back and say that we got their best and we were better.”

“It’s good that we both know it’s going to be a battle,” Nichols said. “Obviously we don’t play against each other but our team’s are going against each other. For him to give me a FaceTime and chat with my family and kind of put all of that aside, I think it’s great.”

Nichols gave the briefest of pauses and put on his game face.

“Hopefully we get after him a bit tomorrow.”