Matt Smith/CFL.ca
TORONTO — For Toronto Argonauts defensive back T.J. Heath, playing against his former team, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, is almost like sitting around with his friends playing video games. Almost.
“I’m getting to play against a whole bunch of my homeboys,” Heath told members of the media on the league’s game preview call on Wednesday ahead of the Argos tilt with the Blue Bombers on Saturday.
“That’s really what it is. It’s just like when you’re sitting down playing Madden. You’re competitive and there’s arguing and at the end of the day you love each other but you still want to get that win. That’s how I look at it.”
After signing with the Argonauts this off-season as a free agent, Heath will play in his first game against his former team at BMO Field this weekend.
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Heath will be looking to pick off his former teammate Matt Nichols this weekend (Argonauts.ca)
Heath and the Argos backfield will go head-to-head with Matt Nichols, who is playing in his second game this season since returning from an injury, and the Blue Bombers receiving corps.
In his first start of the season last week against the BC Lions, Nichols gave up three interceptions and Heath will be looking to give his former teammate his fourth of the season.
“He knows how I feel about that,” Heath said when asked about picking off the Bombers pivot. “We used to talk about that all the time. That was my goal every day in practice was to try to get one off of him. I know how he doesn’t like to give them up and he does a very good job of keeping the ball. I try to go into the game, just let it come to me and that’s what I plan on doing one we step on the field. I’m looking forward to the matchup.
On the media conference call just days before the two teams were set to do battle, the mood was light. When asked about what his team was expecting from the Argonauts back five, he mentioned to look out for every member of that unit but his former teammate.
“Gotta be wary of T.J. Yell, Abdul Kanneh, (Cassius) Vaughn,(Jermaine) Gabriel, that front,” chuckled Nichols, as Heath laughed in the background. “I mean, as long as you’re aware of those guys, those 11 guys, you’ll do just fine.”
Heath signed as a free agent with the Argos this off season (Stacy White/Argonauts.ca)
“You can just kind of see from Week 1 to the last couple weeks,” continued Nichols. “Under a new D coordinator, there are a lot of guys that are playing together for the first time, you can just see they’re playing much better team defence and not giving up a ton of big plays and getting a couple of turnovers. You can just see they’re gelling more as a defence.”
Through the first four weeks of the season, the Argonauts did not collect any interceptions. In Week 5, they added two against the Edmonton Eskimos, one from Heath and the other from Ronnie Yell.
“They’re very talented,” Nichols said. “I mean, the defensive backfield has I think three or four guys that have been CFL All-Stars. I don’t know if there’s any other team in the league that has that, there might be but I think that they have a very high talent level.”
As Heath mentioned in the call, when interceptions come, they come in bunches. To go along with his first official pick of the season last week, he also added his first against his quarterback James Franklin, who joined Heath, Nichols and Weston Dressler on the call, on Tuesday.
“I did throw my first pick to T.J. in practice yesterday,” chimed in Franklin. “So thanks for that T.J.”
Heath laughed and added, “thank you for that.”
