O’Leary: Long-standing friends turn foes with Grey Cup berth on the line
Matt Nichols remembers meeting the high school senior from Katy, Texas back in 2008. Bo Levi Mitchell was a hotshot recruit, who in his words on Saturday afternoon, flew across the country to the Eastern Washington University campus because it was a free trip, so why not?
“Honestly he was a great dude, we hosted his visit,” Nichols recalled, less than 24 hours away from facing Mitchell and the Calgary Stampeders in the West Division Final.
“We had a great couple of days. He really enjoyed Eastern, that’s why he transferred there when things didn’t work out at SMU. You could tell that he was a passionate football player, a guy that believed in himself.”
Nichols’ teammate, Andrew Harris started to chuckle here.
Was he cocky? Nichols is asked.
“No I wouldn’t say that,” he continued. “There’s a certain something you have to have to play this position. A lot of people show it in different ways but it all boils down to the same thing, in my opinion and you could tell he was one of those guys, that just gets it. He’s shown that time and time again for a lot of years.
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Matt Nichols and Bo Levi Mitchell exchange jerseys in 2017, both hanging each other’s up in their home. They will put their decade-long friendship on hold when their teams compete for a chance to go to the Grey Cup on Sunday (CFL.ca).
That visit and that time in Mitchell’s life showed him many glimpses of his future. He turned down Eastern Washington in favour of Southern Methodist University, wooed there by head coach June Jones. Two years later, with Nichols graduating to eventually land with the Edmonton Eskimos and his starting job opening up at Eastern, Mitchell transferred. He was reunited with two of the three guys that took him out on his first visit to the campus. Defensive lineman Greg Peach and linebacker J.C. Sherritt. All of them of course, would end up in the CFL.
Ten years later, Nichols and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are the visitors in Calgary. Mitchell is arguably the top dog among quarterbacks in the CFL. Nichols has established himself high on that pecking order, taking the Bombers to their third consecutive playoffs and for this group, their first Division Final. Before their teams would go to battle for a spot in the 106th Grey Cup presented by Shaw, each QB looked back at a friendship that’s developed through their similar journeys.
“(Nichols) continued to train (at Eastern Washington) in the offseason, so relationship-wise, I know his family, he knows mine. I know his wife, he knows mine. I’ve got his jersey in my basement and I’m sure it’s the other way around, too,” Mitchell said.
“He’s consistent, is probably the best thing,” Nichols said of Mitchell.
“Consistently goes out there and puts up good performances for his team, that’s why they win a lot of football games. He seems to make a lot of big plays when big plays are needed and obviously he’s been a great player in this league for a few years now. I think he’s set a standard for CFL quarterbacking.”
For all of the success he’s had over the last seven years in Calgary, it hasn’t been a cakewalk for Mitchell. While his level of play is hard to question, he acknowledged that coming up short in the last two Grey Cups leads to questions about his ability to win the big games. Nichols faced tougher, more direct questions this year when fans booed him during a Bombers losing streak.
“To boo that guy is just insane to me,” Mitchell said. “The guy’s done nothing but win for you. I came to the league when Winnipeg was a struggling team. They moved into a tougher division in the West and that guy came over and did nothing but win games for them. He’s played great in his last couple of games and he’s been on fire.”
“There are things about his game and his personality…I’m big believer in learning from other people, especially people that do your job at a high level,” Nichols said of Mitchell.
“There are things from every guy around the league that I want to implement more into my game. There are some things that obviously I think he does better than maybe anyone and for sure, I try to take little things here and there from everyone.”
He’ll want his defensive counterparts to neutralize Nichols on Sunday, to force him into an out of character, season-ending performance so that he can get to his fifth Grey Cup game in the last seven years. Nichols will hope for the same. He’d love to spend next week in Edmonton, where it all started for him and on a picture perfect canvas, it could all come full circle for him. But neither player was looking that far ahead yet.
“He’s a close friend but (on Sunday) it’s not about friendship,” Mitchell said. “It’s about facing an opponent that wants to come beat you in your own house.”
