"I'm extremely happy. This fit, it's been perfect." - Ed TaitTruth be told, the novelty of playing against his old club and the notion of delivering some sort of retribution or sending a message - or whatever pent-up emotions might be involved - wore off a long, long time ago for
Adam Bighill.And so while it would be natural to assume the Winnipeg Blue Bombers dominant middle linebacker would have drawn bright red circles around Friday night?s visit to Vancouver and matchup with the B.C. Lions, there's been too much change on the left coast for the game to offer up anything extra other than it being Week 9 on the Canadian Football League schedule.
"Look, it still means something, because there's still a lot of fans in B.C. who still support me," began Bighill in a chat with bluebombers.com this week. "I've always got love for them. As for the organization... I don't really know anybody there anymore. The coaching staff has changed over there twice and there are only a few players left since I played there. Even the ownership has changed. My first game playing them, yeah, I was fired up. But not really anymore."
There's a bigger angle at play here now, anyway. Bighill spent his first six years as a pro in B.C., helping the Lions win the Grey Cup in 2011, being named a CFL All-Star four times and the league's Most Outstanding Defensive Player in 2018. Yet when he opted to return to the CFL in late spring of 2018 after a stint with the New Orleans Saints in 2017, the Lions couldn't - or wouldn't - make room for him on the roster, mostly because of salary cap reasons.
"When Ed Hervey (the Lions GM at the time) came in he wanted to make his own calls on personnel and he was known for not wanting to pay linebackers a lot," said Bighill. "So, when I came back he said, 'We can't even make you an offer.' I knew that was a possibility, that I might not be able to come back.
"What me and Solly (long-time linebacking partner Solomon Elimimian) were able to do for those years there, it's hard to keep that together even for as long as we did. So, I knew it was possible I wouldn't be coming back. At the end of the day, it turned out great."
File that under 'colossal understatement.' After all, 'great' doesn't even begin to describe how well the fit has been between Bighill and the Bombers. That fit, it could be said, is even bigger than just player and franchise.
"We love being in Winnipeg now," said Bighill. "Setting up here might have been a hard sell at first with Kristina (his wife) being from Vancouver. But as we've started our life here she can already see what some of our friends and people in Vancouver are going through in terms of the cost of living. The living expenses out there are higher and you don't get as much there for what you pay for. Overall, for comfort of life she's just seeing how it's different here and she's appreciating what that presents us.
"Plus, I love playing here. I love the mentality of the city, of the province. It's blue-collar in a lot of ways and that mentality is where I came from. I definitely fit in well and appreciate it."
Make no mistake, with Bighill's all-star skillset he would fit in well with any franchise. He also already has a growing side career as investment advisor that means he could hang his hat and be productive in any city across the continent. Still, knowing his background - his father Andy and mother Janine both worked at the sawmill in Raymond, WA, just outside his hometown of Montesano - and knowing how his head coach, Mike O'Shea, comes from the same stock and played the same position at a hall-of-fame level, could there be a better fit than Bighill and the Bombers; Bighill and this town?
And there's more on Adam Bighill
here!
