Bombers QB Matt Nichols says boo birds hurt his feelings

Winnipeg’s Matt Nichols described getting booed by the Blue Bomber faithful as “the saddest thing” in an unusually emotional post-game interview for the usually taciturn quarterback.

Nichols was 23 for 35 with 291 yards and had two TD passes to Darvin Adams on Friday night but the Bombers got whipped 44-21 by the Ottawa Redblacks. Bomber fans were restless all night but booed lustily as Nichols returned to the game after missing a few plays in the fourth quarter after going down with an elbow injury.

An emotional #Bombers QB Matt Nichols, unprovoked, shared this to reporters after the game after hearing "the entire stadium" booing him after he returned to the game from injury late in the fourth quarter: #wfp pic.twitter.com/yxxWgmWb8A

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— Jeff Hamilton (@jeffkhamilton) August 18, 2018

Nichols is 4-2 this season since missing the first the first three games with a knee injury (rookie Chris Streveler was 1-2 in his absence) and are now 27-13 since Mike O’Shea installed him as the starter in July of 2016 (O’Shea was 13-28 as head coach up to that point.) Nichols has a point: he’s been very solid as the Bombers’ starter and getting booed by your home fans certainly sucks. But saying so is unlikely to do him any favours.

https://twitter.com/5HoleSive/status/1030671093894328321

That said, a couple of fans made the point that the boos could have been for O’Shea’s somewhat bizarre decision to put Nichols back in at that point, given that the game was all but out of reach and Streveler could use the playing time.

Strevler had some momentum going he was slinging the ball well and looked confident running the hurry up. O’Shea should let him finish the drive, instead it stalled.

— Travis Irvine (@TravisIrvine) August 18, 2018

Strevler had some momentum going he was slinging the ball well and looked confident running the hurry up. O’Shea should let him finish the drive, instead it stalled.

— Travis Irvine (@TravisIrvine) August 18, 2018

Nichols will likely walk back his comments in the next day or so but a bad home loss, a disgruntled quarterback and a trip to Calgary coming up should make for an interesting week in Winnipeg.