Winnipeg Blue Bombers receiver Kenny Lawler is back in the Grey Cup after discovering the grass isn’t always greener where it’s gold.
While many of his teammates are set to play in their fourth consecutive championship game, the 29-year-old pass catcher has one less notch on his belt due to an ill-fated foray with the struggling Edmonton Elks. He missed out on Winnipeg’s dramatic Grey Cup loss to the Toronto Argonauts in 2022 but told reporters last week that he was “with the team in spirit” regardless of his actual affiliation at the time.
In their first season under head coach and general manager Chris Jones in 2022, Edmonton finished last in the West Division with a 4-14 record and failed to win a game at home. Watching Jones overhaul the roster and implement his vision, Lawler found him to be a dramatically different type of coach than Winnipeg’s Mike O’Shea.
“So many things (were different), from the coaching to the preparation to the attention to detail,” Lawler remarked during his Grey Cup media day availability in Hamilton. “Chris Jones is a fiery guy. He believes in the true motto of pro football: if you don’t do your job, you’re gonna be gone. I believe Coach O’Shea values the team unit, brotherhood, and family, and when he’s coaching, he just brings a different component than my man Chris Jones.”
The Elks paid Lawler a whopping $305,000 to bring him to Edmonton on a one-year deal. He delivered on that contract by catching 58 passes for 894 yards and five touchdowns in 12 games, earning a West Division all-star selection despite missing the latter half of the season with a broken collarbone that required surgery. However, the receiver’s experience in the erroneously named City of Champions didn’t quite live up to the standards he’d become accustomed to with the Bombers.
Asked on Thursday by CJOB’s Derek Taylor what advice he would give to players entering free agency, Lawler’s response was simple: “Don’t go to Edmonton.”
“This is a team, there’s no Is. In Edmonton, there were a lot of individuals and a lot of guys that didn’t really come together,” he told 3DownNation. “A lot of guys that didn’t love their teammates as much as guys love their teammates here. It’s kind of hard to do that when your roster is always moving week after week.”
Jones has posted a 61-65 record as a head coach, winning a Grey Cup in 2015 during his first go-around with Edmonton. O’Shea has gone 96-62 over the course of his tenure in Winnipeg, winning consecutive championships in 2019 and 2021. Both men have dedicated proponents amongst their former players and Lawler can see the merits of either style.
“Do I like them both? Yes, I do. Both coaching styles are very unique and ones that I could get used to,” the receiver explained.
“I tell guys this: if Chris Jones would have gotten me at the beginning of my CFL career, I’d probably be a Chris Jones guy because I was the fieriest dude coming in, chip on my shoulder. But by the grace of God, he landed me here in this organization with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Coach O’Shea took me under his wing, let alone all the locker room and the guys that he mentors, too. It was very crucial to my development as a football player but also as a young man.”
Despite his respect for Jones, Lawler returned to Winnipeg in free agency this offseason and accepted a substantial hometown discount to make it happen. He insists there was no moment of realization that made him decide to come back, but rather that a return to the fold was the plan all along.
“I’ll be honest with you, man, I never wanted to leave,” Lawler said. “It was more so just the business side of things. When you outperform the contract that you’re handed, you’re gonna be expecting a bigger payday. It just sucked that this team didn’t have the funds to be able to do so.”
“I have family here. This is home. I knew that they were gonna go back to the Grey Cup last year, and I wanted to be a part of it. It didn’t make sense for me and my family just because of the money, but I’m just fortunate that I’m able to come back here again. In this team, this is a family, brothers, and a lot has been created here. I didn’t want to leave. I always wanted to come back.”
While the Elks ultimately weren’t a good fit for him, Lawler insists he gave the organization everything he had — including his collarbone. The pain of not being with his proverbial family at their last championship fight was only offset by the personal growth he experienced in his season away.
“I try to live life without regrets. If anything, that season just came with a lot of lessons,” he said. “It taught me a lot about myself, taught me about the person who I want to become, the leader that I want to become. I tried to lead those guys to victory, game in and game out. I gave them my all and I showed them what it actually meant and how to really carry yourself as a champion and what it takes to get there.”
Since returning to the Bombers, Lawler has caught 50 passes for 901 yards and six touchdowns in 12 games. The team stood behind him at the beginning of the season while he was unable to play due to immigration issues stemming from a 2021 impaired driving arrest and he has rewarded them since, leading the team with six receptions for 83 yards in the West Final.
The California product was a major contributor to both of Winnipeg’s Grey Cup victories in 2019 and 2021, leading the team in receiving both years. Some have pointed to his absence in 2022 as a key factor as to why the franchise was unable to three-peat, but he doesn’t see it that way.
“What we created here, even before I got here in ’18, is what the foundation of this organization is,” Lawler said. “To say that I’m the key component, that would be very selfish of me, very arrogant to me. I believe I’m not the key component. If you look back at the film, they were in a great position to win that game.”
He may well be the key component on Sunday when the Blue Bombers and Montreal Alouettes will meet in the 110th Grey Cup at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton. Kickoff is slated for 6:00 p.m. EST.
Editor’s note: this article has been updated to reflect comments made by Lawler on Thursday.
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J.C. Abbott is a University of British Columbia graduate and high school football coach. He covers the CFL, B.C. Lions, CFL Draft and the three-down league's Global initiative.
