VANCOUVER — A not-so bold prediction: when Brady Oliveira takes to the stage Thursday night at the Canadian Football League Most Outstanding Player awards, the proud Winnipeg Blue Bomber will touch on all the key notes.
He’ll thank his coaches and teammates — especially the big eaters on the offensive line — and he’ll thank his family.
It will be heartfelt and it will be real as he is saluted as the league’s Most Outstanding Canadian Player for a second straight year and, possibly, as the Most Outstanding Player, too.
And anyone watching will think, ‘that polished young man has got things figured out.’
It’s not that simple, of course. It seldom is. Yes, the Blue Bombers star running back does have things figured out. But this transformation of the now 27-year old wasn’t without peaks and valleys, detours and learning moments.
This is a story about Oliveira’s maturation as a man and, as a result, his evolution as a pro.
It seems that from the very moment Oliveira made the switch from soccer to football as a youth, this has been his destiny. He was born to do this — born to run around or through tacklers, born to represent his hometown.
Still, so much of his early story with the Blue Bombers is the exact opposite of that.
Selected in the second round, 14th overall, of the 2019 CFL Draft Oliveira was pegged as the heir apparent to Andrew Harris. It was a cool story, too, with one Winnipegger — both products of the same school in Oak Park — pegged to take over from the other.
Those early days weren’t that seamless.
“Looking back to when I got drafted into this great organization, I thought I was ready,” said Oliveira. “I thought I was ready right away. I was young and hungry and ready to step in.
“That was my ego talking. I really didn’t want to hear what anybody else had to say. I felt I was ready and it was because I was confident in my capabilities. But I was very impatient. Obviously, I knew Andrew was in front of me, but I saw what he was getting and I wanted it. I wanted to chase him. It was, ‘I want what you got’ and, honestly, my ego was really in my own way.”
Oliveira’s rookie season ended in Week 2 when he was injured in the Blue Bombers home opener. And while he worked feverishly to be back healthy by season’s end, he wasn’t on the roster for the 2019 Grey Cup victory.
In the Blue Bombers locker room afterward — the champagne flowing as victory cigars were being lit up — Oliveira looked yours truly in the eyes and said, ‘I want this, too, one day.’
Patience may be a virtue, but Oliveira didn’t want to miss his turn. Or his shot at glory.
“The thing that keeps coming back in this is the ego thing,” he said. “I needed to drop that, put that aside, sit back and watch others. Watch guys like Andrew, like Paddy (Neufeld), like (Nic) Demski. Guys like Jake Thomas, Willie (Jefferson) — all those vets I’ve been around for so long and watch how they attack the day and how you truly become a pro. I thought I knew, but I didn’t. I was young.
“It’s not about you taking this thing over and winning all these games. It has to be everyone. It has to be team first. It’s not that I didn’t know that — I’m a good dude, a good person and I love being around the guys — but it was challenging for me at first because I wasn’t playing.”
Pat Neufeld and Oliveira have had some good heart-to-hearts over the last five seasons, especially in the early days. The veteran guard saw a player who meant well, but needed to learn to bump the brakes.
He needed to become a better teammate and that, by extension, would make him a better pro.
“He was a hometown kid coming from an American program,” Neufeld said this week. “He was a superstar in high school, a great college player at North Dakota and a high draft pick for us. But he was also coming in behind a legend in Andrew Harris. The state of college football now and the way they endorse young players and the way they make you feel… it’s just different in pro football and especially in the CFL.
“Egos had to be checked. What I love about Brady is it takes courage to check yourself, to realize this is a team game, that everyone is on the same stage and it doesn’t matter who you are — that’s one of our pillars in being part of this team.
“The conversations he and I had weren’t some kind of thorough psychological conversations. They were just little things like, ‘Hey, man, you’ve just got to flush that. You can’t worry about this, you can’t worry about that. You’ll get yours at some point. Just keep going.’ That happens in practice and it happens on a daily basis.
“He was worrying about things like his touches and his playing time. That’s par for the course for guys who come in with high expectations. It’s good to have high expectations for yourself but it’s important to mold your mind around how that’s done. Over the last two years he’s been tremendous. He’s really stepped up.”
Oliveira posted decent numbers in 2021, sharing the backfield with Harris and rushing for 429 yards and a couple of scores in 13 games — two of them starts. Still, he was a bit rough around the edges when the cameras and microphones were in his face.
“We saw that as an offensive line… there was an article where it was ‘I want them to feel me’ and ‘I need these touches,’” Neufeld recalled. “We understood he had some work to do in order to change that mindset and that’s been the best part of what he’s done.
“He’ll send our offensive line a group text and it’s about us as a group and what we do together. He gets so fired up. He goes around the locker room and dabs everyone up to get everyone going. It’s been a change for the best.
“It really is a maturation thing. It takes courage to take a step back, look in the mirror and say, ‘This isn’t all about me. This is about my teammates.’ It’s continually elevated him. By him sacrificing for others and not making it about him he’s turned into a superstar, into the best running back in the league and an MOP candidate and a leader in our locker room by setting an example of how he practises and how he plays. And now everyone knows what he’s about in our locker room.
“We’re all so extremely thankful he’s become the player he is.”
It’s CFL Draft night 2019, and not long after the Blue Bombers call out Oliveira’s name he’s on the phone with Darren Cameron, the team’s Senior Director of Public & Player Relations.
“I remember the first conversation with Darren,” said Oliveira. “It went something like, ‘Hey, we just drafted you and so we’re going to be working together. We’ve got to be on the same page.’ That’s how I thought it was going to be — a work relationship. But it’s morphed into this great friendship. That’s a guy who has truly helped make me a pro off the field.”
What Cameron did first was work with Oliveira to make sure his interviews weren’t dotted with so many I’s and me’s and more featured more we’s. It had to be about team first.
“I had a lot of talks with Darren about all that,” said Oliveira. “We’d maybe have these conversations where we’d butt heads sometimes in my rookie year. I was 21. I thought I had a name for myself. But I really had to learn everything about becoming a pro on the field, off the field, when it comes to your name and your brand. I already understood that but I wanted to push it. I’m starting to become who I believed I could be. It’s just then I wanted it NOW whenever one was saying, ‘You need to sit back and be patient. Your time will come.’
“The relationships I’ve built with my teammates, with people in the Bomber Store, with people in the organization have been important. My friendship with Darren… we need to be close because of our working relationship and media. I’ve had great coaches and teammates who have helped me on the field but I give Darren all the props for what he’s done for me off the field.”
Oliveira is now a two-time CFL rushing champ likely to be honoured again Thursday as the league’s Most Outstanding Canadian. And, once again, he could have two acceptance speeches to make if the MOP ballots go his way as well.
As tough as it was at first, Oliveira did learn to be patient, did learn to wait his turn. And he has evolved and matured.
“Brady has got so much going on with his dog rescues, with his media and that attracts a lot of attention,” said running backs coach Jason Hogan. “We’ve all seen huge growth in the last year, two years, where he understands about when it’s time to buckle down and handle the off-field stuff.
“He’s got all these eyes on him, so I try to remind him he has an opportunity to set an example. All these kids watching him can learn from the mistakes he makes and those he doesn’t.
“What kind of guy do you want to be remembered as? Are you one of those guys that gets all those yards but nobody cared for, or a guy that put team first?
“Brady is one of the players that’s the most open to coaching I’ve ever been around. He puts everything into practice right away. That comes from a trust in getting to know each other and then trusting in the process — trust in the fact we’re a great football organization and our job is to get the right people in positions around you so if you trust us, you should trust them. Part of that is understanding if you need help you can go to those people and help them.”
Oliveira’s maturation and development as a pro is one of his proudest accomplishments. And it’s truly a testament to the old line about self-improvement:
‘It’s not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.”
“I’m proud of the leader I’ve become in the locker room,” said Oliveira. “I’m not a rah-rah guy but I lead by example and the way I attack every single day. I think my teammates respect me for how I carry myself on and off the field and that’s something which means everything.
“I’m very proud of where I’m at now with the help of so many teammates and friends. Sometimes I have to pinch myself because I’ve come a long way.
“I’m at a point that I dreamed about forever.”