Nothing Rhymes with Orange: Lions uniqueness driving 2019 season
âWeâre not going to be detrimental to our team but we want individualism in a team setting. We allow our guys to be themselves. They understand the boundaries and we give them a lot of rope. We try to be pros and be mature about it.â
– Lions head coach DeVone Claybrooks
There was a point during Friday nightâs game at BC Place that the in-stadium camera made its way to the Lions bench during a stoppage in play.
Queenâs We Will Rock You played and naturally, Duron Carter started singing along, sitting at the top of the bench. Odell Willis sat next to Carter and joined in, adding a dramatic air guitar solo. The fans responded with one of their loudest moments of the night, before the Lions would provide some on-field excitement, pulling out a 38-36 win over Calgary to put a wrap on the pre-season schedule.
The Lions had one of their most productive off-seasons ever this year, adding Mike Reilly, Carter and a host of other talented players to their roster. They also restocked their sideline, with GM Ed Hervey concluding his first year on the job by hiring DeVone Claybrooks to replace the retired Wally Buono at head coach. In turn, Claybrooks built a coaching staff thatâs mixed with experience — Rich Stubler, Jarious Jackson and Brian Chiu — and a number of new coaches that are recently retired players, including his former Calgary teammates Nik Lewis and Drew Tate.
This is a roster with a lot of talent and as Carter and Willis showed once the camera found them, a lot of characters.
âWeâve got some real free spirits,â Lions president Rick LeLacheur said on Friday, looking out onto the field from the east end zone.
âBut thatâs what the younger crowd is all about. Our young crowd is…you look at a ticket as sort of a cover charge to a club. Thatâs what weâre trying to do.â
Thereâs a deep awareness from the Lions about their challenges on and off the field this year. LeLacheur, who was president of the Edmonton Eskimos from 2002 to 2011, doesnât skirt what heâs battling. He wants to fill the seats at BC Place and heâd love to do it drawing in new, young fans. Hervey built his team to win but it happens that heâs signed a lot of charismatic, strong personalities along the way. From LeLacheur to Hervey to Claybrooks, theyâre all rolling with it.
It remains to be seen what these Lions will be when their season opens on Saturday. Whatever its record, the one thing we do know is that this team will not be filtered.
âEverybody gets to be themselves,â Carter told BCLions.com’s Matt Baker last week. âThere is nobody trying to be someone they are not.â
Now a part of the Lions organization for six months, Claybrooks says from to bottom in BC, you get to be who you are.
âYou look at Ed, you look at Torey (Hunter, the Lions director of player personnel), look at myself, you look at Mike, anybody,â Claybrooks said.
âYou look at our team and weâre a bunch of individuals coming together for a common goal. Weâre putting the team above all else.
âWeâre not going to be detrimental to our team but we want individualism in a team setting. We allow our guys to be themselves. They understand the boundaries and we give them a lot of rope. We try to be pros and be mature about it.â
That manifests itself in different ways. Sometimes itâs lip synching and air guitaring on the sidelines. It can be Carter talking about social issues on Twitter. It can be Tate, pictured for his bio on the Lionsâ website in a camouflage blazer (that has to be a CFL first, right?).
âItâs the best freedom in the world,â said Willis, who has always spoken his mind and sometimes caught criticism for it through his career.
âIn this business, (sometimes) as soon as you walk in the building people are paying attention to you. âWhatâs he doing?â (Watching) how you act, how you interact with people.
âHere, itâs almost like the Bulls. Michael Jordan didnât care what Dennis Rodman did but when he got in between the lines, as long as youâre playing, hey, weâre good. Thatâs basically how our coaches are, how the GM is.â
That freedom, that room to breathe and be yourself can be tough to come by in football.
âI ainât going to call out names but other coaches, they want to see your text messages,â Willis said.
âThey ainât in the league anymore, but youâve got coaches (that do that). It happens, trust me.
âI donât want to call out names but you have coaches saying, âWhy you doing that? Youâre better than thatâ Itâs like, what, this is who I am. So then when that happens itâs like, âOK Iâm going in my shell. Then itâs like, âOK whatâs wrong with you?â If I act like myself itâs a problem but then when I come in and donât say anything you feel like Iâm pouting and itâs not, Iâm just trying not to get into trouble.â
Listening to Claybrooks and his players talk about it, itâs clear that the rule — singular — has been laid out clearly.
âDonât embarrass yourself or the organization, thatâs it,â the coach said. âThe more rules you have, the more rules there are to be broken. Itâs that simple.â
Itâs a different world than the one LeLacheur grew up and played hockey in. He captained a Memorial Cup-winning Edmonton Oil Kings team in 1966. Those teams and free spirits didnât mix back then.
âCoaching is a lot different now than it used to be. You canât coach the hard, old-time (style),â he said.
âThe players are individuals and theyâre all kinds of different personalities and at the end of the day that chemistry comes together. To me thatâs what wins championships, is the whole chemistry.â
LeLacheur and the Lionsâ marketing and digital teams have followed the teamâs spirit with their promotional work. All over Vancouver, there are ads with cartoonish silhouettes of Lions figures. Thereâs Carter, Reilly and Claybrooks together on a bus. Thereâs Bryan Burnham with his arms folded at a stop on the SkyTrain. The Lions digital team produced a 30-second ad that makes Hervey look like a mad scientist behind a two-way window, with Reilly strapped into brain-monitoring devices, unconsciously drawing up the perfect play.
The team has branded all of this with their slogan for this year, Nothing Rhymes With Orange. Itâs a play on the teamâs uniqueness, this collection of individuals working together to try to win a Grey Cup.
âItâs sort of out of the box from the traditional,â LeLacheur said of the slogan and the ad thatâs run. He said they have more on deck, while giving praise to their marketing and digital people, who have put the ads together completely in-house.
âWe want to try to get some butts back in the seats,â Claybrooks added.
âWe want to put a good product on the field, thatâs our goal here and thatâs what weâre trying to do. Itâs just one step at a time. Weâre not in a rush. Weâve got a plan in place and weâre implementing it slowly.â
It sounds great, this idea of a come-as-you-are football utopia, but it can quickly come under criticism if success manages to stay out of the equation. Willis doesnât see that happening.
âCoach Claybrooks and Ed did a great job changing the culture here,â he said.
âYouâre judged by what you do when the lights come on, not what you do outside of here.
âDennis Rodman was out there marrying himself. You think Michael cared? (On game day it was just), âHey you ready to get some rebounds?â
âThatâs the culture weâre building here and you canât do nothing but love it. Itâs a great feeling.â