The Triangle

Issue date: 12/5/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Winnipeg Blue Bommers

Mike Kelly was a coach - it was obvious. He just looked and sounded the part. And once he talked about his background, which included an impressive resume with stops in the NCAA, CFL and now defunct XFL and NFL, there was no doubt.

However, seeking some stability for himself and his family, Kelly decided to make the difficult transition from the sidelines as a member of the Washington Redskins' coaching staff to the classroom as a sport management professor at Drexel University in 2005.

He wasn't a prototypical professor by any stretch of the imagination. He didn't lecture out of a textbook. He didn't prepare a PowerPoint presentation. He didn't make his students take notes.

Kelly didn't believe in that.

Instead, he decided he would instill knowledge to his students through real-life examples from his past. He had a story for anything and everything, from his sleepless nights entering plays onto the computer for Andy Reid while working with the Philadelphia Eagles to when he brought an ice cream truck onto the field for his exhausted players during a sweltering practice at Valdosta State.

I'll be the first to tell you I can remember most of them. I know my classmates do.

But despite the fact that he was slowly becoming more comfortable teaching, Kelly definitely missed coaching. It was his passion; it was what he was meant to do. So when Kelly left Drexel in 2008 to take over the wide receivers coach position with the Edmonton Eskimos in the CFL, just three years after he took the job, it came as no shock to anyone who knew him.

However, it did come as a surprise when after just one year of being back in the coaching realm, Kelly was being rumored to become the head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the CFL team with which he served as offensive coordinator during the 1990s.

And right before I was about to begin my final exam in my sports information class Dec. 2, my professor informed us that it was official: Kelly was Winnipeg-bound.

My former professor was now a head coach at one of the highest levels of professional football possible.

He was back doing what he was meant to do, and more importantly, had the job he always wanted.

Kelly said: "Some people want to be a head coach. I've always wanted to be the head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. When I told my two daughters, who were both born at the St. Boniface hospital, that I was becoming the head coach in Winnipeg, they both said 'Dad, this is your dream job.' It really is."

I can't really say if Kelly's time at Drexel will ever impact his coaching career going forward, but I will say that while he was here he was never a celebrity - he certainly is one now.

Every move he makes next season will be highly scrutinized by fans and media alike, granted someone had to take over for his students.

Kelly always said, "Coaching is teaching with passion."

I just hope he practices what he preaches.

Oh, and Mike, if you ever read this, you still owe several sport management students tickets to the Grey Cup.

Get there. Make it happen. We're rooting for you.

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