WINNIPEG-

Nicole Collaros activates the Zoom chat, apologizing that her husband Zach might arrive late.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback tries to put their eldest daughter to sleep, but Sierra doesn’t like the call of the game.

“It’s our life,” Nicole said with a laugh during the team’s recent bye week. “We’re not sleeping and it seems to be getting worse. It’s supposed to be getting better, but it’s getting worse and worse.

“Three (kids) changed the game. Two, we were good. And then three, it’s like they all end up in bed with us at some point. It’s like we’re playing musical beds. C It’s wild.”

Sierra, who sleeps reluctantly, is four and a half years old. Daughter Capri will be three years old this month and son Dean will be seven months old.

It’s a busy family, similar to many families, but with the added intensity of a six-month stretch of long days where Zach focuses on helping the Blue Bombers win a fifth straight Gray Cup.

This hasn’t been a typical season for the CFL team.

The Bombers started 0-4, improved to 2-6, won eight straight, then lost to the Toronto Argonauts in a game that would have clinched first place in the West Division. They only clinched first place in the final game of the regular season with a field goal as time expired for a 28-27 victory over the Montreal Alouettes.

Now, Winnipeg will host the division final against rivals the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Saturday, with the winner advancing to the Gray Cup in British Columbia on November 17.

Despite such a hectic season, Nicole said Zach remained stable and didn’t show extra stress at home.

His No. 1 concern after a match is his health.

“I’ll say, ‘Are you hurt?’ He’ll say, ‘No,’ or ‘I’m just a little banged up,'” she said.

“(Sometimes) it’s hard for him to get out of bed the next morning. It’s completely normal. It seems so crazy. It’s not normal, but it’s normal in football life.”

She will assess how he feels mentally after a loss by saying it was “tough” and asking if he is okay. He will respond that he will be fine and then return to their routine.

“We order McDonald’s after every home game, a late-night cheat, whatever you want to call it,” she said with a smile. “We usually listen to music and fall asleep.

“It’s our down time after the match, we rarely talk about the match.”

Spouses and girlfriends of players often get together and talk about the team’s early struggles. They wondered how their partners were doing after a loss. The consensus was “bad mood”.

“But now the ending is totally different and we are going to the West final,” Nicole said.

“I think I can speak for some of the wives, too. We knew they were going to turn things around. No matter what, they’re there for each other.”

Becoming a father has made a difference in how Zach handles the inevitable ups and downs of sports.

“We’re laughing because I said, ‘If this was a game in 2015 or 2016, you would have lost it. You would have been really upset or angry for a few days,” Nicole said. “I definitely think having kids and a family changed the way he looked at things.”

Nicole was a kindergarten teacher in Toronto when they met in 2015 while he was playing for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. They married in February 2019, a year that also saw him being traded from Saskatchewan to Toronto and then to Winnipeg in October.

Although he is often at the stadium on practice days until 12 p.m., he comes home for dinner and family time before going through the bedtime ritual. Next comes some time as a couple, then a few hours in his office watching other films.

Sometimes she stops by the stadium with the kids to spend time with Dad between training and meetings.

Zach tries to watch the girls’ soccer and basketball games, as well as their dance and gymnastics classes. On the team’s days off – he always goes to the stadium to train – they organize family outings.

He has time to call the next day after watching the girls play soccer.

“At the beginning of the season, (Sierra) was afraid to go on the field when there was live action,” he said.

“Little by little, she is getting better and better. She ran away today and told her mother: ‘Mom, I did it, I didn’t cry.’

It’s the kind of family time he doesn’t want to overshadow with work, admitting there was some “concern” during the team’s early slip-ups.

“You try not to let doubt creep in, but that’s human nature,” he said. “When things don’t go the way you want them to, you start to wonder if the process is right?

“But you also have to build on the foundation of the things that got you to where you are. Not just me, but the team in general.”

Nicole is a “great sounding board” and understands what is necessary for him to perform at his best.

“During the week my wife carries the weight of our family’s life, she’s really the captain, so to speak, of the house,” Zach said.

“It may sound like a cliché or something, but when I walk in the door at five or six or whatever time it is, any worry or stress I had at work disappears.

“I open the door and my daughters, every day, they say, ‘Daddy!’ and they run for the door And then you go into daddy mode ΓǪ You have your job and you do your job, but once you get home, your second job starts.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published November 6, 2024.