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Six-time Grey Cup champion Mike O'Shea on football, Dairy Queen and his hometown of North Bay

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are shooting for a third-straight CFL championship this season. It would be the seventh Grey Cup ring for head coach Mike O'Shea, whose hall of fame football career began when he was cut from the hockey team in North Bay.

Winnipeg begins quest for its third-straight Grey Cup with season opener Friday

North Bay native Mike O'Shea has six Grey Cup rings, including two as head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers after two-straight Canadian Football League titles. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)

Mike O'Shea is in pretty rare company.

After 16 years as a star linebacker, he was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2017.

The 51-year-old has now won two straight Grey Cups as head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and has championship rings on seven of his fingers.

But does O'Shea ever think about his place in Canadian Football League history?

"Of course I don't. You know why? Because I'm from North Bay," he said. 

"That wouldn't fly with my buddies."

O'Shea grew up making banana splits at the family-owned Dairy Queen in North Bay, ended up in football because he kept being cut from the hockey team and has fond memories of studying game film as a senior at Widdifield Secondary School.

In an interview with the Markus Schwabe, the host of CBC Radio's Morning North, O'Shea talked about why he never thought he'd end up as a coach, why winning a Grey Cup is better as a player and why he never thinks about the "cup of coffee" he had in the National Football League.