VANCOUVER — Competition has always fuelled Kenny Lawler.
Now the American wide receiver's insatiable drive to win is fuelling the Winnipeg Blue Bombers as they prepare to face the Toronto Argonauts in the Grey Cup on Sunday.
“He might be the most competitive person I've ever been around. Not just in the game, but in practice," Bombers quarterback Zach Collaros said of his teammate.
"Doesn't matter how banged up he is, if he can be out there, he's going to be out there. And he brings that to the field with him week after week. And we feed off that for sure."
Lawler grew up in Paloma, Calif., trying to outrace his friends and beat them in marbles. He played football at the University of California and was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in 2016, but said he had to learn how to truly compete.
"My first year with the Seahawks, I was just waiting for something to be given to me, just because I was drafted," Lawler said. "I was on the practice squad and I didn’t feel like I was a practice squad player, so I wasn’t going to show my worth all the time. I had practices where I didn’t really feel like practising all the way."
A talk from famed Seahawks coach Pete Carroll helped channel Lawler's naturally fierce spirit.
"He said 'If you're not competing, you're not trying,'" the athlete said.
After a solid training camp his second year in Seattle, Lawler was cut. He signed with the B.C. Lions, but tore his hamstring before playing a single game. He joined Winnipeg during the summer of 2018 and thought hard about the advice Carroll had passed on.
“I kind of made a promise to myself that I’m not going to take any football opportunity for granted ever again. Because I don’t know when it’s going to be my last," he said. "From there, I just kind of took off when I got to Winnipeg.”
Lawler and the Blue Bombers won back-to-back Grey Cups in 2019 and 2021. Then the free-agent receiver opted to take his talents elsewhere, signing with the Edmonton Elks for 2022.
The move did not go as planned.
"I probably lost more games in that season than in my career," Lawler said with a laugh. "As much as I tried to help the team win, it wasn’t enough. And I was playing some pretty good ball."
Lawler returned to Winnipeg and a locker room of teammates he considers brothers in 2023.
The six-foot-two, 199-pound receiver added both skill and attitude to the lineup, said Bombers offensive co-ordinator Buck Pierce.
“Everybody sees what Kenny does on the field and those type of things. But he practises the same way that he plays every day. There’s no turning it down with Kenny. He’s turned up all the time," he said, adding that his attitude motivates the rest of the squad.
“Kenny is a tremendous talent, but I just appreciate the way he plays the game. He plays with such gratitude and appreciation and you see that in his play. He just loves being out there. And he plays football the right way, which is 100 miles an hour.”
The pure skill the 30-year-old Lawler brings is unique, Collaros said.
"Kenny's one of the most special football players I've ever been around in my life," the quarterback said. "Uber talented. Some of the catches that we've seen him make in practice and in games, I've never seen another person do."
Lawler's play was limited to start the 2024 campaign after he broke his arm in Winnipeg's first game of the season. He was out for more than two months with the injury, watching from the sidelines and working in the gym as the Bombers slogged through a rough 2-6 start.
"It was hard. It was hard just because I didn’t expect the season to begin that way," he said. “I just really had to mentally figure out how to stay into things.”
Lawler returned to the lineup on Aug. 18 — the second game of an eight-game win streak that vaulted the Bombers up to the top of the West Division standings.
Winnipeg finished the regular season 11-7 and Lawler logged 662 receiving yards with four touchdowns over 10 appearances. He then exploded for 177 yards and three touchdowns in his team's 38-22 victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the West final.
Adversity has served the Blue Bombers well as they look to recapture the Grey Cup, Lawler said.
“Everything that we’ve faced up to this point has prepared us. I really feel like you could lose a game or whatever, but I classify a loss as a lesson," he said. "Now what we do with those lessons, we go back, we look at the mistakes … and be able to fix it.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 14, 2024.
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press