WINNIPEG – Nicole Collaros turns on the Zoom chat and apologizes that her husband Zach might join late.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback is trying to put his oldest daughter to sleep, but Sierra doesn’t like the play call.

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

“Three (children) have changed the rules of the game. Two, we were good. And then three, it’s like everyone ends up in bed with us at some point. It’s like we’re playing musical beds. “It’s wild.”

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

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

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

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

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

Despite such a hectic season, Nicole said Zach held his ground and showed no additional stress at home.

His main concern after a game is his health.

“I tell them, ‘Are you hurt?’ He’ll say, ‘No,’ or ‘I’m a little beat up,'” he said.

“(Sometimes) he has a hard time getting out of bed the next morning. That’s very normal. It sounds so crazy. “That is not normal, but it is normal in the life of football.”

She will assess how you feel mentally after a loss by saying it was “hard” and asking if you are okay. He will respond that he will be fine and then go back to his routine.

“We order McDonald’s after every home game, a late night trick, whatever you want to call it,” he said with a smile. “We listen to music, generally, and go to sleep.

“That’s our hang-up time after the game, we rarely talk about the game.”

The wives and girlfriends of the 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 in a “bad mood.”

“But what’s coming now is a totally different ending and we’re going to the Western finals,” Nicole said.

“I think I can also speak for some of the wives. We knew they were going to turn it around. Whatever it takes, they are there for each other.”

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

“We laughed because I said, ‘If this was a game in 2015, 2016, you would have lost it.’ You would have been really upset or angry for a few days,’” Nicole said. “I really think having kids and a family changed the way he saw 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 included his trade from Saskatchewan to Toronto and then to Winnipeg in October.

Although he’s often at the stadium on practice days for up to 12 hours, he’s home for dinner and spending time with family before they begin their bedtime ritual. Next up is some couples time, then a few hours in his office watching more movies.

Sometimes he stops by the stadium with the kids to spend time with Dad between training sessions 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 still goes to the stadium to work out) they have family outings.

He has time for a phone call the next day after watching the girls play soccer.

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

“Little by little it has been getting better and better. She ran out today and told her mom, ‘Mommy, I did it, I didn’t cry.'”

It’s those kinds of family moments that he doesn’t want to be overshadowed by work, admitting there was some “worry” during the team’s initial skid.

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

“But you also have to trust 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 it takes for him to perform at his best.

“During the week, my wife bears the brunt of our family’s life, she’s really the captain, so to speak, at home,” Zach said.

“This may sound cliché or something, but when I walk in the door at five or six or any time, any worry or stress I’ve had at work disappears.

“I open the door and my daughters, every day, say, ‘Dad!’ and they run towards the door. And then you go into dad mode. … You have your job and you do it, but once you get home, your second job starts.”

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