Mike O’Shea addresses ‘odd’ post-game interaction with Davis Alexander, downplays trash talk allegations

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Mike O’Shea was taken aback by Davis Alexander’s airing of grievances after the East Final.

The Montreal Alouettes quarterback was captured on video approaching the Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach during post-game handshakes, saying, “I respect the hell out of you, but 45 was talking about my dad.” O’Shea indicated that he couldn’t fully hear what Alexander was telling him on the field, but later learned that he had accused defensive lineman David Reese of taunting him about his deceased father.

“What do I make of it? Seems odd, but that’s probably a better question for him. It’s unusual,” he told the media on Tuesday, making reference to the fact that the interaction came after a Montreal win.

“Obviously, I can empathize with Davis’ situation, having lost his father a couple years ago. Been through that. I’ve said this in this forum before; I’m not a fan of trash-talking, regardless. I just think, and I’ve said this part: the toughest guys on the field or on the ice or wherever their field of play never really have to speak. Especially in a contact sport, you can let your pads do the talking, so I’m not a fan of it. I wouldn’t condone it necessarily. I certainly don’t want to take penalties because of it, and that’s really why I communicate to our guys about how I feel about it. But you’re not going to stop it.”

Alexander lost his father, Matt, to lung cancer in 2024. He was 56. The 28-year-old has been public about how close he and his father were. Prior to his death, they spoke on the phone before and after every game since he was in high school.

The CFL’s reigning Most Outstanding Player told reporters post-game that Reese brought up his father several times throughout the game, calling it “f***ing horses***.” Multiple Alouettes players have since backed up his claims, though no audio of the exchanges has been made public.

“I think the general public would probably not be happy to learn that that might sit somewhere in the middle of what gets said out there,” O’Shea said.

“I’m not trying to make light of it. I’m just saying that there’s a lot of stuff that gets said and for the most part, I would think that something happens on the field, you take care of it on the field.”

In a locker-room interview with the Winnipeg Free Press, Reese denied that he ever spoke about Alexander’s father and called him “a sore loser.” Alexander finished 23-of-35 passing for 373 yards and two touchdowns. The Alouettes won the game 33-23, advancing to the Grey Cup and ending the Bombers’ season.

The 26-year-old rookie was not made available to the media during Winnipeg’s locker room cleanout day on Sunday. However, O’Shea revealed he did speak to him privately about the matter.

“Of course, I had a conversation with him. I don’t want to see our guy get vilified for this. This happens in football,” he said.

“I told him how I felt about trash talking in general. I started with that. Of course, I started with that because I don’t really think it’s necessary if you’re a tough football player. But you’ve got to check in with the human. He did something on the field that I’m sure he thought stays on the field. Or he didn’t do. I don’t know. He didn’t say to me, one way or another, what exactly happened.”

For O’Shea, the core issue with the situation is not what may have been said, but that it was made public.

“I don’t believe that stuff that goes on should be put forth in the media,” he insisted. “He was on a hot mic or something like that; I don’t know what happened. He was on, he was mic’d up, and so TSN decided to run with that or whatever. But if you mic’d every player up, I think people might be shocked.”

“Why should (Montreal Alouettes head coach) Jason Maas have to be dealing with this right now? And I don’t want to be answering any more questions about it. It’s football.”

On Monday, Maas told the Montreal media that he had not heard from O’Shea regarding the incident, but seemed unconcerned. The pair coached together in Toronto and hold one another in high esteem.

“I don’t plan on hearing anything. There’s a lot of things that get said throughout the course of a game. I prefer to just move on from that. Just focus on the task at hand.”

For his part, O’Shea was non-committal when asked if he will reach out to Maas or the Alouettes in the future.

“He’s pretty busy. I don’t know that I will,” he chuckled.

“He’d prefer to keep it about winning and getting to the Grey Cup and not take away, not detract from what they just accomplished or distract them moving forward. You don’t want that hanging over you for the entire week. We talk in the offseason about a lot of things, and I’m not sure — this might be one of them; this might not be.”