Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - Dominique Rhymes (FULL INTERVIEW)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Pleased to be joined from the Red Hot Calgary Stampeders, Dominique Rhymes, who just recorded his first touchdown last week, an incredible run for the team. Dominique, thanks for joining us, Matt. Thank you for having me, man. It's a pleasure to be here this morning. Fellas are looking good. I mean, I don't know what your expectations were, but, you know, we chat with Dave Dickinson before the season. He's like, yeah, we might be rolling over the entire defense. There's a lot of new faces. And you're like, well, you know, they could probably be better than five wins, but five wins in the first six weeks, that's way better. How good are the guys feeling?

Starting point is 00:00:46 Guys, guys feel good, man. It's been a lot of, like, hard, like, hard practices. People just working hard and hard in a sense of guys just getting out there, man. We get the paths, like we're banging, like, we're in the game. You know, we're competing, like, it's game day every day. So, like, once we get in the game, you know, everything's a lot slow down. It's easier. I mean, it's funny because me and Bernie talked before the season.

Starting point is 00:01:11 It was like, we're not losing. I don't care what happened last year or we're not losing. So it's just a mindset. I think we have and everybody's just brought into, man. It's not losing that rep against our opponent. UNVA played together in 2023 and BC. How instrumental was his arrival to you picking Calgary and free agency? I was big because that's always my brother since he got to BC we always been cool and you know always

Starting point is 00:01:42 chatted up all the time even when I played in Ottawa last year he was in BC I was still calling him checking on him seeing how good he was doing over there so man just to you know get back and man it's just like playing with your brother man so it's it's there's nothing but fun out there for us that's unreal it's the offense has been incredible the defense has been outstanding and I think the league has been put on notice when you you beat Winnipeg, then go into Regina win, and then go win in Winnipeg again. That's incredibly impressive. Your only loss was in like some monsoon rains. Otherwise, you're perfect.

Starting point is 00:02:17 Yeah. First of all, you got to credit the coaches, man. They've been coming up with some great game planning against those teams. And, you know, we've just been, you know, executing on everything they've been coaching on. You know, everybody's bought in, you know, attention and detail is at a high level. So, I mean, we just have to keep that up and, you know, keep that mindset of you want to go on one and know every week. And I think as long as we do that, you know, things, you know, go the way we want it to go. So, I mean, the guys are hungry than ever, you know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:02:52 They think about last year and, you know, how people, you know, seeing the team and, you know, those type of memories make you go even harder for this year. I got to ask you about the rookie, the moose, Damien Ellis. What have you seen from the kid and what's he like? Because the last three games, he's exploded. Yeah, man. I think I've seen it his first week account just, you know, how receptive he is to learning about the game and just how good he wants to, like, be as a own player.

Starting point is 00:03:22 I mean, each every practice, you know, guys are, you know, catching balls after practice. We're getting runs and, you know, he's asking questions to be a better pro. And I think when you get a rookie and he's on. on that type, he has that type of mindset. I mean, the sky's the limit, man. I told him once he got his first touchdown, I said, hey, why don't you go on the touchdown street?

Starting point is 00:03:44 And I mean, look where we are right now, man. I mean, I love the kids so much, man. He's an incredible talent. I'm glad he's with us. You know, I'm tall and, you know, we got 10 tall. He makes us look small. So, I mean, I'm glad the boost is on our side. So I had heard that VA found some sort of

Starting point is 00:04:04 clip of his old coach, probably at Penn State, where they called him Bambi, his first couple games. And then he went off and had a big game. Like, we got to change his nickname. He's now the Moose. Did you and VA dig that up and get him going on the Moose celebrations? I didn't hear about that story of VA. But no, we was on, I think the night before the Saskatchewan game, we was an auto receiver.

Starting point is 00:04:29 We was at Earls. And, you know, everybody has, like, their own signature thing. what they do and we're like man what you what you think yours to be he said oh moose and then you know we just came up with the celebration i think tevin had him doing this with his hands and we're like nah it should just keep it here with it so i mean it was it was perfect and you know it's sticking so i mean i love it for him i just need five percent yeah that's right yeah smooth stuff small little cream out small little smid what so you're going around the table you're talking about like your spirit animals or like what animal you would be, what was your answer when someone asked you?

Starting point is 00:05:08 I don't think I have the spirit animal. Well, if he's the moose, like you were saying, you're at Earl, the fellas are out. You're going around the table. Is that sort of what you're saying? Or is it just not animals, just happen to be the, him was the moose? I'd be a grizzly bear. I love it. I'm a mauler.

Starting point is 00:05:27 I'm a monger. I'm a mongle on the field. It's like the mall people. Dude, that's eight years in Canada. I guess seven, if you look at the COVID. craziness. But you're thinking, yeah.

Starting point is 00:05:38 So, were you here for that, by the way? I shouldn't gloss over that. Or did you stay at home? Like, that would have been a disastrous year to be a player in this. Yeah, no, I was back in Florida. Yeah. And then I was in Canada for a little bit with my wife. So, yeah.

Starting point is 00:05:55 No fun. Anyway, we'll move on. You're calling yourself a grizzly bear. You're from Miami. That tells me you're starting to get some, some Canadian rubbed off on you, a little maple syrup drizzled on you.

Starting point is 00:06:07 Yeah, man, I tell people I'm full Canadian now, man. I've been, I've been staying in Canada, probably for full time for like four years now with my wife.

Starting point is 00:06:17 So, yeah, I'm starting to become Canadian, eh? Well done. Nice to play. Could you imagine that growing up as a kid in Miami

Starting point is 00:06:27 that you're like, oh yeah, I'm just going to go live in another country for almost a decade? I mean, if you would have told me that, if I was in high school, I'm like, I don't know where half those cities are. The only city I know is Toronto. So, yeah, man, I mean, it's crazy where life takes you.

Starting point is 00:06:44 But, I mean, I always tell people this, man, God takes you to the places where you need to be. And I need to be in Canada. And life has been nothing but amazing since I've been in the CFL. So it's been a blessing. That's unreal. What do you love about being up here? It's obviously very different than Miami. The rain you said before we started, very similar to Miami, just not as warm.

Starting point is 00:07:06 Very similar, but I don't know, man. I like seeing the seasons change, like seeing the leaves change. Man, the people here are amazing. They're courteous. They're nice. You could just walk anywhere. You could just have a conversation with a random person. You can't do that in Miami.

Starting point is 00:07:23 People just look at you crazy. But, I mean, no, Canada's been nothing but nice to me. So, I mean, it's a place, you know, I want to, you know, state forever. It's interesting. A lot of new guys here in Calgary on this team, VA included that defense is almost entirely overhauled. Dave Dickinson did return, but, you know, most of his staff got whacked from last year. That can sometimes be a real tough spot for guys, but you guys have turned into a major positive. Is that, like, clean slate, that fresh start helped a bunch for everyone, where it's just like,

Starting point is 00:07:57 there's not a lot of baggage from last year in the sense that a lot of guys. guys aren't here that were here last year. Yeah, I think it's one of the things where, like you say, you have a fresh start and, you know, guys can start fresh, you know, some, you got new coaches, you got, you know, new things where you can change up a little bit and guys just like, yeah, man, I want to, I want to win, I want to be great and, you know, it's a different mindset shift that people had coming to this year, like, whatever it takes to win, whatever it takes to be great, we're willing to do.

Starting point is 00:08:25 And, I mean, you see it, you see that, you know, before practice, after practice, getting extra film, extra lifting in, like asking the coaches, how can they be better? Like, you just see all the right things happening. And that's the type of thing you want that changes a culture that changes into a winning culture. So that's something as, you know, guys that's been in the league, guys that's, you know, great cup champions because you got a couple champions on the team. They know what it takes. And, you know, all it takes is a few guys to do certain things to everybody else start doing the same thing.

Starting point is 00:08:54 And then you have just one big train rolling of guys knowing the right things around the facility. Hey, best of luck on Thursday. You guys host Montreal. Congrats on 5,000 yards. You cleared that earlier this year. Walked me through that touchdown you had last week because all of a sudden there's one Dback for two wide receivers. I'm like, this isn't going to go well for that guy.

Starting point is 00:09:14 Number 31 is going to get cooked up here. Yeah, I think it was just a personnel issue. I think they thought we were doing short yarders because, you know, we made substitutions. And I think they just, yeah, they messed up. And I was on the receive. And then he said he was going to throw it to whoever 30. one went to. So I was just lucky enough to get that free touchdown. It was probably the easiest touchdown in my career, but I take it every day. Keep it rolling. Thanks for chatting with us,

Starting point is 00:09:40 Dominique. Hey, thank you for having me. Have a great day.

Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - Dominique Rhymes (FULL INTERVIEW)

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