It’s not that the Winnipeg Blue Bombers lost a star player just when they need him most.

Running back Nic Grigsby hadn’t done anything significant in weeks.

As impressed as I was with the CFL rookie’s elusiveness early in the season, he’d become easier to tackle than a Grade 2 math problem by the time he walked out on his team, Wednesday.

Apparently, he also carries the attitude of a Grade 2 student.

To recap, here’s what happened at school on Wednesday morning, as related by the principal.

“I brought him into the office to explain to him what his role was going to be this week,” head coach Mike O’Shea said. “And he asked to be released.”

Grigsby’s role, for the second straight week, was to study and work his tail off during the week, then sharpen pencils at the back of the class while everybody else got to go out and play on Saturday.

Not pleasant, no. But it’s one of the realities of pro sport. You don’t perform, you don’t play.

Of course, the way the Bombers have been performing, nobody should be playing when the Calgary Stampeders come to town, Saturday, other than maybe the entire practice roster and the ball boys.

Maybe Grigsby feels he’s been unfairly singled out.

I’m not sure Earl Campbell could gain 50 yards behind the O-line the Bombers are fielding these days.

Grigsby’s replacement, Paris Cotton, managed just 31 in Monday’s slaughter in Edmonton, continuing the same old trend for the worst running team in the CFL.

Yet, O’Shea wants to see Cotton again.

So Grigsby took his league-leading nine touchdowns and went home, leaving only some rag-tag tweets rife with spelling errors in response.

The Bombers won’t miss Grigsby that much on the field. Hell, they lost five in a row with him in the lineup, a streak that grew by one in Edmonton.

They’ll miss him even less in the locker-room.

I’m told the 25-year-old was a cancer, someone whose attitude has been a problem for a while. An outsider from the start of training camp whose personality didn’t fit with the team.

Grigsby shot out of the blocks this season, with 100-plus yards rushing in his debut.

But over the last several weeks his performance went into the tank — where it joined his attitude.

Word out of the locker-room is Grigsby questioned the coaching and debated game plans. Good for him, you might say.

But that’s a game for fans and media to play.

I’m told Grigsby also took to blaming his teammates, particularly his offensive line, for his decline in production.

While there may be more than a shred of truth in that, Grigsby’s inability to take any responsibility is what had teammates fed up with him, despite what many said publicly upon his release, Wednesday.

A message he posted on Twitter earlier this week says it all:

“It takes 11 other players for a RB to be successful... let me know if you can find one RB that can run 1 vs 12?” Grigsby (@Nic_Grigsby5) tweeted on Monday, a message he’s since deleted

The guy had averaged just 40 yards per game over his last three. More often than not, the first player to hit him brought him down, one of the true tests of a running back, who’s supposed to make people miss.

I don’t know that Grigsby quit on plays, but he certainly quit on his teammates, Wednesday.

“The word quit can be a harsh word,” O’Shea said. “Blame, quit — all those words I tend to stay away from. But he was given an option and he chose to leave.”

What does this say about the Bombers?

The optics aren’t good: a team is outscored 37-0 in one of the worst halves of football in its history and its starting running back for the majority of the season walks out two days later.

Put those two together and it spells Q-U-I-T.

“I guarantee you this team hasn’t thrown in the towel,”Johnny Sears said. “One person’s situation or decision doesn’t reflect on the whole team. We expect to win Saturday... and (I’m) not saying it to be politically correct.

“But you go in there and ask some guys right now: we plan on winning, because we have to.”

Actually, that was last week’s lesson plan.

School is all but over for this bunch. There’s only the math left to be done.

And one other thing.

We’ll find out if Nic Grigsby, the quitter, is alone.

paul.friesen@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @friesensunmedia