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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
CFL's lone Canadian corner calls it quits
Davis Sanchez (CP)
SURREY, B.C. -- Davis Sanchez played football like few other Canadians.
In fact, he was the only Canadian to start at cornerback, a position dominated by imports, during his 11-season CFL career. The Delta, B.C., native officially hung up his cleats Monday, retiring after he spent the last two campaigns with the B.C. Lions.
"I didn't see it any differently," said Sanchez, 37. "I was always the cornerback. Whether I was a Canadian or wherever I was from, it didn't make any difference, because that's all I've ever been."
Drafted by Montreal sixth overall in 1999, he played 155 career games with the Alouettes, Lions, Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Eskimos.
Along the way, he earned three Grey Cups, with Edmonton in 2005, Montreal in 2009 and the Lions last year. He was a three-time East Division all-star as well as league all-star one season.
Sanchez hopes he has opened CFL talent-seekers' eyes to Canadians' abilities to play the so-called skilled positions usually reserved for Americans. But he acknowledged that teams will be slow to adopt change.
"There's not going to be all Canadian corners," he said. "That's just not going to happen."
-- The Canadian Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 15, 2012 D4
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