There is no other time of the year when football franchises are so full of optimism and hope. Everybody is undefeated and the brain trust of every team has just finished selecting a crop of players with seemingly unlimited potential and capabilities.
So understandably, along with this euphoria comes the often unfair inferences when they are inevitably compared to those veteran players they are one day anticipated to replace. If the transition from the collegiate ranks to the professional wasn't already hard enough, a number of these rookies now find themselves with some grandiose expectations tacked squarely onto the back of their draft-day selections.
Top pick Dylan Barker is second coming of Rob Hitchcock — apparently.
For instance, according to my research into his press clippings, Dylan Barker, the CFL's top pick in the 2008 draft, apparently not only looks like Tom Cruise, but he has the vertical jump of the CFL's 2007 defensive player and rookie of the year Cameron Wake, and is the next coming of longtime CFL stalwart and all-star safety Rob Hitchcock.
The Edmonton Eskimos traded one of their picks in this year's draft for a player who was selected in the second round of the 2007 draft -- Kevin Challenger -- who apparently reminds people in the football industry of "a young Ben Cahoon." That would be the Ben Cahoon of the Montreal Alouettes, who has more receiving yards, touchdowns, and all-star hardware than most of the rest of the Canadian slotbacks in the CFL combined. Not an unrealistic expectation for a second-year player. Edmonton also took a defensive back in the fourth round by the name of Jonathon Hood who they say should produce similar results to one Yannick Carter of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. I really don't know much about Yannick Carter so I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.
And speaking of the Roughriders, they invested pretty heavily in the defensive stock of the draft, apparently selecting the second coming of Scott Schultz with the pick of defensive tackle Keith Shologan No. 5 overall -- and possibly the twin brother of defensive end John Chick in Michael Stadnyk -- since he reportedly reminds their brass so much of him. Keith apparently earned this comparison since the San Diego Chargers took a flyer on him as a free agent, and Schultz spent some time with the Chargers himself as well as the Pittsburgh Steelers before he ventured north. Turns out though that Schultz is a former No. 1 overall pick in the CFL draft, has won a Grey Cup and been an all-star in his career, too -- so Keith has his work cut out for him.
I would be remiss if I didn't bring up our own selections, starting with wide receiver Aaron Hargreaves out of the football factory of Simon Fraser, who, depending upon the pundit or football expert, either reminds you of Chris Baumann -- selected No. 1 overall by the Hamilton Tigercats last year -- or, of course, Jason Clermont, the world's most physical Canadian receiver who plays for the B.C. Lions and won the CFL's most outstanding Canadian player award last year -- but no pressure Bub. I too was drawn into the fold of comparisons when the up and coming selection out of the U of M was said to be my man in the mirror, which confused me to no end because I thought last year's pick of defensive tackle Corey Mace -- who is still with the Buffalo Bills -- was touted to be the next yours truly.
The funny thing about all this literature and all these comparisons you can find on these new prospects is that nobody ever bothers to compare one of the offensive lineman selected to anybody currently in the league. Apparently it's too mundane a task. Either way, that's not a bad draft pool for the 2008 rookie class. In one fell swoop the league landed another perennially prolific Ben Cahoon, a hard-hitting Rob Hitchcock at safety, Scott Schultz's NFL-experienced clone and Jason Clermont's mini-me -- to name but a few. Then again, maybe we should let them make their own mark in the pro ranks before everybody decides who they will most resemble and take after. Because you never know, we could even be selling them short.
Doug Brown, always a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears Tuesdays in the Free Press.
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