Dogged determination drives defensive leader

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This article was published 07/08/2015 (4063 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HE was turned down by the NFL. He was turned down by five CFL teams — with one of them, Winnipeg, turning him down three times.

Heck, Khalil Bass even got turned down by the lowly Arena Football League, where players earn roughly the same wages as that guy who asks if you’d like fries as an accompaniment.

So after three years out of football and running out of teams and leagues to reject him, the former Portland State standout middle linebacker went out and got a real job. “Doggie daycare,” he explained Thursday.

Pardon? “Yeah, doggie daycare,” said Bass. “My dad and his wife own a doggie daycare and I’ve worked there for the past little while. Cleaning kennels, walking dogs, closing up shop, dealing with new customers, all that kind of stuff.”

And doggie daycare is where it might have all ended for Bass, except for the fact he never gave up on football, even if football seemed to have given up on him. “I figured I’d just keep trying,” he explains, “until someone finally told me I was too old.”

And so in January, Bass attended yet another free-agent tryout camp for the Bombers near his home in Los Angeles. He knew it was a long shot — Bass tried out for the Bombers three times previously over the years and each time failed to earn a training camp invitation.

But this time — and his timing — was different. The Bombers front office in January already had Chris Randle pencilled in as their strong-side linebacker and were within a few weeks of acquiring Sam Hurl in free agency as their middle linebacker. But they still had a gaping hole on the weak side that they needed someone to fill when Bass stepped onto that tryout field in L.A.

Bass seemed to fill the void nicely and so the Bombers rewarded the 25-year-old rookie’s remarkable tenacity with an invite to their mini-training camp in Florida in April. Bass subsequently parlayed that opportunity into an invitation to the team’s main training camp in June and when the regular season started later that month, it was Bass who lined up in Regina in Week 1 as Winnipeg’s starting weak-side linebacker.

Bass has been there ever since and — in one of those unlikely tales that makes the CFL such a great league — now leads the Bombers in tackles and is tied for sixth in tackles league-wide — in the same company as some of the league’s heaviest hitters, including B.C. linebackers Solomon Elimimian and Adam Bighill and Calgary enforcer Deron Mayo.

If that sounds like sweet vindication for a guy who never gave up on himself, even while everyone else did, well, brother, you don’t know the half of it.

“I’ve been dealing with the rejection thing my whole life. And this just proves it to all the doubters — the people who told me I couldn’t play pro football, the people who turned me away,” Bass said Thursday following practice at Investors Group Field. “I always believed in myself and so did the people back home who know me and know how hard I work.

“I had to prove it to the people who didn’t know me. And now that I’m here, there’s no turning back.”

In addition to his team-leading 29 tackles, Bass also has two fumble recoveries. On top of that, his two sacks this year represent better than one-quarter of the league-worst seven sacks the Bombers defence has recorded.

“He’s obviously persevered,” said Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea. “He hasn’t played football since 2012…When he stood up in the meeting room and introduced himself, he laid it on the line. He said, ‘I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for three years.’

“So he’s going to make good on it…There’s a lot to like about Khalil Bass.”

Cornerback Matt Bucknor, who had to persevere for a few years himself before the Bombers finally gave him a chance to start last season, said Bass’s persistence extends onto the field too.

“He’s just relentless and he shows it on the field. He never gives up on plays, he’s always flying around and he’s always around the ball.

“He’s a quiet guy in the locker room, but he plays loud on the field.”

Bass said the Canadian game is slowing down for him as the weeks go by and he gradually becomes more accustomed to its quirks.

“The dimensions on the weak side are more closely related to the American game, so that fits me,” he said.

“And it’s starting to slow down. But really, it’s just playing football.

“And I’ve been waiting a very long time to do this.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca