CFL: No-names have same chance as big names

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/06/2015 (3780 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The man once considered the poster boy for Canadian Football League opportunity is standing on the sideline on the opening day of Winnipeg Blue Bombers training camp. Arms folded across his chest, eyes shaded by sunglasses, he strikes a rather authoritative pose watching the new recruits.

Looking back at his first day — some 20 years ago now — the opening chapter of his unlikely career in pro football began inauspiciously enough. Racing out to his first-ever training camp in Brandon, he was pulled over by police somewhere on the Trans-Canada Highway between Winnipeg and the Wheat City.

As legend has it, the team’s two veteran kickers — Troy Westwood and Bob Cameron — just so happened to be cruising by, en route to training camp.

And they instantly recognized the poor sod behind the wheel.

“That guy,” declared Cameron, the wise, old vet, “should just turn around and go home right now. He doesn’t have a chance to make the team.”

“That guy,” it turns out, was Wade Miller.

“I was driving with (Bison teammate) Dominic Zagari. And I may have got a speeding ticket on the way out there,” said Miller, recalling the moment with a smirk. “But we made it to camp.”

What happened next should give every one of the 85 or so would-be Bombers who were on the field Sunday morning hope.

Miller was listed at 5-9, 210 pounds in the Bombers 1995 media guide and was considered way too small to be a real candidate at linebacker on a team that featured Greg Clark, Charlie Clemons, Reggie Givens, Del Lyles, Paul Randolph and K.D. Williams. Oh sure, he had just finished his career at the University of Manitoba as the Canada West nominee for the top defensive player in the country and was drafted in the fourth round by the Bombers. But many thought GM and head coach Cal Murphy was simply doing the good deed thing by selecting a hometown guy.

And when Miller first stepped onto the field in Brandon, yours truly can still vividly recall what one media type said.

‘There’s no secret to it.

I never thought of myself as an underdog’

— Bombers president Wade Miller, shown at top in his playing days as a Blue Bomber

“What the (bleep)? Are the Bombers running some sort of fantasy camp here?”

The fantasy camper, the guy who should have turned around and gone home, somehow managed to carve out an 11-year career with the Bombers, was twice named a CFL East Division all-star and was inducted into the club’s Hall of Hame in 2011.

And, oh yeah, he’s also now the president and CEO of the dang team.

“There’s no secret to it,” said Miller. “I never thought of myself as an underdog. Bob Molle (a former Bomber and, at the time, the club’s assistant GM) was my wrestling coach in university and he told me to get out there and work as hard as I could and it would work out. The way I looked at it, I was going to war every day and competing.

“My first pre-season game I got to play a half on special teams and one quarter at linebacker. All these guys want is an opportunity and a chance to stand out.”

It’s here where the CFL, our quirky little three-down loop, is different than so many other pro sports outfits these days. Sure, some CFL players get decent signing bonuses when they put pen to paper on a contract, but nothing is guaranteed. So if a guy gets $25,000 up front but shows up looking like he spent the winter gorging at the all-day buffet, and with a 40 time so slow it’s measured by a sun dial, he’ll be on the next Greyhound out of River City.

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There are no guaranteed contracts, such as the six-year, $114-million deal — including $61 million guaranteed — signed by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. A kid from some unknown junior college has just the same shot as a guy from Florida State with NFL games under his belt. A late-round Canadian draft pick has just the same shot as a first-rounder. Case in point, Pierre-Luc Labbe — who wore No. 47 because that’s where the Bombers selected him with the second-last pick of the 2008 CFL Draft — managed to carve out a respectable six-year career.

There are no politics being played out on the field. Everyone gets a fair look. Everyone gets a real chance.

“It feels good to be out here knowing that I’ve got a real opportunity,” said receiver Darvin Adams. “It’s up to me now. I couldn’t ask for more. Now it’s up to me to take full advantage of it.”

The man who signs the game cheques, that long ago poster boy for opportunity, couldn’t agree more.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait