January pumped to play

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/04/2011 (5604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Glenn JANUARY has carved out a respectable football career pushing around large men and preventing them from rearranging the spines of the quarterbacks who line up behind him.

The Winnipeg Blue Bomber offensive tackle is football’s version of a bouncer and he’s got the dimensions — 6-foot-6, 305 pounds — to play the intimidator, enforcer and protector.

So imagine waking up from surgery last June to discover the pectoral muscle he had torn was so frayed that it required four screws to re-attach it to the bone?

Imagine his reaction when doctors explained his season, perhaps his career, was over — this after injuring himself on the eighth snap of the first pre-season game — and that he wasn’t allowed to so much as work up a sweat for weeks for fear it could cause infection in the size-large incision?

“I had a lot of time to think,” said January, “and that isn’t necessarily a good thing when you’re injured.”

Maybe that explains, in part, why a 27-year-old CFL vet was so eager to be back in his football gear this week at the Bomber mini-camp. The game was taken from him. His physical prowess had vanished — “I couldn’t even do a push-up when I came back” — and his future in a sport that had been his entire life was in doubt.

So, yeah, given all that these last three days felt pretty dang good for the likable Texan.

“Something like this mini-camp, I’ll tell ya, it absolutely benefits me because it gives me a chance to show these coaches I’m not done and that I’ve still got a lot left in the tank,” said January. “I wanted to show I’m willing to work hard and compete with anybody and do whatever it takes.

“It just felt so good to be out there again.”

Consider Step 1 in January’s long road back now completed. But it’s the next step — reclaiming not only a spot on the roster but a starting job — that will be his biggest challenge. January started 47 games at both right and left tackle for Toronto, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg from 2007-09 and was having a spectacular training camp last June when the freak injury occurred.

But January’s exit opened the door for Andre Douglas and by season’s end the first-year Bomber had been voted the club’s most outstanding rookie. The coaching staff remains committed to starting two import tackles — Kelly Butler was the other last season — and so January has been promised nothing outside of opportunity come this June.

And you know what? He’s cool with that.

January has spent another winter in Winnipeg working with Bomber athletic therapist Alain Couture. And it was during those gruelling sessions on all those cold Manitoba mornings when he discovered how much he wanted back in the game. He’s as strong as he’s ever been and has added muscle to his frame while trimming body fat.

And he can’t wait to get at it again.

“After the injury last year I just basically hung out,” said January. “It was difficult watching the team having their struggles. Whenever you’re committed to a cause and you can’t actually contribute anything it’s extremely difficult. And I’ll be honest, when you’re starting from zero you do have questions about whether you’re ever going to play the game that you’ve been playing your whole life.

“That’s when you have to lean heavily on your friends. (Bomber guard) Steve Morley has been my workout partner for two years now and Al Couture did my rehab and was at all my workouts… I owe a lot of credit to them because they helped me through a lot of tough times. The mental and emotional part of it is just as difficult as the physical struggles you face.

“Getting back to this,” January added, surveying the field at the Winnipeg Soccer Complex “means everything to me.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca