This and that - June 13, 2010

I always marvel this time of year at the 70 guys that converge here to try to form the next great Eskimo team. While their size, athleticism and commitment are all certainly impressive traits, what catches me most is their willingness to venture out into completely unknown and uncharted waters, often coming to a city that they couldn’t find on a map, and most importantly - leaving their families behind to chase the dream.

This year we have an abundance of players with newborns on our team. Several veterans like Nowacki, Stamps, and myself have infants at home, as well as guys like McCarty, Romero, Challenger, Goss and Lloyd have toddlers as well, and there’s a whole host of players and coaches expecting throughout this season’s duration.  The  week before camp started my phone was been riddled with calls and texts and calls expressing how difficult they find it to leave those kids behind at this age, and I really can’t imagine even trying. I’m quite fortunate to be able to have my wife and sons here with me and have never really had to be without them, but I can’t imagine the empty feeling that would come with knowing how much things change with kids at that age, and to miss 6 months of that would be unbearable I think. My hat goes off to the guys that find a way to focus on the task at hand so far from their homes and families.

It’s been interesting to see so many retirements this year from guys that you may not expect to see that from. I figured eventually Eddie Davis would decide that he’d had enough, but guys like Lefors, Brett Ralph, John Comiskey, Jesse Newman, Jim Davis, and even Scott Gordon snuck up on me. Perhaps because most of those guys are younger than I am, and I still have so much left in the tank. It takes me back to when I began in this league, and seeing guys like Vince Danielson, Travis Moore, and Aubrey Cummings in Calgary grinding days out in their 30’s. I remember taking notice of how much of a process it was for them to begin their day out on the field. I’d often see them stretching in meetings, riding the bike prior to practice, and then still getting out early to do more of a warm-up before we got going as a team and thinking, “Is that all really necessary??” While I still don’t need to prepare at those lengths, at 31 years old at least I understand now better than I did what they were talking about. The longer I play, the more I seem to prepare. Offseason training becomes more planned and thought out, nutrition and diet becomes integral in performance, and rest and recovery play a huge part. 

Pre-season is already upon us as our first game is this evening against Calgary. I won’t be dressed for it nor will Many of our other veterans, as well as a couple of younger players with injury. While I’m anxious to get the year started, I can’t honestly say that I’m a fan of pre-season games so I’m not gonna argue much about not dressing. I’ll sit back and watch the chaos that Pettway and Coleman cause on the D-line, Restelli in his second year looks tremendous, and I’m loving the way Barnes, and Rector have shown thus far. 

I’ll have a good seat!