July 16, 2009

The night before a game, I dont really have a ritual but there are some things that I do like to do. I like to watch a movie at some point in the night, if its a home game I like to catch 2 or 300 balls out of the juggs machine in my backyard, I like to eat a good meal and kick back play the game out in my mind. Ive been fielding questions about my production all week, and why Ive gotten off to such a slow start, etc. So I figured this is a good a place as any to clear it up. The truth is that Im doing what is asked of me currently in this offence. Some nights, Im sure theyll ask me to do more in the way of pass catching, while others it may be as the last two games, where my role is predicated more so on drawing coverage so that others may exploit matchups. Either way, my only concern is doing what is asked of me to the best of my ability. As long as Im grading out top of the class, and I can look at the film and know that I laid it out each play I really cant ask any more of myself. Am I seeing more attention from defences in the way of double teams and brackets? Definitely. Luckily though, it hasnt really slowed me thus far. And especially lucky for me, I have a guy coaching me who has seen his fair share of double teams in Jason Tucker to help keep my perspective.

The season is just in its infancy and believe me when I tell you that my own stats are the last thing on my mind. I take pride in knowing that I can help raise the level of the people around me like Maurice Mann, Fred Stamps, Andrew Nowacki and Jamaica Rector. Dont get me wrong, Id love to catch 10 balls a game and contribute as much as possible that way, the fact is though that this offence and this system arent designed to feed one guy. Our philosophy seems to be to get everyone into the right spots, and let the coverage dictate where the ball is to go, so naturally it could be a different receiver shining each night.

My concerns, if any lie with the missteps that our offence has been taking the last couple of weeks, both with new wrinkles as well as basic stuff. To me the onus falls on us players as weve had entirely too many assignment busts thus far. We have an opportunity to put some distance between ourselves and the team that were playing, and I hope to see us seize that opportunity.

KP

July 13, 2009
The Death of Inspiration

I’ve been fortunate enough in my lifetime to walk my path and understand the importance of knowing what came before me, which has aided in my assertion of who I am. I can only think of a handful of people who have lived during my lifetime that have had enough influence on both a personal, and global scale to truly give them iconic status in my mind. I don’t throw the term icon around as loosely as some, for to me it’s not enough to just be extremely well known the world over. An icon must use the influence that he/she has gained in whatever realm they have gained it in, to better the world for others in a monumental way. To truly be an icon, people must feel as if their existence has been made better by your presence, or your actions. An icon must be so thorough, and so dominant in their own field that there status is never in question – yet they must go beyond that field and take significant strides toward the greater good. Like him or not, Michael Jackson was such a man and it has taken me a while to understand exactly what is lost by his death. To me, the world has lost its inspiration…the world has lost its muse.

I feel bad for those too young to understand. For those who only knew what the media made of Michael Jackson over the last years. For those who only really saw the circus that it had become, and never got to live in the time when this man helped pave the way for Oprah Winfrey to be the highest paid and most influential female in North America. When this man broke down doors so that Will Smith could command the highest dollar per film in the U.S. I’m talking about a time when one man dictated the fashion, style, dance, and rhythm of several continents with his own trailblazing, unique style and talents. Like I said, I feel bad that you can’t say that you lived through it, but the least that I can do is try to make you understand.
Never before, and perhaps never since will we see a single performer need to prepare 12 tents at each and every performance, solely for the audience members that happen to faint at the sight of him. At 50 years old he recently announced what he called his “final tour.” 48 hrs after the tickets went on sale 750,000 tickets had been sold worldwide. Although only 8-12 thousand tickets were given out for his memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, LAPD estimates 1.6 million people entered L.A. to pay tribute in some way on that day. Simply put, the man was magical.

So much has been made of Michael’s personal life as of late that I feel it my duty to explain what he truly represented. What the world needs to remember and understand first and foremost about Michael Jackson is that he paved the way for black entertainers of all realms and genres. From music, to movies, to daytime television and even athletics – Michael was able to first bring color to mainstream outlets that had not yet embraced it. While Sidney Poitier, Thurgood Marshall, Booker T. Washington and Jackie Robinson, et al were able to lay claim to being the first blacks in their respective fields – with all due respect Michael’s strides were equal if not bigger simply because of the enormity of his scope.

Not only black people, but all minorities are indebted to Michael Jackson because his main contribution to the world of entertainment was his ability to infiltrate the living rooms of mainstream whites the world over. In a time in which a brown face on the color of time magazine was unheard of in the world of entertainment, MTV didn’t show black musicians videos that were performing in traditionally black genre’s prior to Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”, and the general idea of any entertainers of color still made a great many mainstream whites very uneasy. Simply put, there is no Oprah Winfrey, there is no Will Smith, Jaime Foxx, Tiger Woods or even Barack Obama without Michael Jackson first increasing the world’s and especially North American Whites comfort with black people.

His depths of inspiration are so far reaching that the amount of entertainers that he’s inspired to climb the ranks of their industry is seemingly countless. Aside from the obvious artists of today like Usher, Ne-Yo, Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Mariah Carey, or even past groups like New Edition, New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys and N-Sync that searched to recreate the success and showmanship of the Jackson 5 – Michael’s inspiration reaches beyond the musical realm. Any person of color who ever had any aspirations of breaking the shackles that society as a whole had on them in that time, could not help but to be inspired by watching this young upstart singer, moonwalk his way into the homes and hearts of the world. Whether you had aspirations of being an actor, artist, rapper, athlete, or businessman you had a model of what it was to put your best foot forward and truly give all that you had into every performance that you had available to you in Michael Jackson. He was able to convey to all that it was ok to be yourself, even if what you were doing may be different from the pack – you could still define yourself how you saw fit. His widespread influence in dance culture is still felt today through modern day choreography and dance as seemingly every young pop artist jumps on the scene making their way as a singer/dancer has roots in the school of MJ. Need proof? Watch a music video today, anyone that you see pop-locking (which is a whole lot of people these days) got it from Michael Jackson. He also sparked a number of fashion trends that ranged from urban youth, to the middle aged business crowd, to biker bars and everywhere in between from the late 1970’s through the 1990’s. The leather jackets, glitter gloves, and jerry curl hairstyle were just some trends that many would now probably like to forget – but were driven by Jackson.

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
Perhaps the greatest testament of the man that Michael Jackson was is in his philanthropic history – and the fact that he transcended color completely; and I’m not referring to his reported vitiligo (skin pigment loss) disease. Michael was the most recognized figure on the planet and chose to boldly use that status to firmly take a stand on several world fronts. He donated proceeds from the 1988 song "Man in the Mirror" to Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times, a camp for children who suffer from cancer. He equipped a 19-bed-unit at Mount Sinai New York Medical Center for cancer research and donated part of the earnings from his Victory Tour to the United Negro College Fund. He donated all the money he received from his Pepsi endorsements - $1.5 million to the Michael Jackson Burn Center for Children at Brotman Medical Center in Culver City. Jackson had been treated there when he was burned during the production of a Pepsi commercial. Before a concert at Wembley Stadium in 1988, Michael met with Prince Charles and Princess Diana, handing over checks totaling more than $400,000 for the Prince's Trust and a children's hospital. Michael founded the Heal the World Foundation to fight illness and poverty among children around the world. He boldly joined Ryan White – a boy who was infected with HIV by contaminated blood transfusions, in his fight against the discrimination of those with AIDS -- at a time of great fear and dread over the AIDS epidemic. In 1993, Jackson was one of the stars to perform at Bill Clinton's presidential inauguration. Before he sang "Gone Too Soon," he talked about the plight of those with AIDS and mentioned Ryan, who died of the disease in 1990. Seven years later, the Guinness Book of World Records cited Jackson for holding the world record for the "Most Charities Supported by a Pop Star." It's unclear how much Jackson had donated over the years, but some estimates put the number at more than $500

Aside from “Gone Too Soon,” Jackson wrote a number of hugely influential songs for remarkable charity events and campaigns. “We Are The World” was written by Michael and Lionel Ritchie and the proceeds of the record were donated to those starving in Africa, while all sales of “Man In the Mirror” went to Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times for cancer children. Finally, “Heal The World” was the flag song for the Foundation of the same name that Michael set up to help numerous international charity organizations combat poverty, hunger, abuse, cancer, AIDS, disease, racism and illiteracy. And finally, his hit song “Black or White” spoke volumes of racial tolerance which is an issue that has made tremendous strides over the last number of years.

I knew that when I was approached to write a piece on this topic, I ran the risk of being long winded, simply because in order to speak of any man that has achieved a certain level of greatness – you would do them a disservice to not include the bulk of their life’s work. For Michael Jackson, the main thing that I wanted to accomplish is to shed some light on what made this man one of the truly great figures of our time. I feel that too much of the scope has been set on his flaws, or personal battles in recent years without paying sufficient time to the truly great and inspiring things that he was able to do throughout his life. It seems to me that when greatness is upon us, it is seldom recognized for the genius that it is. True to form – it seems that Michael Jackson is appreciated more in the first week of his passing than in the last 5 years of his life. A man that graced every tabloid cover from Time to Rolling Stone, and People at his height – to every trashy gossip mag in his later years has left a world that he did great things for, and most importantly he did them out of a genuine love and passion for the human race. In a time when the world truly needs to be inspired, we have just lost our inspiration…and that is nothing short of a tragedy.

KP

7/5/2009 8:59:12 PM
Week 1: Winnipeg @ Edmonton

It was nice to see some of the boys from last year, odd seeing them in other colors but they seem to be settling in ok. I really think that Stefan is going to be a good quarterback for them. Once he gets comfortable in that offence, he’ll do well for them. They’ve got a stud running back in Fred Reid to take pressure off of the passing game, and even in light of recent events with Armstrong – they’ll still be a top flight receiving corps to throw to.

Defensively, I wasn’t surprised to see the Bombers come out in a great deal of zone coverage with their front 7 being as formidable as they are. I do think that we should have been much more efficient in dissecting that zone much more often. Luckily for us, our defence was able to carry us all game long – making it rough on Stefan all night. Lloyd asserted his presence early and often and it was great to see Herron, Keyes, Peach, and Restelli all look fairly comfortable in their first live action. Once we get Williams and Robinson back at the DB position, we’ll be better served by Keyes and Herron getting these live reps.

Peach’s motor is impressive, not to mention for this being his first couple of weeks in this game I think he’s showing quite an aptitude for reading plays on the fly. Much credit to Romero, Taylor, Ellis and the rest of the D-line as the tight nit nature of their group will no doubt shine through in their play this year. Commonly seen watching film, lifting, and genuinely hanging out as a unit – that only bodes well for their success, and our success in general as a team.

Offensively, the obvious points that could be seen by all is that we didn’t score as many points as we would have liked, and we stalled out too many drives. First game gitters? Weather? Footing? Jeez…who knows. On film it looks like we were a bit sloppier than we should be with some general house cleaning issues, we’ll clean those up fairly easily. The more we play, the more comfortable we’ll get – and I do put some stock in not necessarily having any idea what to expect defensively from Winnipeg based on having only the vanilla pre-season to go on. That being said, I’m proud of the team for doing enough to win the game. We showed in the final minute of the first half what we are capable of in terms of how quickly we can flop the field. The second half was spoiled by some turnovers in scoring regions that would have distanced us somewhat, but again – those are housekeeping issues that will be addressed immediately.
Finally, it’s always a shame to see a teammate go down but I felt especially bad for Jesse Lumsden. I know better than most how it feels to desperately want to show the world how wrong they are about you. Jesse wanted to shred up this league so bad he could taste it, and this is definitely a setback in that regard. The end of the world though?...no. I give him all the credit in the world for dealing with the media at this time as well as he has. I’m fairly certain after listening in to some of the questions from his scrum; I would have cut that one short myself.

Needless to say, he’s still one of us, and we’re behind him in this struggle. He won’t have to endure it alone. Much like when Tuck went down last year, and Kelly and Fred’s roles increased – McCarty and Whitlock…the stage is yours gentlemen. I have a feeling that they’ll do just fine with it. ©

Kp8

7/1/2009 1:53:49 AM
Recipe for Success

Football is said to be the ultimate team game, and of all that I’ve played – I’d have to agree. That being said, the only true measure of success in this sport is in playoff victories, and championships themselves. The four teams in the CFL who enjoyed the most success in the 2008 season were Calgary and Montreal who reached the game’s final stage, and to a lesser extent Edmonton and B.C. who were defeated in the semi-finals. Four very different teams who took very different paths to reach the success that they had in 2008, interestingly enough 2 teams would elect to subscribe to one recipe for a successful 2009 – while the other two would follow a different model in hopes that it will lead them to the promised land this season. The question is…which is the right way to build on a team that has had measurable success?

In the category of close but no cigar, the Eskimos and Lions ran a dead heat at the finish of 2008. With B.C. going into Calgary for the Western final and coming up short, and Edmonton taking the road less travelled through the East and losing to Montreal in the big O. If asked, no doubt both teams would tell you that they were a play or two away from being at the big game – and we all know that once there, it’s anyone’s game. However, what they won’t tell you is that most times a team is a play or two away from swaying the game in their favor; they are in fact a PLAYER or two, (or sometimes 10) away from being a true title contender. It’s a difficult thing to admit as a player in the heat of a season that your team is deficient in any area. Your support must be unwavering for your teammates regardless of any perceived weaknesses in them if you are to have any chance at victory collectively. Lucky for us as players, that’s not part of our job description – and is well outside of our pay grade. General Managers, coaches, scouts, player personnel directors etc. take the onus of evaluating the teams throughout the season, and then take the steps to better them at each position of concern in the offseason, and good teams are no exception.

For both Edmonton and B.C. this offseason involved key positional changes. In spite of any perceived success, these two teams proved that unless you’re playing in the final game, you’ve got work to do. B.C. saw it fit to shed All-stars and long time leaders like Otis Floyd, Tyrone Williams, Jason Clermont, Kelly Bates, Jason Pottinger and Rob Murphy – in addition to losing studs like Cameron Wake, Stefan Logan and Jamall Johnson to the NFL. Filling the gaps for Buono’s boys are Nautyn McKay-Loescher, Calvin Bannister, and Anton Mackenzie. Other Lion positional voids will be filled by B.C.’s in house grooming system. B.C. has done an excellent job over the years of developing players through the draft as well as bringing them up through special teams play, before making them full time starters. Players like Ian Smart, Ricky Foley and Paris Jackson will look to have their roles increased as the Lions aim to get back to the league’s top spot.

Edmonton parted ways with 11 starters and several veterans including Damien Anderson, Tim Bakker, Dan Comiskey, Stefan Lefors, Brock Ralph, Fred Perry, Siddeeq Shabazz, Agustin Barrenechea, Shannon Garrett, Jason Tucker Brandon Guillory, J.R. LaRose and Jordan Younger – in addition to losing Kelly Campbell and Kenny Onatolu to the NFL, as well as their long time Defensive Coordinator Rick Campbell, and Receivers coach Mike Kelly. Replacements come in the form of Graeme Bell, Defensive Coordinator Jim Daley, Receivers coach Jason Tucker, Kai Ellis, Scott Gordon, Kitwana Jones, Kyle Koch, Maurice Lloyd, Kelly Malveaux, Jason Nugent, and Jesse Lumsden. Fans can argue until the cows come home as to whether or not the players that B.C. and Edmonton have shipped in will be upgrades on the ones that they have parted ways with, but it really matters not. Wally Buono, and Richie Hall feel as if these are the key ingredients to help these teams attain the status that they lacked last year, and so time will be the judge.

While both of the leagues bridesmaids in 2008 elected to shake up their line-ups this offseason on the quest for the CFL’s top prize, the leagues finalists took a different approach. With Montreal losing only 3 starters this offseason in Dave Mudge, Devone Claybrooks, and Khalil Carter – and recent cuts like T.J. Hill, and Reggie Hunt, the Al’s seem to be looking at larger roles for players like Shea Emery and Chip Cox. The addition of Stanford Samuels will only add to an already strong unit of ball-hawks in the back end. They certainly didn’t seem to think it necessary to jump into the free agent frenzy as others did.Simply ensuring the futures of team leaders like Calvillo, Cahoon and Chiu this offseason seemed to be enough for the Al’s to secure and build on their success in 2008 and make their final push for the cup in 2009.

Finally, the 2008 Grey Cup Champion Calgary Stampeders epitomize the ideology, “don’t mess with a good thing.” Very few additions to this team during the offseason, while the recent release of Jojuan Armour may provide a hole in the middle, as well as some losses on the defensive line with Hodges, George and Freeman all moving on may show some new names on Calgary’s stat sheet – for the most part much like Montreal, they’ve stood pat acknowledging that what they have is solid. They’ll only be more dangerous with a year of the same schemes and the continuity of playing with each other under their belt. Coach Hufnagel and Jim Barker obviously believe in the value of player familiarity, a trait which tends to get lost in this business it seems.

Obviously Montreal and Calgary were good teams at the end of 2008 and will be good to begin 2009. The balance for any team, be it division finalist or league cellar dwellers is to find the balance between upgrading – and blowing up a team. Conversely, those teams that can say that they were a cut above and danced the last dance in November, must worry about complacency setting in during the process of standing pat – vs. trying to fix a team that is not in any way broken.
I know, I know…and we haven’t even kicked off yet! All things revealed in time they say. ©

Kp8