Uphill climb to gridiron for Dable
The city of Grenoble, France is known for a lot of things.
The ‘capital of the Alps,’ as it is sometimes called, hosted the 1968 Winter Olympics and the likes of Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud and former Chicago Blackhawks goalie Cristobal Huet have called Grenoble home.
But it’s not exactly a football hot spot.
This week, though, one of Grenoble’s native sons took a big step in his pro football career when he was signed to the Calgary Stampeders practice roster.
For Anthony Dable, it was the latest turn in an unlikely 10-yearjourney that all began with a trip to a local Grenoble video game story.
“It was on Nintendo 64, NFL Quarterback ’98, we played a lot” Dable said, explaining how he first fell for a sport that’s typically not associated with the mountains of France. “We went to a retailer and sold all our games and my cousin pointed to that game. We were like ‘it better be good’ and it was good enough for me and my brother to be passionate about the game and we wanted to play. We were fortunate enough to have a team in Grenoble.”
After the video game caught Dable’s eye, he joined the local Grenoble Centaurs as a receiver, where he won two national titles and the European Federation of American Football Cup in 2012.
Then, Dable set his eyes on North American shores and enrolled at the Universite de Laval, only to find out that a change in CIS rules meant he was ineligible. He’d spend a full-season training with the mighty Rouge et Or – alongside Stampeders Adam Thibault, Pierre-Luc Caron and Pierre Lavertu – before returning to Europe to play in Germany, where the highest level of football is played on the continent.
The dream of playing in North America stuck with Dable, though, and after posting highlight videos to YouTube, he caught the eye of former New York Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora, who passed on his information to the Giants.
He never ended up playing with the Giants, but at 6-foot-4 and 220 lbs., the 29-year-old certainly appears to have the physical tools to make an impact in the CFL.
FINCH OUT
There was good news and bad news about Roy Finch at Monday’s practice.
The bad news is the Stampeders will be without their superstar kick returner for Friday’s game in Hamilton against the Tiger-Cats.
The good news is he’ll be back at some point in 2017.
Finch injured his ankle in the Stamps game against the Montreal Alouettes, and while some fans were fearing the worst head coach Dave Dickenson insisted there was hope on Monday.
“He’s going to have trouble playing this week but it’s not super serious,” Dickenson said. “It’s an ankle injury that should be ready to go before the end of the year.”
GETTING CLOSE
Offensive lineman Spencer Wilson could be back in the lineup this weekend, although he still has oneweek left on the six-game injured list. Wilson had surgery on his thumb in late-August after appearing in every previous game in 2017, and is nearing a return.