Stampeders call in a few big reinforcements
The tall order around McMahon Stadium is keeping a healthy passcatching corps.
So the Calgary Stampeders went out and ordered up tall.
Receiver Chris Matthews, standing 6-foot-5, showed up at practice Wednesday to a snow-filled McMahon Stadium, another timely, fantastic pickup by the Red & White.
“All this snow around here,” Matthews said with outstretched arms and a big smile on his mug. “Even in Winnipeg, I’ve never seen snow just built up like this. I’m parking uphill — I don’t know if I’m going to make it up the hill. What about parking down the hill? I don’t know. But CFL, this is what we play in. We’re built tough.”
Matthews is built tough at 228 pounds. The Californian has had his moments on both sides of the border, having been the CFL’s rookie of the year in 2012 after leading the Winnipeg Blue Bombers with 81 catches, 1,192 receiving yards and seven touchdowns before becoming a playoff star with the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks in their Super Bowl season in 2014.
The Stamps could use a few of such highlights from him, possibly even as early as Monday when they play the host Montreal Alouettes (11 a.m., TSN/CHQR 770).
“I’m coming out here every day and make sure I put a good foot forward and show these guys that I deserve to play,” said Matthews, who spent the last four seasons split between the NFL’s Seahawks and Chicago Bears. “I like the team here, most of all the team camaraderie because I feel like it’s more of a family here ...
“This is my first day, and I’m already getting a feeling of helpfulness. They’re not NFL players where people out there want to be the stars and everybody doesn’t want to help you. Here, it’s like, ‘If you can help us win and get us to the promised land, then we’re all for it.’ I’m just grateful to be part of this.”
That gratefulness cuts both ways, especially if the veteran footballer can step in quickly.
With the receiving corps decimated by injuries — the latest casualty being Reggie Begelton — the Stamps went out and signed Matthews.
Late in the first quarter for Friday’s 38-16 win over the Toronto Argonauts, Begelton was hurt on a special teams play, appearing to hurt his collarbone or shoulder. It’s believed the receiver is done for the season.
Begelton joins other top-flight American receivers on the mend.
Kamar Jorden is done for the season after going down with a knee injury on Labour Day.
DaVaris Daniels is on the sixgame injured list after breaking his collarbone against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats late last month.
And the other, of course, is Eric Rogers. Yeah, remember him?
He’s been missing in action since the end of July, but despite a chronic knee injury he suffered in 2016, the Stampeders hope to have him back in action Monday.
“I feel good,” said Rogers, another tall target at 6-foot-3 and a 2015 CFL all-star. “I’ll come in and make a couple of plays, hopefully, and help get our team a win.”
Stamps head coach Dave Dickenson foresees just that.
“Yeah I do think Eric will play Monday,” Dickenson said. “It was nice to see him running around (during practice Wednesday). Obviously, when he’s playing, we think he’s as good as anybody out there. It’s big for us.”
What would be really big — and physically imposing to create size mismatches against CFL defences — is Rogers and Matthews on the field together for quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell.
SHORT YARDAGE
Stamps CB Ciante Evans and OL Ucambre Williams both practised Wednesday but were limited … Stamps CB Tre Roberson (thigh bruise) skipped practice after being injured against the Argos, but Dickenson is optimistic he will play Monday.