‘OTHER’ KEVIN PIERRE-LOUIS OUT TO MAKE NAME FOR SELF
NFL namesake and CFL safety supposedly share some genes — and football talent
OK, right away … Kevin PierreLouis is not that Kevin PierreLouis.
He wasn’t selected in the fourth round of the National Football League draft, he didn’t play for the Seattle Seahawks and he didn’t go to Boston College.
However, the Kevin PierreLouis who joined the Canadian Football League’s Ottawa Redblacks a week and a half ago is a very good football player. A hardhitting safety at Colorado State, he was nickname The Hitman.
The funny thing is that there’s a tie-in between the CFL’s Kevin Pierre-Louis and the NFL’s Kevin Pierre-Louis.
Explained the Redblacks’ Pierre-Louis: “He’s like a third cousin. He’s definitely in my family tree. We’re still trying to figure out what part. My mom knows his mom. I think it’s mostly in my grandpa’s side. My grandpa lived a good life. Back in Haiti in the old days, he had like six different baby mamas. Some of them we don’t even know.”
It turns out the football players with the same name and same position and quite likely in the same family tree know each other, too.
“I had to go to Boston College, where he went to school, to play Boston College,” the Redblacks’ Pierre-Louis said. “He was in the NFL at that time, but we met each other. We’ve stayed in contact since then.”
Shifting to linebacker with the Redblacks, Pierre-Louis said, hasn’t been a big deal. “It’s similar,” he said. “I had to come down into the box a lot. It’s the same thing basically, the same responsibility, just different words. It’s a bit different, but it’s still football. Football is football.”
Redblacks general manager Marcel Desjardins explained the decision to bring Pierre-Louis to training camp this way: “He’s big and physical. He’ll knock your block off. He’s very athletic for a guy his size. Can he transition to being a weakside linebacker for us? That’s what we’ll find out. But he certainly has the mental makeup to be able to do that.”
A cook at Pizza Hut during his high school days, then later a sales associate at J Crew and 24 Hour Fitness, Pierre-Louis drew interest from the Redblacks in 2016, but it didn’t work out.
“They were interested in me a year ago, late in the season,” he said. “I was interested, too, but we couldn’t get the passport thing figured out in time. By the time my passport came, the opportunity fell back to next year. They invited me to a workout in Vegas and I guess they liked what they saw.
“I love my job. Let’s hope everything works out. I’m more than excited, I’m blessed for the opportunity. Every day I wake up, I seize the opportunity I have and I don’t take it for granted.”
Although he has family roots in Haiti, Pierre-Louis hasn’t been back there since two or three months before a huge 2010 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people, including his cousin Jean, who lived in the first storey of a three-storey building that collapsed.
After the Redblacks decided to sign him, the first thing PierreLouis Googled was the weather in Ottawa.
“It kind of reminded me of being back in Colorado, where we could have four seasons in one day,” he said. “It snowed, rained, hailed and then the sun would come out.” GONE FOR SEASON: It sounds as if like offensive lineman Pierce Burton, who injured a leg in Thursday’s pre-season game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, could miss the rest of the 2017 CFL season. Burton, 26, had just signed with the Redblacks a couple of days earlier. Lineman Matt Albright (leg) could be sidelined for two months, but there was optimism Sunday that it might be less than that. The severity of the injury to lineman Randy Beardy was still unknown.
THE KICKING QUANDARY: Explaining why the Redblacks released kicker Ray Early and brought back Brett Maher, special-teams coordinator Bob Dyce said: “Everything’s not based on a game. We have to be consistent at all times. Ray’s a very good kicker, We just felt, with what Brett has shown in the past, with what his strengths are, it would be a good fit.”
NOW, THAT’S SPECIAL: Speaking about the Redblacks’ special teams play against the TigerCats, Dyce said: “If you looked in the game, probably 90 per cent my main special teamers didn’t play … guys like Andrew Marshall, Nigel Romick, Pat Lavoie, Gilly (Brandon Gillanders). It was a young group, their first time playing special teams in the CFL on a big field. They were extremely disciplined in the punt game, they just have to play a little faster. In kickoffs, other than the first one, we played with speed and we were aggressive. There were three times we held them inside the 25-yard line on kickoffs; that’s outstanding. As I told the guys, ‘If that’s our start and we only go up from there, it will be a very successful year coverage wise.’ ”
THE END AROUND: Wide receivers Daje Johnson and Jamal Kett and LB Ron Omara didn’t practise Sunday … The Redblacks re-signed defensive lineman Michael Wakefield on Sunday. He had been with the team in spring mini-camp, but was released in early May … Former Redblacks K Ronnie Pfeffer has signed with the Toronto Argos, according to 3 Down Nation’s Justin Dunk, while the Tiger-Cats added former Alouettes/Lions kicker Anthony Fera … The Ticats lost their third- and fourth-string QBs with lower-body injuries in Ottawa on Thursday. Head coach Kent Austin told the Hamilton Spectator’s Drew Edwards on Sunday that those injuries were “more serious than we thought.” Matt Johnson may be out for the season, while Everett Golson could miss the Ticats’ regularseason opener on June 25.