REST WELCOME BUT REDBLACKS MISSING THE GAME
Players doing their best to stay in shape during ‘eerie’ delay to start of CFL season
Sherrod Baltimore paid attention when an uncle told him to stash away enough money to cover six months’ rent — maintain an emergency fund, just in case.
Seems like great advice right about now, in the midst of the COVID -19 pandemic that has delayed the start of Canadian Football League training camps and regular season. The CFL announced on Wednesday that the best-case scenario would be a season starting in early September with an eight-game schedule. There would be no “traditional” Grey Cup. With the deferral of Saskatchewan’s role as hosts to 2022, this year’s championship game would see the participating team with the best record host the title game.
Players would take a big money hit playing less than half a season because they get paid by the game. Worse news financially, of course, would be the cancellation of the entire season.
“I tell people to save,” said Baltimore. “I tell them there’s going to be a day when you need that rainy day money. Right now it’s not just raining, it’s pouring.”
Baltimore, a defensive back, and his Ottawa Redblacks teammates would have started training camp on the weekend (rookie camp would have begun last Wednesday). The Redblacks (and the eight other CFL teams) would have chopped their rosters down to 75 players on Tuesday. Next Friday, Ottawa would have played its first pre-season game, at home against the Montreal
Alouettes. That’s a lot of would-haves. But 2020 has been anything but normal since the middle of March.
It’s surreal. With the turning of cold weather and long, dark nights to sunshine and heat, it seems like it should be football season. But it’s not. Nor will it be anytime soon.
The Redblacks (and their fans) are eager to put behind them a horrible 2019 season, when they went 3-15.
“It’s disappointing we’re not out there, but that’s the reality we’re in,” said Redblacks kicker Lewis Ward, who had several NFL tryouts in the off-season.
I tell them there’s going to be a day when you need that rainy day money. Right now it’s not just raining, it’s pouring.
“We’re all ready to get started, and we’ll be happy when we can.”
The record-setting kicker has moved to the family home just north of Kingston. He’s able to help out his parents, plus there’s more room for him to work out. He’s got a net so he can practise kicking.
Don Unamba, who’s expected to line up at strong side linebacker for the Redblacks after signing a one-year deal as a free agent, is home in Dallas, waiting and wondering.
“It’s weird, a bit eerie,” he said. “I really don’t know what to do right now. It’s been awhile that I’ve been at home, it’s not like it’s a vacation. Hopefully, we come out of this soon.”
Unamba is running three or four miles a day at a track near L.D. Bell High School.
“It sucks that we’re going through this,” said Unamba, who played for the Edmonton Eskimos last season. “I’ll be all right for a little while. I’m still sitting on my signing bonus, so I have a little cushion. It hasn’t hit me like it has for people who are losing employment. But I think it would really mess me up if we decide not to have a season in 2020.”
Baltimore, who has been with the Redblacks since 2017, stayed in Ottawa in the off-season.
“I love it here,” he said. “I could have gone home to live with my mom, I could have lived with my uncle. But I chose to be here.”
He’s been doing “old-school” workouts — pushups and sit-ups. Baltimore has a terrific trainer in Iseah Montgiraud, who has helped him put together a training routine. Just before the coronavirus shut everything down more than two months ago, Baltimore said he was telling his trainer he needed a break.
“Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for,” said Baltimore.
So what happens from here? “You have to look at the positives,” said Baltimore. “The worst case is that we won’t be playing football, that would be tough to see a league that’s been around this long not playing.
“The positive is that I’ve been playing football since I was six years old, I haven’t had many breaks. Maybe my body needed a little rest. I’m trying to enjoy it the best I can before I get back to 100 miles per hour. Maybe I can add two or three years to my career. I’m trying to stay positive, that’s all. Right now, the pandemic is bigger than football, it’s bigger than sports. We need to make sure it’s it’s safe before we play.”
Unamba, meanwhile, is hoping to take some acting classes in Ottawa.
Ward is anxious to put his right foot to the ball again. After a tremendous rookie season, where he connected on 51 of 52 field goals, he extended his success streak to 69 before finally missing in mid-August last season. He wound up 2019 by successfully kicking 43 of 50 field goals.