Duo running different routes to Stampeders
One Clan star joins Calgary, another waits
Adam Berger and Brad Erdos both had options following the 2012 football season with the Simon Fraser University Clan.
Berger, a 22-year-old safety, and Erdos, a 22-year-old offensive lineman — both of whom were fourth-round picks by the Calgary Stampeders in last May’s Canadian Football League draft — each had a year remaining in their collegiate eligibility.
And both have made up their minds. Erdos, having missed the 2012 campaign thanks to a ruptured Achilles tendon he suffered last July (one of the untold stories of the Stamps’ stunning year of injuries), will take advantage of the extra year he’s been granted by the NCAA because of his injury.
Berger, meanwhile, will forego his final year of eligibility with hopes of signing his first pro contract with the Stampeders and attending training camp in Calgary next June.
“I told (the Stampeders) that I’m going to come out this year; I’m really looking forward to it,” said Berger, who’s on pace to graduate in the spring with his degree in kinesiology (he was a member of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference academic all-star team). “I still had my senior year left, but I’ve been here for five years (he had a medical redshirt season, followed by a standard redshirt year), I’m done school — I kind of just feel that it’s time to move on.”
Had things gone according to plan for Erdos, he’d be doing the same thing. But late last July, one of the expected leaders on the Clan O-line going into its first season as a fullfledged NCAA member, felt that dreaded “pop” in his ankle while going through some drills at SFU’s Burnaby Mountain campus
“When it happened, I just thought I had tweaked my ankle or something,” said Erdos, who played his high school football in Lethbridge at Catholic Central. “But I tried taking a step and I was like, ‘That’s not happening.’ So the trainers came over to check and said, ‘Well, Brad, we don’t feel your Achilles ...’ It was definitely disappointing, being my senior season and looking forward to a season in NCAA and then moving on to Calgary. But that’s the way it goes, I guess.”
Berger, a six-foot, 207-pounder from Surrey, B.C., had 36 tackles, two interceptions and a sack to go along with three fumble recoveries, a forced fumble and a blocked kick.
But he also knows taking the next step in his career will be a challenge.
“Well, I know it’s going to be faster; there are going to be more athletic people on the field, so that’s something I’ll have to get used to with time in practice and in games, if I’m lucky enough to play,” he said. “I just have to get as ready as I can — stronger and faster.”
He’s seen Stamps incumbent safety Eric Fraser (a free agent to be) enough on television and in person to know he has plenty of work to do; he’s reluctant to compare himself to the three-year veteran.
“I try not to,” said Berger. “I actually trained with Eric out here. I remember being younger and looking at him, thinking, ‘WOW, he’s fast.’ Now, I just try to focus on my stuff. I still think he’s faster than me, and he’ll weigh more than me when I come into the league. But I’ll just try to focus on what I need to do and try to help the team any way I can.”
Erdos’s development, for obvious reasons, hit a roadblock with the injury. His rehab is on schedule, but the end of it would have coincided roughly the opening of Stamps camp — another reason he decided to return to school.
As well, he’d rather contribute on the field instead of from the sidelines.
“We had a really young O-line, I think we had four rookies starting by the end of the season,” said Erdos, who expects to graduate following the fall semester with his degree in criminology. “Being a captain and a leader on the team, I really wanted to help the guys out. You do what you can from the sidelines, you coach them up a little bit, tell them some things. But it’s just not the same as being out there, right? It was a tough one.
“Coming off a serious injury and trying to prove what I can do (in a pro training camp) didn’t really make sense. So I’ll come back, play one more year with SFU, train hard and then come to Calgary in 2014.”
When it happened, I just thought I had tweaked my ankle or something. OFFENSIVE LINEMAN BRAD ERDOS