Simpson not shy to talk opponents off their game
Rare is the earhole that Juwan Simpson does not fill.
Loping onto the McMahon Stadium turf a week ago, the Calgary Stampeders linebacker had spied a possibility that he simply couldn’t resist — Montreal Alouettes kicker Sean Whyte doing his halftime warm-up routine.
“I just happened to be walking on the field and he was there,” explains Simpson, a picture of innocence after practice. “If you know me, I don’t pass up on conversation too much, regardless of who it is. If you go back, if you watch me, I’m a talker.”
So, without invitation, he sashayed over and, while Whyte was trying to focus on kicking, uncorked a verbal barrage.
And not for only a few seconds, either.
“Everybody, if they see you talking to an opposing player, thinks it’s something so crazy,” says Simpson, who, Friday in Winnipeg, will seek out new audiences — guaranteed. “It was just a little conversation. Hi and bye.”
Whyte, perhaps surprisingly, had not been reluctant about engaging.
“A great kicker and definitely not a shy guy,” says Simpson. “It was a conversation. I said something to him. He responded. We laughed about it and went our separate ways.”
What, Simpson is asked, happens if one of the Blue Bombers is seen barking in the direction of a warming-up Rene Paredes?
Would he rush over to defend his kicker?
“Nope, he’s grown,” he replies. “Once again, we’re all pros out there. At the end of the day, you have to be able to face adverse situations and go out and perform.”
Simpson himself refuses to be stifled — even if the victim, via on-field success, crams the chatter back down his throat.
“You’ve got to know me — nobody wins,” he says. “Even if they do win, I still say they lost. I’m a talker, man. Even if they win on one drive, I’ll come back the next drive.”
Simpson insists he has no master plan when it comes to trash-talking.
But you can bet, if he thinks his nattering is working, if he thinks his nattering is upsetting the foe, he will return — full volume.
“It bothers some people,” Simpson, 29, says. “Not everybody is that strong guy or that strong-personality person. So you just try to find that person and bother them. But a lot of times, my talking falls on deaf ears. But if there’s that one person it bothers? Hey, we’re winning.
“I might walk by somebody and just say, ‘Hey.’ Or I might walk by and say something from the other end of the spectrum. You just never know. It depends on the flow of the game, the vibe, at that point of time. (With Whyte) I was also doing it during the game, just trying to get his attention and throw him off from whatever psyche he has.
“But it didn’t prove to work — he made his field goals.”
If you know me, I don’t pass up on conversation too much, regardless of who it is JUWAN SIMPSON