Stamps working his way back after third surgery
Training camp got underway on Sunday for the Edmonton Eskimos, but Fred Stamps was on the sidelines while his teammates got in their first workout of the 2012 season.
The Eskimos slotback — and arguably the toughest player in the Canadian Football League — underwent surgery two weeks ago. It was the second followup surgery that Stamps has had after he lost a testicle thanks to a freak play in Week 6 of the 2011 season.
Stamps took an inadvertent kick to the groin on the opening play of Edmonton’s game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Aug. 5, 2011. He finished the game out and had surgery in the early hours of Aug. 6. He had surgery again in February and required a second followup procedure.
“I feel good,” he said after practice ended on Sunday. “I had a procedure a couple of weeks ago … I’m ready now. I’m waiting on coach Kavis (Reed) to give me the green light and be ready to go, and that’s about it.
“I’ve been dealing with it all off-season, but our training staff did a good job with it and getting me prepared for training camp. I feel pretty good.”
Reed said Stamps is healthy and that the team is trying to ease him back into football shape.
“It is one of those things where we don’t want to rush him back too fast,” the coach said. “We sat down (on Saturday) and devised a plan in terms of progressively getting him back out here.
“We know he’s ready to go physically, but the thing is that he didn’t have the opportunity to condition as he would if he didn’t have the procedures done, so we can’t be trying to win the Grey Cup on Day 1 of training camp.
Watching his star player go through a difficult injury, Reed said he has “the utmost respect for Fred and how he’s handled the situation.
“His pain threshold, his mental attitude about it, you never see him pouting, he’s never whined, he’s never complained. He was fighting us (Saturday) morning about wanting to get on the field.
“We have to be smart and let him see that he’s worked too hard, he’s endured too much to screw it up by trying to get back on the field too soon.”
Meanwhile, receiver Greg Carr and defensive tackle Etienne Legare were sent home from Commonwealth when they showed up with the flu.
Reed said he didn’t want them to make any other players sick. Also absent on Day 1 was linebacker T.J. Hill, who is recovering from a knee injury and, like Stamps, is being eased in on account of his conditioning.
Jyles mostly happy with Day 1 effort
Eskimos quarterback Steven Jyles gave a fiery effort in his first day of training camp.
The key piece of the Ricky Ray trade with the Toronto Argonauts, Jyles yelled and fist-pumped after completing a difficult touchdown pass. He said an interception thrown in one drill downgraded his day to just “OK” status.
“I had an interception,” he said. “It was, I wouldn’t say a missed read, I was just thinking of something totally different from what it is in the offence. I threw it at a five-yard break rather than an eight-yard break. I had an interception, so to me that’s a bad day. I don’t want to have any interceptions with practice.”
Reed seemed content with his projected No. 1 pivot.
“He made a couple of mistakes, but that’s Day 1,” he said. “In terms of his reads he was pretty good, from what we saw on the field, but we’ll analyze the film.
“Mechanically, I thought he was pretty good. The defence made some plays and the good thing about it is he got (passes) out early, he reacted positively and moved on.”