Rookies look for place to crash
SPRUCE GROVE — With Commonwealth Stadium unavailable to the Edmonton Eskimos for two more weeks, life after training camp is more difficult for rookies than most years.
Players who weren’t sure of their training camp fate spent Sunday and Monday trying to find a place to live for the upcoming Canadian Football League season.
With the Eskimos still practising this week at Fuhr Sports Park in Spruce Grove, they also have to figure out how to get to practice.
Esks receiver Kenny Stafford took to Twitter on the weekend to try to get some help in his search for an apartment downtown.
“I didn’t want to look for an apartment (before final cuts),” he said. “I didn’t want to get comfortable. Once I found out I officially made the team, I hit Kijiji and rentfaster.ca.”
Stafford has chosen to stay put at the hotel in Spruce Grove until he finds a place.
“I’m comfortable. I can’t be sleeping on the floor, it’s game week,” he said.
Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly is doing his part. He has two players staying with him while they apartment hunt and he drove out to Spruce Grove with his Hummer full of players on Tuesday.
“I had a full rig coming out this morning,” Reilly said, before shifting to Saturday’s season-opening game against the Toronto Argonauts.
“Those guys are going to get a little time after this game to find their living arrangements, but right now we’re worried about playing against Toronto and that’s good to see. Guys are focused in on the right things and we’ll deal with all the rest of that later.”