Feasting on football for Thanksgiving
MONTREAL No other sport gets paired quite so well with Thanksgiving as football.
The pigskin and turkey seem to go hand in hand, no matter what side of the border you’re on.
“It’s a holiday for the fans, football’s a part of that for the life of a CFL player and the guys that are fortunate enough to play on that day,” said Edmonton Eskimos head coach Jason Maas. “Obviously, it’s a great atmosphere, generally, when you go to the games and you’re thinking about your family and thinking about football.
“Those are two good things to be thinking about.”'
And it’s double the goodness for longtime American CFLers, like Maas, who have inherited Canadian Thanksgiving while still celebrating their own.
“Absolutely, I’m as Canadian as there is for an American to be, I guess,” Maas said.
“But I still remember my heritage and remember being back down in the States and what it was like to celebrate both.”
FRENCH CONNECTION
Things are noticeably more bilingual around Montreal Alouettes headquarters these days.
Since a mid-season change saw receivers coach Jacques Chapdelaine take over head coaching duties from GM Jim Popp ahead of last week’s 38-11 win over the Toronto Argonauts, their weekly coach’s press conference leading up to game day have been conducted in both French and English.
While it shouldn’t come across as a big deal in Canada’s most bilingual metropolis, it’s the first time the club has had a head coach who can speak French fluently.
“I’m French, I’m going to speak both languages,” said Chapdelaine, who co-ordinated the Eskimos offence in 2007. “Montreal is a very diverse city and, certainly, being francophone myself, I can reach out to that segment of the population. The fact remains, I wish I could speak Portuguese, Italian, Greek, Mandarin — which is complicated. I wish I could reach out to more people.”
HAPPY RETURNS?
Safe isn’t good enough anymore for the Eskimos return game.
Troy Stoudemire made his Eskimos debut Monday after joining the practice roster as a free agent on Sept. 13.
“We brought him in a few weeks ago knowing that he’s been proven in the league, he’s done it in the league,” Maas said of the former Winnipeg Blue Bombers returner.
It hasn’t exactly caught fire under previous returner Kenzel Doe, whose 20.8-yard kick-return average is pedestrian and 7.8-yard punt return average is near the bottom.
But to his credit, Doe has only fumbled the ball once in the 13 games he’s played this season, and the Eskimos ended up recovering it, while Stoudermire ended up fumbling a punt return during Monday’s first half that resulted in a go-ahead touchdown by the Alouettes.
“It’s nothing really about Doe’s performance, he’s done exactly what we’ve asked him to do,” Maas said. “Ball security is what he’s been great at.
“With Troy being a highly productive returner in the league, we want to see if there’s going to be a difference with him back there.”
WHITE DISLIKES MICS
Coaches and quarterbacks can keep the live mics, as far as John White is concerned.
The Eskimos running back wants no part of the Live Broadcast experiment being undertaken by the CFL and TSN this season, where a 10-second delay is all that separates the audience at home from all the nitty gritty that goes on the field.
Only, most players don’t use neat little words like nitty. Or gritty.
“I know if it was me, it wouldn’t be too good,” White said of his usual in-game vocabulary. “I’m a bad guy, man. I’m a villain on the offence, that’s all I’ll say.
“I usually don’t know who’s mic’d up, but I know if they come to me and ask if I want to be mic’d up, I’ll say no. They already know the answer.”