ALS’ BOWMAN MAKES MOST OF ANY OPPORTUNITY
He shouldn’t laugh this easily or frequently — not with everything John Bowman has endured.
He lived in a house that burned to the ground when he was only 6 or 7, one of six siblings, along with three cousins, living under the same roof in poverty and forced to eat at shelters. Bowman was raised by his mother and her sister, who were addicted to drugs, before he was forced to move from Brooklyn, N.Y., to North Carolina when he was barely a teenager to be raised by another aunt, simply because it was his last hope.
“I’ve been in the gutter, I’ve been down,” said Bowman, an Alouettes rush-end in his 10th season of wreaking havoc on Canadian Football League quarterbacks. “I’m not the first person in America to go through this story. A lot of players have been through it. You can find a lot of hardships on every team.
“I try not to dwell on it, but that’s what fuels me — knowing what I went through to be where I am. When I got benched ... (I thought) look, I’ve come from nothing, I’ve had to eat from shelters. I’ve done everything and I’m still playing football. I’m still getting opportunities. I’m still getting paid.”
Last Friday, against Toronto, Bowman had six tackles and three sacks, increasing his teamleading total to 14 sacks, a careerhigh. He trails Winnipeg’s Jamaal Westerman by one sack for the CFL lead, and the Blue Bombers are idle this week.
Bowman, 33, has 10 sacks in the last eight games. He has eight sacks in the last five, increasing his career total to 97. He sits 10th all-time in the CFL and, with two regular-season games remaining, would dearly love to hit the century mark. The 6-foot3, 250-pounder is eligible to become a free agent in February.
And, not so long ago, he believed his career — in Montreal and potentially the CFL — was over. Bowman missed two games in August as a healthy scratch against Edmonton and B.C., and was referred to in the past tense by head coach Tom Higgins, who suggested that Bowman had reached his expiration date.
Members of the organization — not only Bowman — were incensed and shocked. Although the Als won a rare game in Vancouver as Bowman sat, it would be Higgins’s last moments on the sideline. He was fired the next day, when the team arrived in Montreal. Higgins’s handling of Bowman didn’t decide his fate, but was probably a contributing factor.
“It bothered me a lot. I want to play. The thing that upset me the most, you don’t know who’s saying it, where it’s coming from or how it was derived,” Bowman said. “If you look at the numbers and the tape, I thought I was doing OK. It frustrated me because I’m a competitor and I want to play every game. I don’t like being called old, slow or not good enough.
“I’ve done more stuff for this team than anybody, not just football-wise ... off the field, off-season, giving back to the community, doing the things to give this team a positive name. ... I never had a problem with Tom until he said I was past my prime or something like that, reaching my expiration date. He benched me, and that was fine. I was fine with that until they went to B.C. and he said what he said. At the end of the day, I don’t want to see anybody lose their job and I don’t want to be the reason for anybody losing their job.”
That Bowman made it to the Als, and survived this long, is nothing short of miraculous. He attended a tiny Division II college, Wingate University, before graduating to some of the lowest levels of pro ball — the National Indoor Football League, United Indoor Football and Arena 2 — where the top players earn, perhaps, $500 weekly.
But Als general manager Jim Popp got a tip when Bowman was playing for the Georgia-based Rome Renegades and watched film and attended a game. Bowman showed enough to be invited to Montreal’s training camp in 2006. He wasn’t going to stick as a rush-end, but a practice-roster spot might be available, he was told. Popp decided to give him a crack at defensive tackle before the team’s final exhibition game.
“He had a phenomenal game ... maybe three sacks,” said Popp, who replaced Higgins as Montreal’s head coach. “We couldn’t get rid of him. That solidified him and he’s lasted ever since. He was that close to never playing a (regular-season) game.”
It should come as no surprise that Bowman persevered. After all, he has spent his life overcoming the obstacles.
“I knew that wasn’t it for me,” Bowman said. “I knew I could play football. I just needed a chance. Everything happens for a reason. They were ways to get here, where I knew I could be and where I wanted to be. A lot of people think the CFL is falling short of the NFL, but I’m glad to be here.”
Bowman never considered himself fast, strong or particularly athletically gifted. But he has always been a cerebral player, perhaps more focused mentally than the guy next to him — or the one attempting to block him. “It’s just being a grinder,” he said, “studying tape, knowing tendencies and formations, stuff like that and the possibilities of things you’re going to get.”
One-hundred sacks, he said, isn’t his main focus, but it’s a nice round number to ruminate over, along with his other accomplishments, when his career ends. That could occur after this season, depending on how his body feels and his level of commitment.
Als defensive assistant and quality-control coach Anwar Stewart, who spent 11 seasons with Montreal and retired with 66 sacks, strongly believes Bowman hasn’t reached his expiration date — and Stewart didn’t retire until he was 37.
“He showed that he wanted to be really good,” Stewart said. “He showed he wanted to be great. He stayed late, came in early. When you do those things, it spells success. I told him retirement shouldn’t be in his mind.
“As we can see, he’s lighting it up.
“With Bowman, the sky’s the limit. The things that he’s doing are unbelievable.”