GONE MUCH TOO SOON, LABINJO LEFT HIS MARK
Late CFL standout who had short stint in NFL died in his sleep in September
Mike Labinjo died on a silent night 62 days ago, asleep and then gone, but this is his story that needs to remain alive. Especially in this festival of football stories called Grey Cup Week. Labinjo lived a short but remarkable life, just 38 years in length, but a life worth remembering and cherishing. It’s a story that needs to be told because of the societal importance of his many accomplishments. The hero of the story is not necessarily the football player, but the man who made everything possible. A name most people wouldn’t know. Frank Giffen hasn’t talked a whole lot about the mentoring he did for Labinjo and the paths he cleared for the athletically gifted youngster from Toronto. He was the Big Brother — and organizations such as that, which pair kids in need with adults and mentors willing to give back — should be celebrating this life lived. Labinjo was in elementary school when he came to form a relationship with Giffen, a Toronto investment broker. Giffen saw immediately the athletic gifts Labinjo had and began offering opportunities and creating paths for the young man. Giffen got him into St. Michael’s College, long before the place was front-page news, and some will tell you Labinjo was the best high school football player anyone had ever seen around Toronto. He played running back at St. Mike’s and ran so hard and so well — he was large for his age — that Nick Saban offered him a scholarship to Michigan State. He didn’t run the ball for the Spartans, moving to defensive end, and sometimes linebacker, enough to have the Philadelphia Eagles sign him as an undrafted free agent in 2004. In his first NFL season, he appeared in three regular-season games, making 12 solo tackles, and played for Andy Reid’s Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX. The first professional season couldn’t have gone any better. “If it wasn’t for Frank, I don’t know if Mike even gets a scholarship,” said Paul Forbes, the former football coach at St. Mike’s. “I don’t know if he goes on to have the kind of college career he had. I don’t know if he gets to the NFL, or the Super Bowl or anything else. I just don’t know. “What (Giffen) did for this kid, helping him get through schools, getting him tutors if he needed it, guiding him when he got into hot water . ... Whatever he needed, Frank was there for him. The guy is a saint.” And this is what can become possible when a young man and a mentor connect and grow together, Labinjo might have gone to St. Mike’s because of Giffen and possibly got his scholarship because of Giffen’s push, but the NFL didn’t care much about his Big Brother. There it was all on Labinjo. He spent parts of three seasons in Philadelphia, Miami and Indianapolis, before landing in Calgary, which eventually became home. “He had one of those personalities you can’t forget,” said John Hufnagel, who was Labinjo’s first CFL coach and is now general manager of the Stampeders. “When I heard what happened, I was shocked. You think of him being so alive. “People were always so excited about him. I remember that first year, when we were going over personnel, there was always excitement talking about him. Mike showed up when the lights were on.” In the 2008 playoffs, a decade ago, Labinjo was a force for the Stampeders. In the Western Final against the B.C. Lions, he had three sacks, eight tackles, from the defensive line. He almost beat the Lions by himself. In the Grey Cup game in Montreal, playing against legendary quarterback Anthony Calvillo, he made three tackles and more importantly knocked down four passes. That was the best he ever played. “He was a difference-maker,” said Dave Dickenson, now head coach of the Stampeders, and then a teammate of Labinjo. “When you think of him, you think of that stretch run in ’08. He was one of those players who understood the moment. He lived for the moment. I have a lot of positive memories of Binjo. “When I heard he had passed, it was still very shocking. I had lost track of him.” This is how small the Canadian Football League truly is: Dickenson is coaching against Rick Campbell in the Grey Cup and one of them played with Labinjo, the other coached offence on a Stampeders staff that Labinjo played defence for. “What are we all trying to do? Leave a memory of some kind,” said Campbell, son of a coaching legend himself. “He was grateful and thoughtful, a really good football player. I’m glad there are so many positive memories of him. We’re all trying to make memories in this league.” Labinjo died in his sleep in September. No cause of death has ever been established. There were no mysterious circumstances. But he left behind a daughter and a mother and a brother and a life worth remembering. A cause worth celebrating. “He was special,” said Hufnagel. “He lit up our room.”