Canadians must work twice as hard
After that, there were players like Milson Jones, Chris Skinner or Sean Millington who enjoyed flashes of brilliance, but in the big picture were basically keeping the position warm between imports. Montreal’s Eric Lapointe, a serviceable tailback, may be the most successful of all Canadian rushers in the modern game.
Lumsden’s coach in Hamilton, Greg Marshall, was a fantastic back at Western before blowing out both knees before his CFL career even got off the ground. His little brother Blake came along with the same pedigree, but the closest he ever got to feature back was when he and another Canadian — McGill grad Michael Soles — formed the rare all-Canadian backfield in Edmonton. In truth, that tandem was more fit for pulling a draught cart than following a pulling guard.
“Not to downplay the CIAU [CIS, as it is now called]. But, it’s a different calibre of football,” said Diedrick, a Toronto native who played four years at Nebraska, then spent three years on NFL rosters before signing with Edmonton last week. “ You see a lot of guys who play down south, I mean, you’re playing big-time football. I played in the Big 12. Every week I was playing some type of contender, against a lot of great competition, [made up] of a lot of guys being NFL stars. There aren’t too many guys out of the CIAU becoming NFL stars.”
Lumsden set the CIS single season record with 1,816 yards in his senior season at McMaster, but let’s face it: he ripped off a lot of 200-yard games against defences that wouldn’t have been able to stop a good American high school offence. That’s why Diedrick, the former Scarborough Thunder back, is likely a better bet to carve out a career as a Canadian tailback.
“Dahrran is in a different spot than, say, Jesse and I,” Bradley said. “Dahrran went to Nebraska … and I think automatically he’s looked at as a little bit different than somebody who comes from Canada. Jesse Lumsden had a tryout in the NFL, so that gives him a little more, too, to work with. Perhaps they think a lot of it is coaching — a lack of coaching — in Canada, or what it is. I always feel like we have to maybe produce twice as high of numbers as anyone else before we get a shot.”
“I feel I may have a little bit of an advantage over those guys,” Diedrick said of Lumsden et al, “ being that I played at Nebraska, and had some time in the NFL. I know what it takes.”