Ticats’ Hage understands it’s just a game
Hamilton centre knows team’s nomadic situation this year is no big deal in grand scheme of things
HAMILTON — They are the living definition of creatures of habit.
Switch even the slightest part of a daily routine of a football player and you are guaranteed to hear grousing. It would be easy for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to whine a lot this year, particularly about their nomadic existence.
Better instead to follow the lead of one of their most decorated veterans, because Marwan Hage is the living definition of perseverance and understanding what being displaced is really all about.
The 10-year centre is to the Ticats what Angus Reid is to the Lions, with a few more past postal codes in his address book, and was troubled when the Ticats announced plans to play the current CFL season an hour away in Guelph, Ont.
The next road trip for a home game is against the B.C. Lions Saturday, where the Ticats will not only feel displaced but also look different, decked out in striped, red retro uniforms honouring the 1941 Hamilton Flying Wildcats.
No one represents the Ticats better than Hage, who has fed more than 6,000 needy families at Thanksgiving over the years through his non-profit foundation, and welcomed more than 5,000 kids to home games.
But sending kids to the campus of the University of Guelph in a makeshift stadium that is one-third the size of the Ticats’ old digs has not proven to be a challenge, because Hage has been overcoming obstacles all his life.
He’s the kind of player who could use more attention from the league and its television partner. Hage was displaced growing up in his native Beirut, moved to Montreal as a 10-year-old and has been helping people ever since.
It may seem like a hardship for the Ticats to change downtown, travel on chartered city buses to practise at McMaster University near the glittering David Braley Athletic Centre and bus again to home games. It would be like building Empire Field, where the Lions played in 2010-11, in Abbotsford.
Hage was reminded of true hardship when he went on a relief mission last winter to El Salvador where he pushed for the construction of a medical clinic and visited a squatter’s camp inhabited by 6,000 refugees.
“We learned that some people are strong beyond words,” he said. “We met a 95-year-old lady who was living on top of garbage. Biggest smile I’ve ever seen.
“I do it because I can. There were some rough times in the past that makes me realize that this is a game and life is way bigger than this. I’ve seen the other side. I’ve seen how hard it is not to have a playground and not to have the freedom to go out and play. Somehow I am able to put things together and get results.”
Results are easier when working once a week in shoulder pads, which is why Hage is experiencing a more tolerable existence these days than his Lions counterpart.
Hage hasn’t played a full season since 2010 due to injuries, but at least is part of a Hamilton resurgence, having returned to the lineup last time out against the Lions. Reid was returned to the nine-game injured list this week and unless Matt Norman is injured, has probably played his last game.
Not once has Reid complained though, and on that score it’s clear he also has company.