Arakgi on cusp of special record
Career tackles mark passing from one crazy gunner to another
Wade Miller, the 43-year-old president and CEO of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, maintains he has never met Jason Arakgi, the B.C. Lions’ nine-year veteran who is about to break a CFL record they share.
“No, I haven’t,” Miller said Tuesday, “but I’ve enjoyed watching him play — against every other team besides the Blue Bombers. He’s got that tenacity about him. He makes plays every time he’s on the field. You want a disrupter on special teams. When you look at jersey numbers on film, creating havoc, his (No. 45) shows up.”
With three special-teams tackles Friday against the Hamilton TigerCats, Arakgi moved into a tie with Miller atop the league’s all-time list with 184.
A linebacker from the University of Manitoba in 1995, Miller played 11 seasons for the Bombers after being converted to fullback, defying those who said he would never make it in pro football. He was called “Rudy” behind his back — a reference to Rudy Ruettiger, the no-hope walkon for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and subject of a weepy movie.
“Coach (Dave) Ritchie used to say, ‘Short and squat, all butt but no body,’” Lions offensive co-ordinator Khari Jones says, having a hardy chuckle at the memory.
Jones was the Bombers’ quarterback when the 5-foot-9, 210-pound Miller played nightclub bouncer for anyone who threatened the team’s meal ticket.
“Wade was tough,” Jones says. “Nobody was more tenacious. I see that same quality in Arakgi — that attitude that he’s not going to be stopped. He has that leadership quality about him, too. He’s going to make sure that everybody around him is doing his job. Wade was never afraid to let people know if they weren’t doing things the right way.”
Contrary to Miller’s recollection, Arakgi and the Bomber president met a number of times previously, before the future Lion sprouted to become a 6-foot-2, 225-pound pro prospect at McMaster in Hamilton.
As the godson of Ritchie, Winnipeg’s former head coach, Arakgi had a kid’s dream job: a part-time water boy whenever the Bombers played in Hamilton or Toronto, close to Arakgi’s hometown of Oakville, Ont., or even Montreal.
“I remember Wade — I’m sure he doesn’t remember me,” Arakgi says. “I remember him playing for Dave Ritchie, all those years ago. Maybe 10 or 15 times (Arakgi was an attendant in the locker-room). I feel I had some part in his career, because I kept him hydrated. I remember him specifically: No. 34, the fullback. Funny how things like that work out in life.”
CFL statistician and historian Steve Daniel says the league didn’t begin compiling special-teams tackles until 1991. Defensive and special-teams tackles were lumped together. Daniel says the distinction is important, since special-teams “gunners” need to be more readily acknowledged for the specific, thankless, but necessary job they do.
And what exactly does Arakgi do? It starts with racing downfield and being clubbed and grabbed by blockers given the green light to mug him. Then he must stop a quick and slippery returner built along the lines of Andre De Grasse in his tracks or pursue him upfield through a thicket of flying bodies.
“I get more excited when we play top returners,” Arakgi says. “(Hamilton’s) Brandon Banks. I love playing against him ... But all the returners in this league are so good, it’s rare that you have a week when you don’t have a challenge.”
Still, little boys don’t grow up wanting to be special-teams gunners.
“I’d trade all those tackles for more starts as a linebacker, even the record,” Arakgi admits. “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean that in a bad way. But that’s what’s helped me be good at special teams. I always feel as if I have a chip on my shoulder. I always feel I have something to prove. That’s kept complacency from setting in. That’s kept me going.”
He got his first special-teams tackle in a game against the Stampeders on June 26, 2008, at McMahon Stadium.
It seems appropriate that Calgary is the opposition Friday night at B.C. Place Stadium, when Arakgi has a chance to separate himself from Miller and claim the record outright.
“I’ll get it,” Arakgi vows. “Right on the opening kick, I’m going for it.”
It’s already been established he’s something special.