The Canadian connection
We highlight five players with links to the Great White North in today’s Seahawks-Saints playoff clash.
Lance Moore, Saints
Moore’s snap count isn’t as high as it used to be with rookie Kenny Stills seeing more work, but the older sibling of B. C. Lions receiver Nick Moore still possesses one of the best set of hands on the Saints and he is a trusted weapon for quarterback Drew Brees. Moore has caught touchdown passes in each of his past two games, including a 24- yard score against the Eagles that allowed New Orleans to take the lead and dispatch Philadelphia in their wild- card playoff game a week ago. Over the years, Moore and Marques Colston have been Brees’ go- to guys. That status now falls to tight end Jimmy Graham. Still ... “Lance is a guy who can play all over the fi eld,” Brees said. “He’s probably the best overall route runner ( on the team).” Moore, 30, is very close with his younger brother, who followed him to the University of Toledo and broke some of his school records. If Nick Moore’s progress in the CFL translates to a contract, he could be joining Lance in the NFL next season. After ending 2013 as the CFL’s third leading receiver, Nick worked out for three NFL teams. He becomes a free agent on Feb. 15.
Luke Willson, Seattle
The rookie tight end from Lasalle, Ont., a Windsor suburb, quickly is developing a track record for over- reaching, even when it comes to the healing process. Willson was taking full reps in practice this week, despite being carted off the fi eld with a high ankle sprain in the Seahawks’ Dec. 29 game against the St. Louis Rams. The initial fear was that Wilson had fractured his ankle. “All I can tell you is, it’s remarkable what happened,” coach Pete Carroll told reporters. Taken by the Seahawks in the fi fth round of the 2013 draft ( 158th overall) from Rice University, Willson’s game is a nice complement to starting tight end Zach Miller, a seven- year vet. Off ensive coordinator Darrell Bevell employs both tight ends together in certain packages. “His ( Miller’s) veteran presence is a really big deal for me,” said Willson, who had to choose between baseball and football when he reached a career crossroads. He batted cleanup for Canada’s national junior men’s baseball team, where he was a teammate of future Toronto Blue Jay Brett Lawrie. Willson’s raw speed was evident Dec. 8 against the San Francisco 49ers when he outran the coverage to score a 39- yard touchdown, his fi rst in the NFL.
Jon Ryan, Seattle
Russell Wilson, Marshawn Lynch and Richard Sherman you know
about. But what is also special about the Seahawks are their special teams, led by kicker Steven Hauschka and punter Jon Ryan, a Regina native. With Ryan as his holder, Hauschka has missed only two fi eld goals all season ( one was blocked, the other hit the upright dead square). The hang time on Ryan’s lofty, frost- inducing punts allowed opponents only 82 return yards in 16 games — “unfair” said opposition returners, forced to signal for the proverbial fair catch. Now 32, Ryan played his college football with the University of Regina Rams before being selected in the third round of the CFL draft by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, with whom he averaged a league record 50.6 yards per punt in 2005 before moving on to the Green Bay Packers. “The thing about Jon is he could deal with pressure at any sport he attempted,” said Regina head football coach Frank McCrystal. “He ran track. He was a great lacrosse player and a midget triple- A goalie. And he could have made it in the CFL as a receiver, if he’d chosen to go that route. He’s one of those guys who is a special athlete, an unbelievable character athlete.”
Richard Sherman, Seattle
There may be no more polarizing fi gure in the NFL than the Seahawks’ swashbuckling AllPro cornerback — a dreadlocked loudmouth and agitator who talks smack but has the game to back it up. His quarterback- baiting strategy has yielded 20 interceptions in his fi rst three pro seasons. Sherman even caused a stir last April on an NFL Take a Player to School visit to Cambridge elementary in Surrey, where he remarked on the prevalence of Adderall, a stimulant, among NFL players. “Me and my teammates like to visit Vancouver now and then,” Sherman explained. “We’ve gotten to know Granville Street pretty well.” Arguably the bestknown Seahawk in the Lower Mainland, his blustery persona takes on a diff erent hue when he’s around kids. As a teenager, Sherman spent summer days working with children suff ering from muscular dystrophy and cerebral palsy. As a Seahawk, he established the Richard Sherman Family Foundation, to help as many Seattle area children as possible receive proper school supplies and clothing. The charity is managed by his business manager, older brother Branton, a former Big Sky Conference receiver who played college football at Montana State with B. C. Lions quarterback Travis Lulay. “Travis is a winner. Great guy and a great leader,” Branton said.
Akiem Hicks, Saints
A defensive lineman who played two seasons in Canada at the University of Regina, Hicks’ selection by the Saints in the third round of the 2012 draft was greeted with great skepticism in many NFL quarters. But the Saints believed the 6- foot- 5, 318- pound California native could eventually make a sizable impact, and opponents were going to have to keep track of him once he got the hang of the NFL game. A minor recruiting violation at LSU threw a roadblock in Hicks’ promising college career. He was working at a DirectTV call centre in Colorado Springs, where Regina head football coach Frank McCrystal paid him a recruiting visit and convinced him to come to Canada. Hicks started 17 games for the Rams, earning a Canada West all- star honour in his second year. He raised NFL eyebrows after an invitation to the East- West Shrine game. “I wasn’t thinking ‘ NFL player’ when I fi rst saw him,” McCrystal said. “But he was an NCAA Division 1 player for sure. Akiem played hurt ( bad ankle) through his entire fi rst season with us, but he told me ‘ Coach, I didn’t come to Canada to sit out.’ You could tell he was going to be very special.”