THE LION AND THE RED DRAGON
Former B.C. first-round draft pick renews football career in China at 38
It’s tempting to call former B.C. Lions first-round draft pick Paul Cheng the Comeback Kid — except for two things. He admittedly faceplanted as a professional, making the idea of a “comeback” from seven games of experience in the Canadian Football League somewhat ludicrous.
And, at 38 years of age, he’s hardly a kid.
Yet, a month after the Lions honoured the career of retired Jason Clermont — a two-time Canadian player of year taken two spots ahead of Cheng, the No. 6 overall pick, in the 2002 CFL draft — he is part of the Great Leap Forward of American football into China.
Arena football, the indoor variation of the game, is coming to the Middle Kingdom.
The mover behind the China Arena Football League, which begins its inaugural season Oct. 2, is American businessman Marty Judge, co-owner of the Arena League’s Philadelphia Soul. Among those partnering with Judge are former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski and Super Bowl-winning coach Dick Vermeil.
In June, the CAFL Draft Show, which aired in more than 35 countries, heard Cheng’s name announced in the sixth round as a selection by the Beijing Lions. Other teams will operate in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Dalian, Shenzhen and Qingdao.
“I was a non-import when I played for the (B.C.) Lions,” says Cheng, who left Vancouver last Friday for training camp in the Chinese capital. “And I’m a nonimport here (with the Beijing Lions). I’m probably the only 38-year-old football player who’s fought in MMA at the world-class level. Not many guys on the planet can say that.”
Fluent in Mandarin, and with a personality as large as his 6-foot-3, 270-pound frame, Cheng is getting a re-do on a football career that ended in 2002 after four games with the Lions and another three with the Calgary Stampeders. A defensive lineman, he later went to training camp with the Montreal Alouettes, but walked into GM Jim Popp’s office and promptly told him “I quit.”
“I wasn’t ready for the CFL,” Cheng admits. “I was one of those guys who should have played another year in college (Simon Fraser). I wasn’t even the best player on our team — Mike Vilimek, Obie Khan, Neil McKinlay, they were all better than me.
But I was a workout warrior. I blew everybody away at the (CFL) combine. There was even talk of me going No. 1 (in the draft). I was good. But, honestly, I wasn’t a firstround pick. I was too immature. I wasn’t mentally tough. I’m not blaming anyone but myself.”
Born in Taiwan, Cheng was 10 when his family emigrated to Canada, settled in Toronto and opened a small “burger joint.” Like many immigrants, Paul’s parents wanted a better life for their son and daughter. They reacted with indifference and incomprehension when Paul got hooked on football — the Toronto Argonauts and Buffalo Bills were his favourite teams — instead of adhering to established cultural norms.
“I looked around, and everyone else’s parents were supportive,” Cheng says. “I was big, and I wanted to play football so bad. My parents said, ‘Do you see other Asian kids on the field. So why do you think you can?’ I dunno. I just thought I could. Everything I’ve done, I’ve had to do on my own.”
Trying to find his niche after his CFL career flopped, Cheng took a run at bobsled (he tried out with the national team in Calgary), went to training camp with the Arena League’s Colorado Crush but didn’t make the team, and suffered through some “dark years” before turning to MMA at the advanced age of 31. “It gave me my life back,” he says.
A Tri-Cities resident who trains at Clinch MMA, Muay Thai and Fitness in Port Coquitlam, Cheng self-financed his martial arts career by working as a stuntman and actor in the movie and television industry. He usually plays a stereotypical Asian gangster, a heavy or a Hun, the role he played in all three versions of Night at the Museum, where Cheng posed on set with the late Robin Williams a few weeks before he took his life.
In July 2014, Cheng fought Mahmoud “Hellboy” Hassan in Taipei, the arena filled with scores of his relatives — including his mom, now thoroughly on-side — supporting the homeland hero now known as “Typhoon Cheng.” Despite a fractured orbital bone that left him virtually blind in one eye, Cheng won the bloody contest in a TKO.
“It was absolute war,” he says. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I realized then that I was mentally tough enough. You can be the greatest athlete in the world. But if your head’s not into it, you’re nothing.”
Last December, in Manila, he was an 11th-hour replacement in a ONE FC championship bout against reigning heavyweight titleholder Brandon “The Truth” Vera, an athlete Cheng had idolized even before going full-time into the sport. Vera knocked him cold with a kick to the jaw after just 26 seconds.
Officially retired from MMA, Cheng explored the WWE option earlier this year at a tryout in Orlando. But he was told he was “too old” to be a novice in professional wrestling and didn’t make the cut.
Given the traditional veneration of old age in Chinese culture, his ability to converse in Mandarin and his football background, Cheng is a godsend for the CAFL. In China — where more than 15 million viewers watched the broadcast of this year’s Super Bowl, and where the game is growing at the grassroots level — he is excited about being in Beijing and catching the wave of another new venture.
“For the first time in my life, my parents are super supportive,” Cheng says.”They’ve bought tickets to my first game. All the things I wished for 15 and 20 years ago are happening now.
“The most important thing I’ve learned in life is to try. Don’t think about it too much. Just do it — and deal with the consequences later.”