The rivalry between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders has nothing on the battles that Cameron Marshall has experienced.
His older sister, Dahlys, and his younger brother, Byron, saw to that.
“I didn’t beat my sister in a race until eighth grade; that’s a true story,” Cameron, the Roughriders’ tailback, said with a chuckle Friday after the CFL team practised at Mosaic Stadium. “She won one or two national championships growing up, so she was tough to beat — and she’d let me know about it.
“Then I did my best to hold off my brother as long as possible. I’m still doing that now in the things I can hold him off in.”
The Bombers and Roughriders will meet Sunday at Mosaic Stadium in the 53rd edition of the Labour Day Classic, a contest that regularly gets both teams — and both fan bases — fired up regardless of the teams’ respective records. Game time Sunday is 2 p.m.
The Marshalls’ sibling rivalries aren’t as old as the one between Winnipeg and Saskatchewan, but they may be as deep-seated.
Consider, for example, that Dahlys ran track for the University of Arizona Wildcats at the same time that Cameron played tailback for the Arizona State University Sun Devils. The schools have a bitter in-state rivalry — and the Marshalls played an active role in it.
“She’s one of the biggest trash-talkers I know,” Cameron said. “She’d be at every Arizona State-Arizona game, so she’d make sure she was talking all the trash.
“She’d always support me and hope I had a good game, but she’d always hope her team beat mine. That was a lot of fun between us, the whole back and forth. I’d do the same thing at track meets.”
All three of Greg and Tammie Marshall’s kids ran track growing up, so the children attended each other’s meets. The same rule applied when they all played basketball and when the boys played football.
But while there were some rivalries between the siblings, there wasn’t any animosity.
“We were all each other’s biggest fans,” Cameron said. “(The boys) would run first because of our age groups, so my sister would watch our races and then we would watch hers.
“She’d be at all of our football games, cheering loud. And I’ve always loved watching my brother play; that’s one of my favourite things to do.”
Now 27, Dahlys is two years older than Cameron and four years older than Byron.
Dahlys was a sprinter and hurdler at Arizona, where she once ran the sixth-fastest women’s 100-metre hurdles race in school history.
Cameron played four seasons at Arizona State and finished with 2,700 yards rushing and 38 touchdowns and 558 yards receiving and two TDs over 49 career games.
He had NFL stints with the Miami Dolphins, Seattle Seahawks and Jacksonville Jaguars and a CFL stop in Winnipeg before signing with the Roughriders in February.
Byron played collegiately at the University of Oregon, where he rushed for 1,877 yards and 19 touchdowns and added 1,293 yards receiving and eight scores. He was the first player in Pac-12 history to have more than 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 yards receiving in his career.
Byron signed as an undrafted free agent with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2016 and spent the majority of that season on their practice squad. He’s hoping for an expanded role with Philly this season.
The Marshall brothers played one season together in high school (Cameron was a senior when Byron was a freshman) and were opponents for one season in college (Cameron was in his last year and Byron was in his first). Nowadays, their rivalry goes on the back burner when they train together in the off-season.
“He does some things better than me and I do some things better than him,” Cameron said. “It’s good to work with somebody who does those things better so we can better our games. It’s all about making each other better and trying to be the best player that we can be.”
Ironically, Cameron channelled Dahlys — not Byron — during Saskatchewan’s 54-31 victory over the Edmonton Eskimos on Aug. 25.
Quarterback Kevin Glenn was under heavy pressure when he dumped the ball to Marshall at the Eskimos’ 21-yard line. The tailback took off toward the Edmonton goal line and, as he got closer, two defenders converged.
At the five-yard line, Marshall jumped like a hurdler — and landed in the end zone for a TD.
“I was honestly going to try to lower my shoulder, but they had gone really low, so I said, ‘All right, well …,’ ’’ Marshall said after the game. “I was doing my best Dahlys Marshall impression. I saw they went low and I didn’t want to get stuffed at the goal line, so I just tried to make a play. It ended up working out.”
Bringing in Marshall has worked out well for the Roughriders.
The 5-foot-11, 215-pounder went into Week 11 as the CFL’s fifth-leading rusher (434 yards on 81 carries) and he was fourth on the team in receptions (29) and receiving yards (278). Adding 20 yards on kickoff returns gives him a team-best 732 combined yards.
He also has proved to be an eager participant in pass protection.
“I just try to go out there every week, do my best and leave it all on the field,” he said. “When everyone does that, that gives us all the best chance to win.”
