Robservations: Cutdown day is “the worst part of the job” … you’ve Gotta read this story! … memories of Dad and a father figure
C.J. Reavis vows to ring in the month of June without hearing a ring.
“I’m not going to lie. I’ve got PTSD, man,” the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ standout linebacker joked with reporters leading up to June 1 — the CFL’s final cutdown deadline.
“I’ve been cut so many times, so I still keep my phone on silent and I don’t tell anyone to call me.”
Alas, that call will come today for many players throughout the league as rosters are reduced in preparation for regular-season play.
“Everybody thinks, ‘Finally, we have the team put together,’ but you develop bonds with guys who end up getting released,” quarterback Trevor Harris said following a practice at Mosaic Stadium.
“These guys have dreams to don the green and white and run out here and listen to Bring ’Em Out and play in front of this fan base. Not only that, there are professional football dreams in general.
“Sometimes, that’s the last day that those guys will have getting to play the game. They’ve chased this dream for so long. They’ve devoted their lives to it. So it’s a day when I try and be around. That way, I can at least talk to people.
“Inevitably, that day comes for almost everybody. Very rarely do you get to walk away on your own terms and very rarely do you find someone who has never been released or told ‘no.’
“It’s one of those situations where it builds character and it reveals it, really. A lot of guys will have that day, but it’s about how they’re going to respond to it and what happens to them in the future.”
Harris was rudely introduced to cutdown day on Sept. 4, 2010, when he was among 18 players (including future CFL standouts Chad Kackert and Clarence Denmark) who got the dreaded call from a Jacksonville Jaguars football-operations staffer.
“When I got cut in the NFL, I thought it was the worst thing that could happen to me,” Harris recalled. “It was one of those situations where, ‘Why would I get so far to this dream and have it taken away from me?’ ”
Here he is, 14 years later, as the CFL’s all-time leader in completion percentage (70.6), Harris needs only 116 aerial yards to reach 30,000 for his career.
Six days before Harris was waived by Jacksonville, a 24-year-old defensive lineman named Corey Mace signed a CFL contract with the Calgary Stampeders.
Mace had begun his pro career with the Buffalo Bills, with whom he spent three seasons before his time in the NFL concluded.
Now, as the Roughriders’ first-year head coach, he is being introduced to the unpleasant, but unavoidable, task of cutting players.
“Having those hard conversations, it’s never been easy,” Mace said. “Myself as a player, I sat in that seat before. There’s not much you can hear that’s going to make you feel any better about the situation.
“I just try to be as honest as possible with those guys and really thank them, because a lot of those guys have put in a lot of work.
“We ask a lot of these guys and it’s much- appreciated not only from myself, but also from everybody in the organization.
“It’s never easy. I know it’s a cliché, but it’s probably the worst part of the job. But it’s part of it. It’s the game that we chose. “
CUTTING-EDGE HUMOUR
A mere 30 years ago, Jack Gotta told me some stories that were, well, a cut above.
One tale dated back another 30 years, to the time when Bob Shaw was the Roughriders’ head coach and Gotta was a veteran receiver.
“Guys would pretend to be Shaw,” Gotta recalled in a long-ago interview for a story that appeared in the best-selling, June 10, 1994 edition of the Regina Leader-Post.
“They would phone other players and say, ‘I want to see you in my office — and bring your playbook.’ The player would think, ‘I’ve been cut!’
“One time, Shaw told a guy, ‘Now that you’re here, I might as well do it,’ and he cut the guy, anyway. That actually happened!”
Jocko also shared a story from the late 1960s, when he was an assistant coach with the Ottawa Rough Riders.
It turned out that the eastern Riders’ training-camp roster included a player who had been cut by an NFL team for shooting a teammate. However, the Ottawa club’s brass did not find about the situation until after the potentially trigger-happy training-camp invitee had begun his CFL audition.
“We didn’t know what would happen when it came time to cut this guy,” Gotta said. “We decided to pretend to weigh everybody. They all stripped down to their shorts and went into another room to be weighed.
“When he went to be weighed, I went to his locker to see if he had a gun. I went through everything. I didn’t find a gun, but I did find some sunglasses.
“I felt like a fool, but I’d do anything for the football club.”
REMEMBERING DAD … AND MY OTHER DAD
June 1 is always a day of reflection — and, once upon a time, utter dejection.
Dad died on June 1, 1982, which happened to be the 38th birthday of someone I came to regard (and revere) as a father figure.
So here’s to Alan Vanstone and Bob Hughes.
Until Dad passed away, the worst day of my life was Nov. 28, 1976.
I was at Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium for the 1976 Grey Cup Game, in which Ottawa defeated Saskatchewan 23-20 on the strength of a last-minute touchdown reception by Tony Gabriel.
Yeah, I’ll admit it … I cried.
Not another tear was shed by yours truly until the devastating dawn of June, in 1982.
Dad suffered a massive heart attack in the middle of the night, a month shy of his 62nd birthday.
How is that 42 years ago? It still seems like 42 minutes ago.
I can take you through every hour of that dreadful day, which fell barely two months after I had turned 18.
At that point in your life, you think your parents will live forever. It is difficult to imagine turning 30, let alone (gulp) 60.
As bothersome as the inexorable aging process can be, there is something to be said for the passage of time.
It can be a healer. And it does provide perspective.
More than four decades after losing Dad, I can look back on his life — and on my time with him — without a twinge of sadness.
I am able to laugh at his Dad jokes, uttered long before they were categorized as such, and fully comprehend and appreciate everything he did for me.
When I was a kid, I didn’t even realize how much my father was helping me.
He instilled in me a love of reading, which ignited a passion for the written word.
At that point, I thought it was as simple as me liking to read. But that, in hindsight, was the first step toward a career goal, its ultimate attainment and, well, the composition of this column.
A voracious reader himself, Dad made it clear that I had an unlimited budget (!!!) if I wanted to buy a book, a magazine or, yes, a newspaper.
That brings us to Robert Lachlan Hughes.
Nearly four years after Dad passed away, I worked my first of 12,000-plus shifts in the Leader-Post’s sports department.
Bob was the sports editor and THE sports columnist. The best ever.
When he walked by my desk, en route to his spot in the southwest corner of the newsroom, I was often tempted to ask for his autograph.
It was like Elvis, or someone of comparable renown, had entered the building.
Growing up, I idolized Ron Lancaster, George Reed, Joey Walters, Dennis Sobchuk, Ed Staniowski, Dan Kroffat (Stampede Wrestling), Gary Carter, Steve Rogers, David Thompson (Denver Nuggets), Harvey Mazinke (1973 Brier champion), Steve Watson (Denver Broncos), Gerry Cheevers, Bernie Parent and the great Bob Hughes.
To me, Bob was (and always will be) a legend.
Like my father, Bob died suddenly, and all too soon. He left us at 69, a mere 19 days before the Roughriders’ landmark home-field Grey Cup victory in 2013.
Today, he would be 80.
Happy birthday, Bob, from Alan Vanstone’s son.
ROLL CREDITS …
- Nice people who deserve a plug: Alan Vanstone (July 1, 1920-June 1, 1982), Bob Hughes (June 1, 1944-Nov. 5, 2013), Laura Steadman, Tim Young, Sean Young, Tim Albin, Jeremiah Covington, Sarah Newgarde, Dan Kroffat, Steve Watson, Steve Rogers, Dennis Sobchuk, Ed Staniowski, Joey Walters, Harvey Mazinke, Rob Vanderhooft, Dave Pettigrew, Dohnte Meyers, Antoine Brooks Jr., Nelson Lokombo, Lake Korte-Moore, Kosi Onyeka, Jameer Thurman, Brett Lauther, Trevor Harris, Don Hewitt, Geoff Hughes, Ryan Hughes, Peter Hughes, Barbara Barootes, Josh Robins, Joe Robustelli, Anthony Partipilo, Scott McKenzie, Brad Schwartz, Craig Smith, Cathy Smith and, with the best birthday wishes, Cyndi Cherney.
