8/8/2007 10:04:00 PM
Pressure Cooker

I recall a game last year when I was a member of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, we came into Commonwealth stadium sometime in September to play in what was a meaningless game for us in terms of standings, and I believe we were well out of the playoff picture by that time. Even if we weren’t out of the race mathematically, by that time we had so many coaches fired that Jason Maas should have been receiving two or three paychecks for the amount of coaching and play calling that he had to do. Edmonton at the time needed to win the two games that they played Hamilton in order to have a chance at keeping the infamous playoff streak intact. The Ticats came out and had our best two games that we had played the entire year against the Eskimos and ended up playing spoilers. Believe me I’m not bringing this up to throw salt in unhealed wounds, but I remember the feeling that we felt playing those games, at that time. In Hamilton at that time, the year was such a complete mess, a travesty really from a player standpoint that towards the end, all that we could do was let our hair down play the game. There are few things I can think of more fun to watch than a relaxed, bunch of guys go out and play a child’s game like they have nothing to lose.
PLAY…is the key word there. Amidst all of the lights, contracts, free-agency, traditions, rules and regulations we often forget that this is a game. Less of a job, more of an adventure and it was meant to be played as such. Somewhere down the line from the collegiate to professional ranks players tend to lose sight of that concept, the recess that lies between those painted lines. Some may wonder how something like that could happen. People would give their right arm to do what we do for a month! To lose sight of that, or take it for granted must truly be a crime, and if it isn’t is should be. Part of me would tend to agree, but there’s another side of me as well. The side that has seen the political aspects of football, the “numbers” game, the favorites, media darlings, “can’t miss” draft picks and the “win or go home, what have you done for me lately?” demeanor that the game takes on, the higher the level that you play it at. Wally Buono put it into perspective in my rookie year in Calgary on our way to an 8-10 Grey Cup winning season that saw a plethora of NFL camp discards replacing training camp dorm mates and veterans. He said, “Men, make no mistake about it, you are not paid to play. I can get anybody in here to play; I can get 50 guys off the street to play. You are paid to win.”
This is in no way shape or form the same football game that we used to play on Thanksgiving in the lot down the street with friends. Not the flag football game we may play with buddies when we go home in the off-season, not even the “no guts, no glory” high school game that we all remember so fondly when we were on top of the world. No, this is not that game at all. In this game everybody doesn’t get to play, the best players don’t always make the team, the quarterback is getting fined if he’s caught winking at the cheerleader, and that flashy receiver had better be more substance than flash come game day if he has any hope in getting the money for his little girls braces. This is the game where not only can an injury or suspension cost you a couple weeks salary or bonus money, it can cost you your job since the time you’re not out there doing what put you in that position, someone else may be doing it just a bit better, or worse…just as good for cheaper.
With the last two games going the way that they have, in a city that holds the moniker of “Titletown” I’m surprised that Rob Brown’s was the only outburst this week from this team. Then again, the week is still fairly young I suppose. One of the first things that I noticed when I got here was how serious of a topic Eskimo football is in this town. The whole dynamic of a conversation shifts when football is raised, and it’s not anything to joke about in Edmonton at all. So when a city takes their football that serious, much is expected of you, and not only you but everyone around you. The entire organization feels that pressure, that weight, that stifling expectation to excel trickles down from Head coach, to assistants, to players, to staff. I wouldn’t be surprised if the game day parking folks were a bit concerned about job security. So the question to me becomes, amidst all of that pressure to perform how can we as players find a way to collectively still go out and play free and loose? I’ve yet to see a good team that played stiff and afraid to make a play, or go out on a limb to take a risk in a game for fear of being replaced or benched. So how do they do it? How do WE do it?
I don’t pretend to know the answers to most questions that I ask, and I have millions of them trust me. To me though, the answer to this one is painfully simple because it’s what I’ve been doing all year. There must be a true knowledge of purpose and self in each player. Each of us must know who we are, who we are trying to convey to others, and why we do what we do. Regardless of what we do, I think it’s important to know why we do it. I teach in the offseason in Maryland, and many of the kids that I teach are in far less than admirable home environments to put it mildly. I sat up nights the first week that I started teaching wondering how I would be able to connect with these kids and be able to teach them anything. Football ended up being a wonderful link to them even though they weren’t familiar with the league because of the fact that even as kids, they can relate to the fact that I am paid…just to play. Knowing that I’m a world away playing a game while they go through their own individual struggles is more than enough for me to play with a childlike exuberance. I would be doing them a disservice to play it any other way. When I throw a ball out there in the middle of those kids at recess, they compete. Without instruction, without motivational speeches, without incentive or a collective bargaining agreement they compete. Just like I used to when I was their age, and just like I’ll do as long as I’m playing this game. Now granted, things will change when a game is your main source of income to support your family. A level of seriousness is injected rather quickly into an otherwise jovial situation really, but I do think we can channel that solemn concern into focus, and translate it into our individual performance.
I think that when we can detach ourselves from the extraneous aspects that the game forces upon us at this level and get back in touch with the real reason that we are here, the game will come much easier to us, and with it the wins. Not an easy task by any stretch of the word because pressure and distractions are truly everywhere around us at all times in this game, especially here in Edmonton. It is worth an introspective look however; because the game becomes a lot more fun when it’s played as opposed to tolerated…trust me. ©

KP8