Camp Stories
this was in today's Nat Post... written by Daved Benefield. It's a pretty good read... funny and insightful!
Makes me wonder if someone like Mobes or Wad or ?? would be willing to do something for this site?
*****
This ain't the camp your mother told you about
Daved Benefield
CanWest News Service
May 27, 2005
Daved Benefield, who plays for the CFL's Saskatchewan Roughriders and is a former B.C. Lion, filed this column for Vancouver newspaper The Province in which he provides a player's perspective on training camp.
- - -
Training camp. A place where it's bring your "A" game or you get sent back to the house. Period! Training camp in Canada is tough. The weather can be cold and dreary it's not what you are used to for summer camp.
The first training camp is a blur: New surroundings, new game, new coaches, new rules, and new players. You have never really heard of any of these guys unless you've done some research. It's not like you see any commercials with CFL players in the states. You don't see any players' homes on MTV Cribs, or Funk Master Flex getting calls from guys to find a '68 Lincoln Continental convertible to hook up.
No, this is the CFL, and the CFL is like the basketball court you've barely heard of except there are all these ballers that are legends in these parts. You got quarterbacks that can move like Michael Vick or get surgical on your tail like Tom Brady. Oh it's real yo.
The coaches/GM's you never heard of, cut deals like prosecutors plea bargain. Camp is work. The games are about game time speed. I don't care what you ran in a 40-yard dash, what can you do when its real time? I've seen practice all-stars, who go missing in real games. You say you were all-world at some big NCAA school? You were in what NFL camp? None of that can save you now. "Potential is a coach killer." A wise man used to drop that line on me like the Last Poets slam rhymes on the corner.
Camp is not some goofy reality show either. When you get cut, numbers and e-mails are exchanged as if you will ever hear from the lost souls again. You are a memory that continues fading as the days go by. Will they reminisce over you? Pour beer onto the curb in your loving memory? Maybe, but I doubt it.
The camp for some guys is the first taste of the real world. You find out that pro football is not family. When mom burned the toast she didn't get traded. When your brother failed stats he didn't get cut. When dad wasn't bringing it right on Friday night mom didn't go to the draft to bring in some youth. No, this is a business. It's a game to the players but it's a business to those who sit in quiet rooms and make cold hard decisions.
Then again, the Cup is a cold piece of steel.
In camp you run into Joes from all walks of life. There are the Joes from the Deep South who have never travelled far. Then they arrive to camp and hear the word "boys" and the hairs on the back of their necks stands up. Then there's the Joe "I am Canadian," sitting in a room filled with American blackness and watching him try to process for once in his life being the minority. Hey Joe, you went to school and had, what, two black kids in the whole school? Now you're in a meeting room and the script has been flipped. This ain't the OC or Degrassi.
Guys find Jesus at camp. Some mornings when you are heading to breakfast the chapel group is huge -- must be cut day. I wish Jesus could sit in on contract negotiations. If the devil came to camp and could guarantee a trip to the big show I know there are some GM's and coaches that would sign him. They would lean into his ear and whisper: "Hey son just keep those horns covered and win baby"
Until you have been to camp you can't really appreciate the game. Camp is where is life begins and ends.
© National Post 2005
Makes me wonder if someone like Mobes or Wad or ?? would be willing to do something for this site?
*****
This ain't the camp your mother told you about
Daved Benefield
CanWest News Service
May 27, 2005
Daved Benefield, who plays for the CFL's Saskatchewan Roughriders and is a former B.C. Lion, filed this column for Vancouver newspaper The Province in which he provides a player's perspective on training camp.
- - -
Training camp. A place where it's bring your "A" game or you get sent back to the house. Period! Training camp in Canada is tough. The weather can be cold and dreary it's not what you are used to for summer camp.
The first training camp is a blur: New surroundings, new game, new coaches, new rules, and new players. You have never really heard of any of these guys unless you've done some research. It's not like you see any commercials with CFL players in the states. You don't see any players' homes on MTV Cribs, or Funk Master Flex getting calls from guys to find a '68 Lincoln Continental convertible to hook up.
No, this is the CFL, and the CFL is like the basketball court you've barely heard of except there are all these ballers that are legends in these parts. You got quarterbacks that can move like Michael Vick or get surgical on your tail like Tom Brady. Oh it's real yo.
The coaches/GM's you never heard of, cut deals like prosecutors plea bargain. Camp is work. The games are about game time speed. I don't care what you ran in a 40-yard dash, what can you do when its real time? I've seen practice all-stars, who go missing in real games. You say you were all-world at some big NCAA school? You were in what NFL camp? None of that can save you now. "Potential is a coach killer." A wise man used to drop that line on me like the Last Poets slam rhymes on the corner.
Camp is not some goofy reality show either. When you get cut, numbers and e-mails are exchanged as if you will ever hear from the lost souls again. You are a memory that continues fading as the days go by. Will they reminisce over you? Pour beer onto the curb in your loving memory? Maybe, but I doubt it.
The camp for some guys is the first taste of the real world. You find out that pro football is not family. When mom burned the toast she didn't get traded. When your brother failed stats he didn't get cut. When dad wasn't bringing it right on Friday night mom didn't go to the draft to bring in some youth. No, this is a business. It's a game to the players but it's a business to those who sit in quiet rooms and make cold hard decisions.
Then again, the Cup is a cold piece of steel.
In camp you run into Joes from all walks of life. There are the Joes from the Deep South who have never travelled far. Then they arrive to camp and hear the word "boys" and the hairs on the back of their necks stands up. Then there's the Joe "I am Canadian," sitting in a room filled with American blackness and watching him try to process for once in his life being the minority. Hey Joe, you went to school and had, what, two black kids in the whole school? Now you're in a meeting room and the script has been flipped. This ain't the OC or Degrassi.
Guys find Jesus at camp. Some mornings when you are heading to breakfast the chapel group is huge -- must be cut day. I wish Jesus could sit in on contract negotiations. If the devil came to camp and could guarantee a trip to the big show I know there are some GM's and coaches that would sign him. They would lean into his ear and whisper: "Hey son just keep those horns covered and win baby"
Until you have been to camp you can't really appreciate the game. Camp is where is life begins and ends.
© National Post 2005
...bugger, trying to take my job 
.
He must've read "How to be Black for Dummies" 
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