Tucker's last play (National Post)
You have all likely seen this piece in today's Journal. But what will likely be of great shock to many is that it was the cover of the National Post's Sports section (with the title "Secondary Route: Eskimos receiver Jason Tucker's last play was as selfless as his career").
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'Miracle’ last play is the touchstone of a selfless career
Mark Spector, National Post Published: Monday, July 28, 2008
EDMONTON -- It was a two-yard catch that should be play-of-the-year material - Jason Tucker making the reception, fumbling the football and then recovering it despite a hit that broke two bones in his neck and nearly paralyzed him.
The Edmonton Eskimos receiver has made a career of the jaw-dropping play but the most amazing might have been the last play of his career. It was more a testament to football instinct than athletic ability. It was muscle memory working, even when his spinal cord temporarily did not.
"That is, like, a miracle," marveled Eskimos defensive back Keith Williams. "It just shows you how much he really wants to win, how much he wants to make that play."
Surely Tucker himself was in a state of semi-consciousness after he had caught a pass over the middle and was felled in a helmet-to-helmet collision by Hamilton's Jykine Bradley.
Tucker dropped the ball on impact. Bradley went down and stayed down. On his way to the turf, Tucker swivelled, fell towards the bouncing ball and brought it in. He did not make another voluntary move for most of 15 minutes, after which he was strapped to a board and driven out of Ivor Wynne Stadium in an ambulance.
"To think that, the state that he was in, he's thinking, ‘I've got to recover the football,'" said his head coach Danny Maciocia. "You've seen so many hits over a lifetime, but I have a tough time watching it now. You watch him lunge out, take the ball and cradle it in. We end up kicking a field goal on the next play, and we won that game by only a few points."
The Eskimos won 19-13. And it would seem Tucker's contribution was his last.
He had surgery on Sunday at Hamilton General Hospital to help correct fractured and dislocated C6 and C7 vertebrae. The Eskimos flew his wife Giesla into Hamilton, and brought his mother from Texas to look after the couple's four daughters in Edmonton.
"This is not about playing football," Maciocia said of the next few months, over which doctors have predicted Tucker will make a full recovery. "He's worried about being a husband, being a father. I can guarantee you that. He knows he's a lucky man. He's no fool.
"He had a great career at [Texas Christian Univerrsity]. He played in the NFL, and came to the CFL and won a couple of Grey Cups. He knows he's got nothing left to prove."
Tucker's was the second season-ending injury suffered by a star player, after defensive lineman Fred Perry broke bones in his foot in a gruesome incident earlier this season. It is just more fodder for the cliché machine, so that we may hear again how "football is a violent game."
Receiver Kamau Peterson, Tucker's roommate on the road, found himself packing Tucker's bags before the team checked out of their Hamilton hotel early Saturday morning. It is something many players will do at some point in their careers, when a friend goes down with the kind of injury that you can't just slap an ice bag on top of.
"To have a career shut off like a light switch?" Peterson said. "I can't imagine it."
And not just any career.
In a town that has seen some mighty fine receivers over the years, Tucker climbed to No. 4 on the Eskimos' all-time list. He is a four-time CFL all-star who has wisely saved and invested his earnings, accruing a cattle farm in his home state of Texas where he spends his winters.
Tucker has always had a place with the Eskimos because, as they used to say in the days of Hugh Campbell and Brian Kelly, when he scored a touchdown he acted as if he had been in the end zone before. His class and production made him the undisputed leader of this team's receiving corps
"I haven't been here long but when you walk into this locker room, you know it right away," Peterson said. "Half of his pregame speeches, when we meet as a unit, it's just, ‘Nothing needs to be said here.' He is so understated.
"[He talks about] how not to act like a fool when you get a touchdown. You can't quantify how much we're going to lose in this locker room."
The CFL has been reborn this summer, after a 2007 season in which the offence and return games went missing. This season has seen intriguing finish after intriguing finish, plenty of points and a renaissance on special teams.
This past weekend alone, the margin of victory in four games combined was 18 points. That's an average spread of less than five points.
But the league lost Bobby Ackles, which is a tragedy. And, almost certainly now, a great, understated receiver will retire to his cattle business down south with the same fanfare he reserved for touchdown celebrations.
That is to say, none.
"We all know it and we take it for granted," said quarterback Ricky Ray, "Every play. It could all be over. It can be a very brutal sport at times."
Newly signed receiver Greg Prator practised with the Eskimos Monday. The game stops for no man.
Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
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'Miracle’ last play is the touchstone of a selfless career
Mark Spector, National Post Published: Monday, July 28, 2008
EDMONTON -- It was a two-yard catch that should be play-of-the-year material - Jason Tucker making the reception, fumbling the football and then recovering it despite a hit that broke two bones in his neck and nearly paralyzed him.
The Edmonton Eskimos receiver has made a career of the jaw-dropping play but the most amazing might have been the last play of his career. It was more a testament to football instinct than athletic ability. It was muscle memory working, even when his spinal cord temporarily did not.
"That is, like, a miracle," marveled Eskimos defensive back Keith Williams. "It just shows you how much he really wants to win, how much he wants to make that play."
Surely Tucker himself was in a state of semi-consciousness after he had caught a pass over the middle and was felled in a helmet-to-helmet collision by Hamilton's Jykine Bradley.
Tucker dropped the ball on impact. Bradley went down and stayed down. On his way to the turf, Tucker swivelled, fell towards the bouncing ball and brought it in. He did not make another voluntary move for most of 15 minutes, after which he was strapped to a board and driven out of Ivor Wynne Stadium in an ambulance.
"To think that, the state that he was in, he's thinking, ‘I've got to recover the football,'" said his head coach Danny Maciocia. "You've seen so many hits over a lifetime, but I have a tough time watching it now. You watch him lunge out, take the ball and cradle it in. We end up kicking a field goal on the next play, and we won that game by only a few points."
The Eskimos won 19-13. And it would seem Tucker's contribution was his last.
He had surgery on Sunday at Hamilton General Hospital to help correct fractured and dislocated C6 and C7 vertebrae. The Eskimos flew his wife Giesla into Hamilton, and brought his mother from Texas to look after the couple's four daughters in Edmonton.
"This is not about playing football," Maciocia said of the next few months, over which doctors have predicted Tucker will make a full recovery. "He's worried about being a husband, being a father. I can guarantee you that. He knows he's a lucky man. He's no fool.
"He had a great career at [Texas Christian Univerrsity]. He played in the NFL, and came to the CFL and won a couple of Grey Cups. He knows he's got nothing left to prove."
Tucker's was the second season-ending injury suffered by a star player, after defensive lineman Fred Perry broke bones in his foot in a gruesome incident earlier this season. It is just more fodder for the cliché machine, so that we may hear again how "football is a violent game."
Receiver Kamau Peterson, Tucker's roommate on the road, found himself packing Tucker's bags before the team checked out of their Hamilton hotel early Saturday morning. It is something many players will do at some point in their careers, when a friend goes down with the kind of injury that you can't just slap an ice bag on top of.
"To have a career shut off like a light switch?" Peterson said. "I can't imagine it."
And not just any career.
In a town that has seen some mighty fine receivers over the years, Tucker climbed to No. 4 on the Eskimos' all-time list. He is a four-time CFL all-star who has wisely saved and invested his earnings, accruing a cattle farm in his home state of Texas where he spends his winters.
Tucker has always had a place with the Eskimos because, as they used to say in the days of Hugh Campbell and Brian Kelly, when he scored a touchdown he acted as if he had been in the end zone before. His class and production made him the undisputed leader of this team's receiving corps
"I haven't been here long but when you walk into this locker room, you know it right away," Peterson said. "Half of his pregame speeches, when we meet as a unit, it's just, ‘Nothing needs to be said here.' He is so understated.
"[He talks about] how not to act like a fool when you get a touchdown. You can't quantify how much we're going to lose in this locker room."
The CFL has been reborn this summer, after a 2007 season in which the offence and return games went missing. This season has seen intriguing finish after intriguing finish, plenty of points and a renaissance on special teams.
This past weekend alone, the margin of victory in four games combined was 18 points. That's an average spread of less than five points.
But the league lost Bobby Ackles, which is a tragedy. And, almost certainly now, a great, understated receiver will retire to his cattle business down south with the same fanfare he reserved for touchdown celebrations.
That is to say, none.
"We all know it and we take it for granted," said quarterback Ricky Ray, "Every play. It could all be over. It can be a very brutal sport at times."
Newly signed receiver Greg Prator practised with the Eskimos Monday. The game stops for no man.
Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
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