Life as a Rookie (Week 9) Part 12 of 23

Week 9 Labour day Classic. Battle of Alberta at its finest, rivalries renewed if there was a game you wanted to lose it was this one. Mindset "be careful" thinking of what happened in earlier weeks my focus was to stay up. Some teammates were not pleased, I caught some grief by some of them voicing their opinion to me. With that in mind, I tried to be as careful as possible while still getting some work done. We were serving up the kick-off return team and usually I'm on the outside at the 1 or 2 spot responsible for contain. However, this time I was on the inside at the 5 position the wedge buster. Puzzled because I'm nowhere near the body type of a wedge buster. To add to the equation, our 2 man wedge was probably the best in the league, big and mean they rolled over everyone who stood in their way. With that in mind, I ran down knowing the odds I pulled up before contact. Now, 400 plus pounds is a big load to take on when you don't even weigh 200lbs. They knocked me off balance and I was trying to recover and would have if they held me up. But, they finished the deal and put me down, T.J our all-star returner was behind and tried to jump over the pile. With bodies rolling he didn't make it, he got his foot caught between legs and went down. Getting up now everyone looking at me I knew where the blame was gonna fall, given my past history in recent weeks. I was going so soft and being cautious of this situation and it all back fired. One veteran, who had not seen the play because he was blocking started yelling at me in a very disrespectful tone. Vet or no vet you don't talk to someone like that. What was I to say? T.J was rolling on the ground with trainers around him. I was in no position to say anything. Forced to swallow my pride I said nothing, pulled away from other fellow vets to prevent the situation from escalating. I was taken off every special team that day. I felt horrible, I was in the gutter.

After practice as I was getting undressed I was visited by KP. Calm mannered he sat down beside me and said, "Listen Sammy I know you want to get in, your young and hungry I like that. But, you made the team! There is no need to go hard like that in training camp. You got to settle down. I've seen guys handed their walking papers over situations just like this. I need you to learn the practice tempos." He was right! What he said really hit home. I really appreciated the mannerism in which he spoke to me, because some other veterans were not that respectful. I told him I was going to make an effort to learn. Before this incident my style was like a light switch 100% or 0%. I had to find my dimmer.

The next day the status update on T.J informed us he had a sprained ankle and was on crutches. Feeling so bad, I couldn't even look at him. Reporters swarmed as he crutched to his locker, 8 lockers down I watched from mine in embarrassment. It was the story of the week. Coach was mad at me, and though he did not say anything, I could feel it. I took out his guy and forced him to shuffle the line up. I was reverted to minimal duties on special teams, if not pulled completely off the team. This had to be the worst week by far!

Game Day. Some non-dressing players made the trip up to Calgary for the game. Feeling low about what happened I did not attend. Nervously I watched, hoping we wouldn't need one of T.J's big returns to win. The game seemed to be tight but lead by the defense and some turnovers, our offense took advantage and put the game away. To my relief we were able to win even after losing another player. Esks win 37-16.