Charting his own Course: Don’t bet against the man they call ‘Amsterdam’
I’m trying to get the pronunciation of Geraldo Boldewijn’s last name just right, but I’m failing.
“BOLD-e-vine?” I ask.
“Yeah… well… I’d say it more like BOLD-e-VEHN,” he says, with the last syllable landing in between the sound of a flat A and a flat E. I try again and he grudgingly gives me a pass on the attempt.
“Really, my last name is hard to pronounce for a lot of people. So, I just give them the option of something easy,” says the BC Lions’ second-year receiver.
“Amsterdam” will do just fine for the 25-year-old native of The Netherlands, who has been getting the nickname pretty regularly since heading to North America in order to take the next steps in football eight years ago.
You know how it goes in sports. Teammates just have to bless you with a nickname. Seemed like a natural one to give the young man when he arrived in Boise, Idaho back in 2008, where he played one year of high school football before joining the Boise State University Broncos.
“I don’t mind the name Amsterdam,” Boldewijn says. “I take great pride in being from Amsterdam. I always try to remind myself where I’m from. I’m trying to do my best to represent Amsterdam as best as possible.”
Atlanta Falcons starting QB Matt Ryan had high praise when asked about his former receiver and current BC Lion Geraldo Boldewijn (Photo: Atlanta Falcons)
“Amsterdam just continued to get better while he was here. You could see his development every time we hit the field during camp. He had such a large catch radius, I know the quarterbacks enjoyed throwing to him.”
– Atlanta Falcons starting QB and former teammate Matt Ryan
Amsterdam is sounding relaxed and laid back, fitting right in with the culture of the West Coast. He likes Vancouver, even if its mountainous backdrop is far different from home.
“It’s way different from Amsterdam because Amsterdam is super flat,” he chuckles. “It’s the same kind of weather, though. Amsterdam gets pretty rainy as well.”
“It’s been really good being out here,” Boldewijn says. “I feel very comfortable in that orange,” he laughs, when asked about the Lions’ predominant colour, one that suits his home country’s sensibilities perfectly. “Oh yeah.”
Boldewijn is in a bit of a precarious position with the Lions these days. Maybe precarious isn’t the exact word for it; “challenging” might be better and you’ll see why as you read further.
After starting six games this season – he first cracked the lineup in Week 6 after appearing in two late-season games in 2015 – Boldewijn will be relegated to backing up Terrell Sinkfield when the Lions meet the Eskimos Friday night. Sinkfield, the former Ticat and Argo, was signed by the team this week and the Lions are opting to toss his speed into the receiving mix for the Edmonton game.
For a guy who came overseas as a teenager (with little command of the English language at the time) looking to improve his football skills, it’s just another chapter in the adventure of a flag football player charting a course for pro football success.
Precarious? Nah. Challenging, sure. And Boldewijn is always up for that.
“I’m always trying to get something out of the competitiveness,” Boldewijn says when asked to react to the addition of Sinkfield to the Lions’ roster. “It keeps you sharp and it’s part of the job. You’ve always got to stay competing. There’s always new guys out there that will kill to get this job.”
Boldewijn knows that well, having tried out for the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons after he competed for and won a wide receiver’s job at Boise State. His stint at Falcons’ training camp – chronicled, in part, for the television show “Hard Knocks” – taught him some crucial lessons. “And while he didn’t make the Falcons’ roster, he impressed enough to earn some kind words from Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan, who had this to say about Boldewijn when contacted by CFL.ca for a quick quote:
“Amsterdam just continued to get better while he was here. You could see his development every time we hit the field during camp, and I know we all thought he had some real upside. He had such a large catch radius, I know the quarterbacks enjoyed throwing to him.”
Boldewijn is energized when told of Ryan’s kind words. “That’s pretty awesome, man,” he says, brightly. “I have nothing but good things to say about Matt Ryan and all those guys I got to work with for the time that I was there.” He pauses a moment and then continues. “It’s really motivating as well. It’s good to hear.”
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At 6-foot-4 and 214 pounds, Geraldo Boldewijn is even bigger than BCs’ bulldozer of a slotback Manny Arceneaux. The Lions, it seems, want Amsterdam to play a little more like The Manny Show. It’s an adjustment for Boldewijn, who’s played wide receiver most of his life and has been used to the feel of the game out along the rail.
You know how it is in the CFL, though. Adapt or perish. Boldewijn is up for this new detour and says he’s doing his level best to give Head Coach Wally Buono what he wants.
“When he talks, he’s got a message,” he says of Buono. “You’ve gotta listen to him when he’s talking. I really believe what he’s saying.
“It’s a bunch of stuff that I’ve gotta work on,” Boldewijn adds when asked to expand the point. “I’ve always been so comfortable on the outside and now I’m playing a different kind of position. It hasn’t been too bad but it’s just so much to learn.”
Learning is something that Boldewijn has been doing so much of when it comes to football, pushing his own comfort zone in order to improve.
That included expanding his horizons – literally – by travelling to Idaho as a teenager in order to take part in a Boise football camp, long before he caught on with a high school team there. He and a few buddies saved up for the trip, choosing Boise because they knew that another native of The Netherlands – linebacker Cedric Febis – was already there and playing for Boise State.
“It was just something I’d never experienced before,” Boldewijn says of the venture. “There were so many football players and for a whole week all we did was play football.”
Ever since he was enticed to come out to a flag football practice as a kid, Boldewijn has loved the game and been trying to get better at it. Watching the Amsterdam Admirals play in NFL Europe solidified his desire and fuelled a motivation to fulfill his wishes.
“I just started falling more and more in love with the game,” he says. “I was going to represent Amsterdam at the Amsterdam Arena. That was the only thing that mattered at the time.”
Boldewijn’s favourite player, as a kid, was not a receiver but, rather, a linebacker by the name of Akwasi Mensah, a Dutch native who cracked the Admirals’ line-up in 2006 and 2007. “He was my idol,” says Boldewijn, who might well have been a linebacker himself had he bulked up a bit.
However, catching the football was his thing, not trying to separate receivers from it. The camp in Boise paid off. He met a family that would become his billet hosts when he returned to play one year at Capital High School. Next, it was Boise State, where he became a teammate of the aforementioned Febis. Along the way, Boldewijn learned and polished his English, making him a four-tool man when it comes to language (Dutch, German and Surinamese being the others). “I think just opening up and talking to people was the hardest part at first,” he says of the adjustment.
Now, faced with another adjustment to make and fighting for his spot with the Lions, Boldewijn seems quite accepting of that fact and maybe that ought not to be surprising, considering his history. Flag football to tackle football. The Netherlands to Idaho. Dutch to English. Four downs to three downs and now outside receiver to slot.
“That’s pretty much the world we live in,” he says. “That’s how it goes.
“I can only control my own play. All I can really worry about is making sure that I do my job when I’m on the field.
“I think it’s only gonna get better from here on,” says Boldewijn.
Considering the route he’s taken so far and the determination needed to stay on that course, it might be unwise to bet against the man they call Amsterdam.
