I come to praise the downfield tacklers, the men who have too often been buried when it comes to end of the year accolades.
They get a little love, sure. But not the prestige and glory of the other special teams stars; the punters and place kickers and certainly not those returners. They head down field at full speed, shedding blocks and zeroing in on some of the most dangerous ball carriers in all of football. All the while they are subjected to all manner of obstacle, both fair and foul. It’s like Mad Max out there, every time they sprint downfield.
Let’s send some love the way of those suicide-squad demons and give them more of the celebration they deserve.
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» News: 2016 CFL team award winners revealed
A downfield tackler will not win the CFL’s Outstanding Special Teams Player Award this year. How do I know? None were nominees for their respective teams in 2016. It’s all kickers and returners.
Moreover, even if one of them did get a team nomination, he still would not win. How do I know that? Because no cover man has ever won the award since it came into existence in 1999. That includes two players who jointly hold the CFL single season special teams tackles record with 37.
Neither of them even got to rent a tux and take a trip to the awards show as a division finalist, believe it or not.
The CFL’s Most Outstanding Special Teams Player Award was first handed out in 1999, with BC’s Jimmy “The Jet” Cunningham, a returner extraordinaire, getting the goods. There were no team nominees announced in that category, nor were there for the following two years of the award’s existence. That changed in 2002 when Montreal’s Keith Stokes and Saskatchewan’s Corey Holmes – both returners – were named as finalists.
That first year, 1999, is of particular interest because it’s the year that Winnipeg’s Wade Miller – now the team’s president – set the CFL single season record for special teams tackles with 37. He didn’t get the Eastern nod for special teams player that year because there was no nod. The Bombers finished last in the East in 1999. Had Miller been nominated, he’d at least have gotten a flight to Vancouver and a swanky dinner to erase the taste of a six-win season. Miller didn’t even get the East’s nomination for Outstanding Canadian that year because the guy who now works for him, Mike O’Shea, did.
Surely the miscarriage of special teams justice of 1999 must have been rectified, you say, when Hamilton Ticats’ ace return-defuser Dylan Barker tied Miller’s record in 2009, finishing off 37 returners that year. No it did not as Barker was overlooked as the East’s nominee, in favour of Larry Taylor, who piled up 1,972 return yards for Montreal.
That same year, there was a breakthrough when BC’s Jason Arakgi – who became the CFL’s all-time leading special teams tackler this season – became the first non kicker or returner to be a divisional nominee. He lost to Taylor, too, despite his own impressive tally of 35 special teams tackles that season.
Since 2002, there’s been a grand total of two special teams award finalists that were not kickers or returners. Other than Arakgi, Hamilton’s Marc Beswick made the grade, doing so in 2013 after making 24 special teams tackles and adding a forced fumble as well as a touchdown on a fake field goal. Beswick was beaten out by Calgary’s Rene Paredes, who connected on 54 of 57 field goal attempts that year.
Those were two very worthy recipients, Taylor and Paredes. Arakgi and Beswick were too, as were Miller and Barker and a whole whack of team nominees over the years that never even made it to division nominee status. That’s the good news in all of this, for those who appreciate special teams grunts; Other than this season, there are usually a few tacklers nominated on behalf of their teams, sometimes as many as four.
That actually happened last year, with Edmonton’s Deon Lacey, Ottawa’s Antoine Pruneau, Saskatchewan’s Dylan Ainsworth and Toronto’s Brian Rolle being picked.
Mike Miller leads the league in special teams tackles with 27 (Walter Tychnowicz/CFL.ca)
Maybe this year the suicide-squad demons aren’t deserving of the award.
Super-returners like Chris Rainey, Stefan Logan and Brandon Banks are in the mix as are super-toes, Justin Medlock, Paredes and Sean Whyte. If 37 special teams tackles in a year don’t get you to the podium, I guess 27 won’t either.
Edmonton fullback Mike Miller has suited up for 16 games this season. He has zero rushes for zero yards and his receiving totals are exactly the same as that. If you ask any of his teammates how much of a contribution he’s made, I’ll bet you every one of them will sing his praises. That’s because Miller leads the CFL is special teams tackles with 27, and that’s a very, very good number. However, his teammate, Whyte, is having himself a terrific season too, and his contributions seem more apparent to the average observer.
Hamilton’s Frederic Plesius has 23 tackles on specials, Montreal’s Nicolas Boulay and Calgary’s Glenn Love each have 21. Take a look at the list of special teams tackle leaders and you’ll see Arakgi’s and Lacey’s names, along with the likes of other veterans; James Yurichuk and Daryl Townsend. Adam Thibault and Kyler Elsworth. Along with youngsters like Llevi Noel, Nick Shortill and Garrett Waggoner. They’re all football’s versions of Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men.” We want them on that wall. We need them on that wall.
The CFL’s masters of the dark football arts deserve more recognition.
How do we give it to them?
I’m not suggesting that the CFL add another award to the list, one for special teams return killers.
Wait, yes I am.
I realize some may be loathe to add another trophy category to awards night and I understand that. I have another fix, however, and it would be as simple as adding a line to the all-star media release. We already have spots for an all-star punter, placekicker and returner. Oh, it’s called “all-star special teams player,” but let’s be clear about that.
Every year since 1986, the CFL’s league-wide special teams all-star berth has been given to a returner (some divisional spots have been given to tacklers over the years and hallelujah for that). How about adding a category for an all-star special teams tackler? Or encompass what a lot of these men do on both cover and return teams and give it to someone not only for their tackling prowess but for their abilities when it comes to key blocks in springing return men? We’d have a yearly all-star returner AND a yearly all-star special teams player.
Kickers get the spotlight for good and bad. Heroes when they split ’em, bums when they don’t. Returners get the same kind of treatment, I suppose. Standing ovations when they navigate a seam for a big one, a round of boos when they fumble.
The downfield tacklers get next to nothing, toiling in relative obscurity as they play their trade in the dark shadows of kick team coverage. There are dangerous, soul-breaking conditions on every kick and every punt and most all of the men who do it – and do it well – throw themselves into the work with vigour, energy and usually a smiling face.
Let’s praise one, every year, for his season-long accomplishments.
And buy Wade Miller and Dylan Barker a beer if you see them at this year’s Grey Cup.
