Arden Zwelling
CFL.ca
Ugly stereotype or not, professional athletes aren’t often noted for their literary interests. Especially when it comes to football players.
But don’t go lumping B.C. Lions rookie wide receiver Akeem Foster into that group.
“Literature and philosophy is very important to me. I keep quotes from Immanuel Kant all over my room,” Foster said. “[Kant] believes that a man always has a purpose and his purpose is to be the best a man can possibly be. That’s what I live by.”
Foster’s extracurricular interests are just one of the CFL’s many unique features. Most homegrown players have gone through the Canadian university system for four or five years and emerged with degrees in everything from social sciences to law.
Foster took sociology at St. Francis Xavier University, where he also fell in love with literature, especially that of American novelist and poet Langston Hughes.
Foster is around half way through working through Hughes’ sprawling body of works, but credits the African-American activist’s iconic poem “A Dream Deferred” for much of his inspiration in football.
“That poem has always been my motto. Hold fast to dreams no matter the hardships – no matter anything. If you hold onto your dreams everything will work out for itself,” Foster said. “That poem really keeps me centred.”
Foster – who the Lions selected in the fourth round, 25th overall, of the 2010 CFL entry draft – has carried those words with him throughout his career, from high school in Ajax, Ontario to St. Francis Xavier where Foster landed on the CFL’s radar.
“My time there was absolutely phenomenal. I owe all my success to the time I played at St. Francis Xavier. The people there, the community there – they took me up and made me one of their own,” Foster said.
The gregarious Foster was so endeared by the St. Francis Xavier community that they named a sandwich after him in one of the campus’ cafeterias. The Akeem Foster sandwich isn’t the healthiest choice on campus – it features chicken fingers with bacon, mayonnaise, lettuce and tomatoes – but it has cemented Foster’s legacy at the Antigonish, Nova Scotia university.
“I still have my X on the back of my shoulder pads. I love that place,” Foster said. “St. Francis Xavier doesn’t get a lot of press but we hold it down at X.”
Despite his success on the east coast, Foster’s time with the X-Men was more of a roller coaster than a honeymoon cruise.
After being named the X-Men’s 2006 rookie of the year for racking up 18 receptions, 333 yards and a touchdown, Foster fell into trouble academically and was forced to sit out his entire sophomore season in order to pull up his marks.
Of course, in his third year Foster returned with a substantial chip on his shoulder and took it out on the rest of the AUS, piling on 32 catches, 574 yards and three touchdowns in his first of two all-star seasons.
In his final season in 2009, Foster continued to improve on his numbers, hauling in 37 catches for 595 yards and four touchdowns. He credited his career year to the influence of first-year X-Men head coach Gary Waterman, who was formerly Foster’s wide receivers coach.
“I remember going into my senior year, Coach Waterman sat me down and he said ‘Akeem, it’s time to take that step. It’s time to be a great player,’” Foster said. “The coaching staff at St. FX helped me tremendously to take the next step to a CFL career. Getting my mind right and preparing everyday like a professional really helped me.”
It was that 2009 All-Canadian season that really put Foster on the CFL’s radar and saw him vault all the way up to fifth on the CFL Scouting Bureau’s Top 15 Prospects list.
It also meant a lot of hype surrounding the young kid from Ajax who no one in the AUS could cover.
Foster was expected to use his lethal combination of size and speed to develop into a marquee CFL receiver. That’s why some observers have been scratching their heads at the fact the 23-year-old has spent much of his time this year on the Lions’ practice roster.
Of course, Foster has no problem with that. If his turbulent time in the CIS has taught him anything, it’s that you have to be patient.
“You go from being the man at one place to another team where you have to work your way up again. I understand that,” Foster said.
“All the hype is good and everything but it’s nothing close to the expectations that I put on myself. I’ve always been that type of person that thinks that you can always work on something. You can always get better. You can always improve yourself. That’s what I try to do every day.”
Plus, it’s tough to see the field when you’re playing behind a couple CFL veterans like Paris Jackson and Geroy Simon who is the Lions’ all-time leading receiver and fifth all-time among CFL receivers with 90 touchdowns.
Mix in the return of talented young receiver Shawn Gore from training camp with the NFL’s Green Bay Packers and it can be tough to find enough playing time to go around.
“I think the guys that we have in front of me right now are doing an immaculate job. I don’t think that I could really do anything to play my way ahead of those guys to tell you the truth,” Foster said. “I’ve just got to keep working and make sure that when my number is called I’m ready to go and cause some havoc.”
Foster and Gore are actually good friends who used to train together in the Greater Toronto Area before they were CIS all-stars. The pair set out on a recruiting trip to Bishop’s in their senior years of high school and had agreed to both commit to the Gaiters before Foster went out east and fell in love with St. Francis Xavier.
Now the pair is reunited on the opposite side of the country to help make up the league’s youngest receiving unit. Aside from Jackson, Simon and CFL journeyman O’Neil Wilson, the Lions don’t have a receiver on their active or practice roster older than 25.
In fact, Foster, Gore, Emmanuel Arceneaux, Steven Black and Edward Britton are all Lions receivers who are just 23 and cutting their teeth in the CFL at Empire Stadium.
“Those guys right there are my extended family. It’s great to have guys that are pretty young around because you can relate to them,” Foster said. “Our goal is to win a Grey Cup and help this organization be successful for many years. I hope that we get to be with each other and play with each other for a lot of years here.”
And if Simon and Jackson – the veritable fathers of the group which refers to itself as the ‘circle of trust’ – want to come along for the ride, they’re more than welcome.
“I don’t care what anyone says – Geroy Simon is like 35 but that guy is young at heart,” Foster said. “So is Paris Jackson. They have more fun than us young guys do out here.”
