Arden Zwelling
CFL.ca
When Craig Butler tore the MCL in his knee the summer before his senior year of high school, it could have been the kind of injury that derailed a football career.
At the time Butler was one of the most coveted prospects in Ontario minor football. Tall, fast and possessing a nose for the football, Butler had all the makings of a future standout player on some university team’s defensive secondary.
But the devastating injury cost Butler his entire grade 12 season – perhaps the most crucial year for young football players trying to prove themselves and garner recruitment from CIS schools.
“It was difficult. But it’s part of the game. Playing football, you’re going to have to deal with injuries,” Butler said of the injury that he remembers well, even though it happened half a decade ago.
“But you just have to get through things. It makes you a stronger person just like any obstacle in your life. That’s the great thing about football – you can relate it to your life so easily.”
Rehabbing for months on end, Butler recovered from the injury and postponed his graduation to return to school for an unofficial grade 13 year, or a ‘victory lap’ as most students call it.
It turned out to be a brilliant decision, as Butler returned to the football field with a vengeance, leading the St. Thomas Aquinas Cardinals to the 2006 Ontario championship and winning the Bob Gooder Award as the top high school football player in London.
During that year Butler also earned himself a commitment from the Western Mustangs, meaning he would get to spend his next four years playing college football in his home town for the team he grew up watching.
Now, roughly 1,500 days later, Butler is coming off of the best football season of his life and is headed for the CFL Evaluation Camp March 4-6 in Toronto.
The story may read a bit like a classic redemption movie, but for Butler, it’s just football.
“That’s football. You battle through obstacles and then more things happen and you have to keep fighting harder through those. You can’t quit – you just have to keep working,” Butler said. “There’s always going to be ups and downs. It’s how you get up from those downs that really makes you a great football player.”
2010 really was Butler’s most stellar football season yet. The two-time OUA all-star led the Mustangs with 46.5 tackles and five interceptions, while also chipping in half a sack and five tackles for a loss, which isn’t bad for a guy that lines up at safety.
It was a season that earned him a first-team All-Canadian selection, which should sit nicely on his mantle next to his MVP award from the 2008 Mitchell Bowl when Butler took an interception all the way back for a 57-yard touchdown that sealed the Mustangs 28-12 victory over the Saint Mary’s Huskies.
But ask the man himself and he’ll tell you the most important distinction he received this year was being recognized by St. Thomas Aquinas – which hasn’t won a football championship since he left – for his achievements at the school’s annual football banquet.
“Just going there, being back at my old high school and seeing all of my old coaches and how proud they were of me and all the things that I’ve done – that was really special,” Butler said. “These people that I’ve grown up with and have watched me my whole life, to see how proud they were of me – that was really cool.”
It was just one of what may be a string of special 2011 moments for the 22-year-old Butler who carries a ton of momentum into E-Camp where he’ll vie for a job with one of the CFL’s eight teams.
True to form, the independent-minded Butler isn’t one for the expensive combine-specific preparation camps or over-complicated training regimes.
No, he spent his off-season sticking to what worked for him in the past, training – where else? – in humble London, Ontario with Mustangs strength and conditioning coach Jeff Watson.
Of course, Watson is no slouch. The University of Michigan grad has spent two decades coaching strength and conditioning in the NCAA, including stints at Villanova University and his alma matter where he trained NCAA basketball final four teams and football teams that appeared in Big Ten championships, the Rose Bowl and the Gator Bowl.
Basically, when Watson tells you to do something – you listen.
“He’s a top-of-the-line trainer. He knows everything there is to know. You know you can trust everything he says and everything he tells you to do because he’s done tones of research on it,” Butler said.
Butler’s been focusing primarily on his speed with Watson, trying to improve his 40-yard sprint, one of the combine’s most scrutinized tests.
But the History major has gotten remarkably stronger over the off season as well. It’s the kind of results that several weeks of four days in the weight room and three days on the track will produce.
“I’m just trying to get better every week and hopefully hit that peak on March 4th,” Butler said. “The main thing is to always be going hard. No matter what you’re doing, where you are, who you’re with, you have to be going full out 100 per cent every time.”
It’s the same attitude Butler will bring into the CFL E-Camp where he’ll be joined by three Mustangs teammates: offensive lineman Brendan Dunn, defensive end Zander Robinson and linebacker John Surla.
But what Butler may have over every single one of the other forty-four players invited to E-Camp is his versatility.
He’s already played three different positions on the Mustangs defence and Butler is a regular contributor on special teams as well, playing coverage and serving as the Mustangs punt returner.
The six-foot-two, 196-pounder is officially listed as a defensive back. But more than anything, Butler is simply a football player.
“Basically, every year at Western I’ve started at a new position. So I’m pretty comfortable anywhere on the field,” Butler said. “Whatever way I can best fit into a team’s system is fine by me. I just want to play football.”
