Arden Zwelling
CFL.ca
Nothing can be as simultaneously exciting and terrifying for a young football player as getting a call from the Toronto Argonauts for a CFL Evaluation Camp interview.
Of course it’s exciting — there’s a professional football team interested in getting to know you better. But it comes with an equal dose of excruciating anxiety because the Argonauts take their interviews to the next level.
Arguably no other team in the CFL puts more emphasis on the player interviews than Toronto, who ask their interview subjects to sit under bright spotlights before a six-man panel of professional football grey-beards while the whole ordeal is videotaped.
It’s one of the most nerve-wracking, stomach-turning situations a football player in their early 20’s can find themselves in.
Not that Braeden George, a third-year receiver out of the University of Saskatchewan, had much of a choice. And when he walked into the room at the Park Hyatt Hotel in downtown Toronto to interview with the Argonauts, he knew what he was getting himself into.
But who at E-Camp is prepared for a question like: “Have you ever been in a bar fight?”
“I said ‘no — I try to stay away from that kind of trouble,” George said from Saskatoon, recounting the interview. “ And then they said to me: ‘What? You’ve never been in a fight?’ As if I was a wimp.”
No matter how you slice it, there is no right answer.
Tell the Argos you have been in a bar fight and you seem irresponsible and the type of athlete who takes dangerous risks off the field. Say you haven’t and your toughness is called into question.
It’s a lose-lose situation. But it’s nothing personal.
“They try to put you into a spot where there’s no right answer. They don’t do it because they like to; they do it just to see your reaction and if you’re going to defend yourself,” George said.
These are the rigours of the CFL’s E-Camp the typical fan doesn’t see. The physical testing is undeniably the showpiece of the weekend but the stress of the psychological testing easily matches — if not exceeds — it.
“I mean, I’ve been in job interviews. But never one where there’s six guys firing questions at you with spotlights and guys with cameras right up against your face,” George said. “So yeah — it’s a little bit different.”
But different is really what everyone at E-Camp is trying to achieve — the players especially.
With 55 of the best athletes from coast-to-coast in one location vying for an extremely limited number of positions on CFL rosters, emerging from the pack is as important as ever.
It’s an adage not lost on George, the 21-year-old from Saskatoon who was one of the youngest players at the combine.
George is a product of a very proud, successful Huskies program that features a coaching staff made up almost entirely of former Huskies. This year the Huskies sent three players to E-Camp, including linebacker Peter Thiel and fellow receiver Jade Etienne.
There is added pressure for the receivers especially to discern themselves, as jobs for Canadians in skill positions on CFL rosters are often few are far between.
Not to mention the fact that nine receivers competed at E-Camp, an unusually high number that reflects the resurgence of the Canadian wide receiver in recent years.
Of course, George should be familiar with that. He hails from Saskatchewan, home of the Roughriders who fielded a receiving corps in 2010 featuring four Canadians. It was a terrific example for George of what could be and what it takes to make it happen.
“I just hope that working hard will give me an opportunity and a shot. If they give me a look I’m going to take it,” George said of an opportunity to play wide receiver in the CFL. “We’re getting more opportunities to showcase that Canadian receivers are capable of playing at a very high level.”
In fact, six of the nine receivers invited to E-Camp hail from Saskatchewan or Alberta, meaning either there’s something in that prairie water or something special is going on with the wide outs situated east of the Rockies.
Of course, it helps to have strong football programs at two of Western Canada’s biggest schools: George’s Huskies and the reigning Canada West champion University of Calgary Dinos.
While Saskatchewan boasts George and Etienne as their marquee wide outs, Calgary has an impressive tandem themselves with Anthony Parker and Nathan Coehoorn, both of whom were also E-Camp invitees.
The Saskatchewan-Calgary rivalry has provided some of the most compelling football the CIS has seen in the past three years, including the nail-biting 20-20 tie in September 2009 and the 39-38 Calgary triumph in the Canada West championship later that season that came down to a missed Saskatchewan field goal in the dying seconds.
“There has definitely been a rivalry between the two teams lately but both teams respect each other so much,” George said. “Those guys in Calgary, I grew up playing against them and I’ve trained with them over the years. They’re extremely talented. It’s humbling just to be associated with them.”
While the modest George may still feel bashful being discussed in the same breath as his colleagues Anthony and Nathan from Calgary, it’s a reality for the art and science student who is drawing interest from a number of CFL teams.
George’s numbers have never set the world ablaze, although he did finish a respectable eighth among Canada West receivers last season, hauling in 26 receptions for 270 yards and three touchdowns in seven games.
More so than his overall numbers, it’s his standout performances in big games that have landed him firmly on the CFL radar.
In the 2009 Canada West final George made five catches for 104 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter that extended his team’s lead at an integral juncture of the game.
Then in May, 2010 he was invited to the East-West Bowl in London, Ontario where he scored the lone touchdown of the game — a 19-yard pass from conference rival and Regina Rams quarterback Marc Mueller — and finished with eight catches on the day for 132 yards, both game highs.
“The East-West Bowl was the first time that I actually believed that I could play in the CFL,” George said. “I was playing with these guys who are the best in Canada and having a big game like that gave me a definite boost in confidence.”
And if George does get a chance to play in the CFL, it would only be fitting if he got a play in the only place he’s ever known.
“I know my parents would be pretty excited if I got drafted by the Riders. They’re diehard Rider fans,” George, who has spent his entire life in Saskatchewan, said. “To play there would be a pretty special experience for sure.”
