Sean Fitz-Gerald
National Post
MISSISSAUGA, Ont — There was a lonely grey hair on his chin that needed plucking and an ice-cold tub that needed visiting. It was another morning at training camp, and Jeremaine Copeland freely acknowledged his advancing age.
The grey hair was as good as gone, he said, smiling.
What about his post-practice bath?
“That’s just a little rejuvenating that people do throughout training camp,” Copeland said, smiling again. “It ain’t got nothing to do with me being old. It’s just, I like my legs being fresh, and the cold tub brings it back.”
At 34, he is the oldest receiver the Toronto Argonauts employ, and one of the eldest at his position in the Canadian Football League. He is also perhaps the most integral player in a rebuilding offence -“he gives us an identity,” according to his coach -and is also among the most motivated.
Copeland has big plans for the season, and he is dedicating whatever happens to his most dedicated fan. He is dedicating it to his father, Donald, who died this spring.
“I wanted to be in the best shape I could be in, because this whole year is dedicated to him,” he said Monday. “Everything I do this year, I’m going to make sure I do it for him, and I’m not going to let him down. I mean, my dad loved to watch me play ball.”
Donald Copeland had been battling prostate cancer, beating it back to the point where, in late March, he was planning to return to work. On the day he died, he visited his wife where she worked, told her he loved her, promised to call later that day, and drove away.
A blood clot had developed in his lung, and other than some swelling in his leg, there was no indication anything was wrong. It was April 1, and he was 57.
“To lose him suddenly was probably the worst thing that’s ever happened to me in my life,” Jeremaine Copeland said.
He paused. “Without question,” he said as clarification, “it is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Copeland returned to Toronto, where he had moved in February to work out, and threw himself into the gym. He ran sprints, pounded weights and put himself through workouts up to three times a day, including something he called an “insanity program.”
“Working out took my mind off of my father,” he said. “I knew I was doing something that needed to be done. I was doing the right thing.”
Copeland had signed a threeyear contract extension with the Argos in January, choosing to remain with a team struggling to find any kind of offensive rhythm. His first season in Toronto had been the worst of his 10 seasons in the CFL, as he finished with fewer than 700 receiving yards for the first time since he had become a regular starter.
He had broken into the league with the Montreal Alouettes, in 2001, and rose to stardom with Anthony Calvillo as his quarterback. Copeland became a CFL all-star in his third season, with 1,757 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns.
Free agency led him to the Calgary Stampeders in 2005, where he played with another star quarterback, in Henry Burris. There were three more 1,000-yard seasons, and more stardom, making him the marquee off-season move made by the Argonauts heading into last season.
He missed a handful of games with a dislocated elbow and struggled, along with everyone else on offence, to establish an on-field connection with quarterback Cleo Lemon. His experience in the CFL, though, is viewed as a key to turning the offence around this season.
“He gives us an identity,” Toronto head coach Jim Barker said. “I can’t even imagine where we’d be without Jeremaine Copeland.”
Copeland, meanwhile, is using a personal void as motivation.
“I never had a bad day with my father,” he said.
Donald Copeland watched his son play at the University of Tennessee, followed him as he tried out with the Tennessee Titans and monitored his move to Canada. “It’s been rough,” Jeremaine Copeland said. “Every night, it’s rough. And it’s probably going to be rough for a while, because I’m not going to get over knowing he’s not going to be at my games, he’s not going to be travelling up here to see me.”
