THE CANADIAN PRESS
BCLions.com Staff
VANCOUVER — There was a time at the end of 2009 when Solomon Elimimian thought that he might not have a future in football.
The 2015 single season tackle leader and first pure defensive player to win the league’s Most Outstanding Player award actually spent the better part of that year off the field.
Released from the Buffalo Bills in September 2009 after playing in two preseason games, he saw his NFL options dwindling.
“If the NFL isn’t knocking on your door that whole year, they’re not coming,” he said. “At that point I thought maybe I’ll have to try and do something else. My mind still always went back to football.”
Elimimian’s brother mentioned to him that he should look at the CFL, particularly the BC Lions, who had an open tryout coming up in Los Angeles.
“We knew of Solomon already and there were actually two linebackers out of the University of Hawaii that we liked,” said director of player personnel Neil McEvoy.
That other linebacker was Elimimian’s teammate Adam Leonard. Both eventually got the invite to training camp in 2010, but the road was not the easy for #56.
“I didn’t perform as well in the testing. Might not have been in the best of shape,” chuckles Elimimian. “I thought I was in OK shape.”
Then-head coach Wally Buono saw something in the linebacker at that LA camp though, and he invited the future league All-Star to come to their next workout in Las Vegas, on one condition: he had to get himself in better shape.
Elimimian after winning Most Outstanding Player and Most Outstanding Defensive Player in November, 2014.
When Elimimian showed up, he has shed 12 pounds, knowing this was his chance to prove that he wanted to play football.
“I think they wanted to see how dedicated I was and if this was something I really wanted to pursue,” he said. “Would I put the time in and drive to Vegas?”
The Lions told Elimimian they would contact his agent.
“I just remember being so excited,” he said. “I told Wally, if you sign me, you won’t regret it.”
The rest? Well that’s just history, or, better yet, history in the making.
“He’s a man of his word,” Buono added. “I never regretted it for a second.”
For Elimimian, the open tryout gave him a second chance to play the game he loves.
“It’s an equalizer,” he explained. “The tryouts are a job interview. That’s how people need to look at it. Without that chance who knows what I would be doing.”
McEvoy seconds that sentiment. Without the open tryouts, a player like Solomon could have fallen through the cracks.
“We could have signed three linebackers ahead of him and not worried about the tryouts and missed an opportunity on a player of his magnitude.”
The Lions require the majority of their players to attend an open workout and McEvoy explains that what you’re really looking for is a guy that proves his highlight reel — a guy that is exactly what you see on film. It really is a chance for a player to stand out and for a team to get an accurate evaluation of an athlete’s ability on the field.
“That whole experience really humbled me,” Elimimain said, frankly. “I had this mindset that my numbers and my tape was good enough; that I didn’t need to try out.”
Maybe that’s what makes the league’s hardest hitter so good: he still feels like he has to prove himself. Every year is a new challenge and in football, there’s never a guarantee.
“At a workout, you’re all equal regardless of your numbers from before,” he said. “It’s just like life and you have to stand out.”
Lions continue 2015 free agent camps
With 2015 BC Lions Training Camp a little over a month away, the Lions continued their free agent camp tour with stops in Atlanta and Washington, D.C. over the weekend.
Lions’ VP of football operations and GM Wally Buono was accompanied by director of player personnel Neil McEvoy, director of U.S. scouting Ryan Rigmaiden, personnel advisor Geroy Simon, personnel consultant Roy Shivers, head coach Jeff Tedford and defensive coordinator Mark Washington.
“Both of these camps have provided us with outstanding talent in the past,” notes McEvoy. “We’re going to see players that we’ve signed to contracts earlier in the year, along with guys on our negotiation list and of course, others who are simply looking for an opportunity.”
Last year, camps in both cities resulted in a number of training camp invites including defensive back Josh Johnson, who went on to earn the club’s nomination as Most Outstanding Rookie.
“We always allow ourselves to be surprised, but in these days of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and a host of other platforms to make connections with players and agents, there aren’t many guys that we encounter that we don’t know about in advance,” added Buono before the start of the weekend.
“The talent we’ll evaluate this weekend means we have difficult roster decisions ahead, but it’s also a very rewarding process.”
Sunday’s camp in Washington, D.C. also gave Buono a first-hand look at recently-signed quarterback Greg McGhee from Howard University. The left-handed rookie pivot had a private workout in February with Lions head coach Jeff Tedford before coming to terms on a contract.
