Esks.com
EDMONTON — When it came time for Adarius Bowman to re-sign with the Edmonton Eskimos, he wanted to make sure he would be there for the long haul.
The Esks’ leading receiver signed a two-year contract extension with the club earlier this off-season, making sure he’d be donning the green and gold long-term.
“I love the atmosphere of Edmonton, that had to play a big part (in re-signing),” Bowman told CFL.ca at Mark’s CFL Week in Regina. “Edmonton’s a great city, great environment, great team, great fit for me. Sometimes you fit better in certain systems, certain areas in your life and that was my fit. For something that fits good I’m trying to stay as long as I can.”
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Adarius Bowman sat on top of the CFL in receiving yards in 2016 with 1761 yards (CFL.ca)
Being locked in with a team for two years – instead of the one-year deals that have become common around the league – was a one of the first things on Bowman’s mind when he was making his decision to remain in Edmonton.
Although the one-year contracts aren’t of interest to him personally, Bowman admits he understands why some players may want to sign one.
“Rather than being tied into two years you can feel out what works best for you,” he said of the one-year contracts. “I think the one-year works best for some and for some it might not be so great because I think a lot of guys maybe taking it and not taking their time to sit and think about where they sit.”
For a lot of players, February marked the expiration date of their one-year contracts and as a result, there were an unprecedented amount of players to hit the free agent market.
Having short stints in every market might be a possibility for some of those players because of the one-year deals, but for Bowman, he rather feel long-term loyalty from one team instead of many.
“It’s nine teams in the CFL, you can’t move too many times,” Bowman said. “You’d be in your fourth year and play for half the teams. It’s a plus and minus for that but I like that family feeling, I like the commitment when an organization and a player can commit to each other.”
Committing to Edmonton also meant remaining with his best friend, and teammate, Odell Willis. Willis joined the Esks in 2013 – two years after Bowman – giving the duo plenty of time to get to know each other, and each other’s families, along the way.
“That is literally my family, I’m going into my 10th year and guys like Odell Willis are seriously my brothers,” smiled Bowman. “I know his family, he knows my family. My brother has his number, he calls my grandma, everybody – my mom calls, she says ‘how you doing’ and how’s my other son doing?’”
Not only is Bowman committed to the Eskimos, he’s committed to the city of Edmonton as well. He’s moved permanently moved to Canada from his home state of Tennessee and is already in the process of applying to get a permanent Canadian citizenship.
And what Bowman loves so much about the CFL is that feeling of family. He says the best part of playing the Canadian game is the “brotherhood” between his teammates and foes on the opposite side of the ball alike and that’s what makes him want to stay.
“Even Derel (Walker), he was here and he’s like ‘I love this league’ and you know how connected and cool we are with each other,” he said. “Some people are hating each other like the competition turns into really not liking each other and that doesn’t make sense. But I think that really makes sense of the whole country of Canada.
“Canada’s a very warm and loving place, everyone’s like ‘give me a hug’. I’ve kind of grown with the change but it’s amazing, I love it.”
