Angela Burger/Stampeders.com
If Charleston Hughes had the power to take pen in hand and write the script himself …
“Hopefully,’’ says the rush end outfitted with a Lamborghini engine, “it’s in Saskatchewan. Hopefully it’s a pass rush upfield. Hopefully it’s against Derek Dennis, straight bull rush, drive him back, knock him down.
“Then smack Vince Young and call it a day.
“Then I could say I broke the record against the guy in my era deemed to be the most outstanding offensive lineman and a quarterback.
Hughes flashes a first-down-long grin, as if he was about to wakeboard in a hot-tub-sized bowl of freshly-melted Belgian chocolate.
“Yes, that would be special.
“That would be sweet.”
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Charleston Hughes collected 16 sacks in 2016 (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
At 33, entering his 10th season at McMahon Stadium, the wrecking-ball rush end out of Saginaw, Mich., isn’t only tailing Mike Reilly or Jonathon Jennings with dogged determination.
Oh, no. He’s off hunting history as well. Of Will Johnson’s Stampeders’ franchise record of 99 career sacks.
A very do-able 12 takedowns away from the century mark – a nice, symmetrical number – and the right to plant his No. 39 flag at the bodyslam summit.
“It’ll mean a lot, man,’’ says Hughes, following Thursday’s morning session on Day Five of training camp. “It’s why you play the game, right? Do your personal best, break records, win Grey Cups. If you’re not accomplishing anything, what are you playing for in the first place?
“That’s how you’re remembered. That’s why they remember (Johnson), right? Ninety-nine sacks.
“He can count on it being broken. This is the season I feel it’s going to get done.”
Coming off a league-leading 16 in 2016, the target number of a dozen seems well within reach. But if Hughes is going to do it as he’s scripted, at New Mosaic Stadium, he’ll need to start fast.
The Stamps head in there in Week 14, on Sept. 24.
“Records are made to be broken, right?’’ says Johnson, a longtime police officer here in the city. “Hey, man, it’s stood for 20 years, so I can’t complain.
“He’s pretty much like me. If he makes a mistake, he’s going to back it up. If I, say, jumped offside, Wally (Buono) always knew I was going to make up for it. Same with Hughes for them now.
“His era was different from mine. I played the position as a rush end, he plays it all over. My sacks came from around the corner; everybody knew what I was going to do, where I was coming from.
“When you look at Hughes, he comes from different areas – from linebacker, from rush end, from weak end, from the middle of the field. He’s all over.
“He’s been there, what?, 10 years. I did mine in seven and a half.
“But I’m happy for Hughes. He’s a good friend of mine. We talked. He’s always smiling, always in good spirits. If you do have a record, that’s the type of person you want to break it.”
“It’s why you play the game, right? Do your personal best, break records, win Grey Cups.”
Charleston Hughes
Hughes is heading into his 10th season in Calgary, where he has played his entire CFL career (CFL.ca)
Another trait both men share is consistency.
“Hughes puts in a lot of work, on and off the field, especially these last few years as he’s gotten older, preparing his body for the long season,” says defensive line coach, Corey Mace, a one-time D-line-mate of the two-time CFL sack leader.
“On the field, he’s always been a good student of the game. He knows the plays he can make just through his film study, watching tendencies of the guys he’s going against, the offences we’re playing. Don’t forget, the way we play, he drops into coverages a lot. That’s cost him a lot of sacks but he doesn’t complain. He takes his shots when he’s supposed to.
“He’s a technician of the game. He really is. And maybe he doesn’t get enough credit for that.
“He’s certainly deserving (of the record). The way Hughsie’s moving around out here, Will might have a sad face at the end of the season. But at the end of the day, he’s a team player. He just wants to win.”
Johnson, for the younger crowd, is a mammoth man, 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds.
In an era of smaller – 1989 through ’96 – faster D-ends such as James (Quick) Parker, Johnson seemed as much an untameable force of nature as anything (Former Winnipeg offensive lineman and past president of the Stamps Lyle Bauer once memorably reflected of No. 81: “When he put his hands up in the air, he was pretty well touching the moon”).
This was Godzilla trampling Tokyo underfoot, pursuing QBs with the fervour of David Janssen tracking the one-armed man in the original Fugitive TV series.
Over eight seasons, a six-time West All-Star and five-time All Canadian. His name is up there on the Stampeders’ Wall of Fame. Selected to the Stampeders’ 50-year Dream Team in ’95.
So this is no small feat, no run-of-the-mill record, that Hughes will begin hunting down when the 2017 campaign opens June 23 in Ottawa.
“When a smaller guy like me,” reminds Hughes – ‘smaller’ being relative, at 6-foot-1 and 235-lb. – “comes along and looks up at this big guy, this Goliath, you know what happens, don’t you?”
Playfully mimicking a catapulting motion to let the giant-slaying rock fly, Hughes is taking dead aim at chasing down history.
“That’s the way it works.
“He may be a Goliath. But I’ve got the slingshot.
“Will Johnson, here I come.”
