Associated Press
TORONTO — While Montreal Alouettes quarterback Josh Freeman hasn’t officially met his new head coach, he’s admired Mike Sherman from afar for nearly a decade.
After a back-and-forth affair between Freeman’s Kansas State Wildcats and Texas A&M (a game that the Wildcats finished on the winning side of) the recently-signed Als pivot remembers getting a note from the Texas bench boss – who was none other than Sherman.
“I remember he wrote me a handwritten letter afterwards,” Freeman told Davis Sanchez and James Cybulski of The Waggle podcast presented by Sport Clips. “It was just, ‘hey, keep it up, I think you’re a hell of a player. It was fun to scout against you, it was fun to watch you play.’
“I really took that to heart and it’s really cool I’m going to have the opportunity to play for a guy like that.”
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The 6-foot-6, 240-pound pivot spent six seasons in the NFL, his first five with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2009-2013) and then bounced from the Minnesota Vikings (2013) and Indianapolis Colts (2015). Once he realized that the NFL may not have been in his future anymore, he decided to pursue other opportunities and eventually landed a deal in the Canadian Football League.
“I just turned 30 this past weekend (Jan. 13) and I want to play football,” he admitted. “I want to go out and have fun. I want to go out and compete and (joining the Alouettes is) a perfect situation.”
Freeman worked out with Montreal in 2017 and although his camp and the Als talked contracts they couldn’t come to an agreement. Despite not being able to work a deal out with the team, he remained in the city to see if it was somewhere he could see himself being.
And what he ended up seeing was a talented team taking the field each game.
“I remember being in Montreal and talking to a few guys (like) Nik Lewis,” he said. “Nik Lewis is a heck of a player and watching him (even though) I only got to see him live in pre-season. It’s a team that has plenty of talent.”
The Alouettes will hope that having a quarterback of Freeman’s calibre to play with those talented players will help steer a turnaround after finishing 2017 with a 3-15 record.
During his time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Freeman set many franchise records with the team, including highest QB rating in a season (95.9 in 2010), highest completion percentage (62.8 in 2011), most touchdown passes thrown in consecutive games (15 in 2010 and 2011), fewest interceptions in a season (six in 2010) as well as most seasons and most consecutive seasons with more than 3,000 passing yards (three).
But before he can jump into the offence and the team’s playbook to try and replicate those accomplishments north of the border, Freeman is excited and understands that he needs to put the work in to learn the rules of the Canadian game.
“This is an entirely different situation, different opportunity,” Freeman said about the taking his NFL success to the CFL. “It’s a different game all in all. I’m really excited about learning the ins and outs.
“Man, having six receivers instead of five, I mean, come on, it’s going to be great.”
