Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
Doors. They’ve been both figuratively and literally slammed in Don Unamba’s face.
In the end, Hamilton’s strong side linebacker (SAM) knew which door he wanted to go through so he picked it himself. That door has led to a sensational season, capped by a CFL East All-Star berth.
At one time, not so long ago, Don Unamba was out of football entirely, ready to give up ever having the chance to get back in. His fancy on-field footwork was swapped for the straight, methodical lines of the door-to-door sales grind, pounding the pavement in the sweltering Dallas heat.
Done. Kaput. Finito.
But then, one last gridiron lifeline was tossed his way and it led – through the help of a veteran CFL star’s help – back to the league he’d once played in, where he ultimately made a choice that has meant great benefit to both he and the Hamilton Ticats.
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“I could not get signed to anybody,” says Unamba, thinking back to 2016 and the days when it appeared his football career was over. He was 27-years-old.
“Nobody would sign me. So I actually had to pick up a job to make a living and I ended up picking up a door-to-door sales job.”
Named a CFL East All-Star in 2018, Unamba has enjoyed a terrific season at SAM for Hamilton. His statistics are impressive; 59 tackles to go along with four sacks, four tackles for loss, three forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. With an interception and seven knock-downs to boot, he cracked the top 20 in defensive plays made with a total of 79.
Not bad for a guy who was selling roofing products two years ago.
“I would get up super early in the morning and, I think, we would get in the field at like 10 o’clock, and I literally walked around neighbourhoods until 8 o’clock at night,” says Unamba, thinking back to the days when it appeared to him that shingles, attic insulation and windows were going to be his future.
“It was hot, your back would be hurting, people slamming doors in your face,” he says. “Or they wouldn’t answer the door but you could hear ‘em… I got the cops called on me for soliciting, all kinds of stuff.”
“I was good at it,” he says, triumphantly. “That was the crazy part. I was one of the top salesmen in the whole company. They were just about to promote me to a big manager job. I turned it down to go back with my dream of playing football.”
That was the point where the Indoor Football League, as well as an ageing CFL star, stepped in to help.
Unamba, who’d spent 2014 with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and 2015 with the Saskatchewan Roughriders before finding himself knocking on doors in Dallas, decided to try his luck with the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles of the IFL, when they came calling. He could have taken the promotion with his sales company but, instead, decided to give football one more crack.
He played a handful of games and put together a highlight reel, one that caught the eye of Nik Lewis, who, it just so happens, is an alumnus of Southern Arkansas University (go Muleriders). Just like Unamba.
Lewis, Unamba says, got in touch and told him he couldn’t believe he wasn’t in the CFL.
“The next day, he called me on the phone with Kavis Reed and he ended up signing me in Montreal,” says Unamba.
In 2017, Unamba headed to Alouettes camp and made the team, but not for long. Released after three games, he was picked up by Hamilton and spent the rest of the season impressing in the defensive backfield. He made 40 tackles for the Ticats in 2017, adding three interceptions and five knockdowns in eleven games. Blocked a kick, too.
Heading into camp this season, his place was secure in that Hamilton backfield, a likely starter at corner. That’s when he decided to knock on another door, figuratively speaking. When the Ticats ran into injury trouble at SAM, Unamba was inspired to make a sales pitch to assistant coach William Fields, Hamilton’s Defensive Backs Coach.
“I said ‘coach, you know I can play SAM. I can play that position for you.’ A lot of things that you do as a SAM, I felt fit in my game.”
“He had a conversation with (Defensive Coordinator) Jerry Glanville and they gave me the opportunity,” says Unamba. “I’ve been there ever since.”
That’s something, isn’t it? A guy who’d been out of football a year before, then found a home in a team’s defensive backfield, decides he’d like to risk that comfort to patrol another position. But Unamba was confident, having played a little weak side linebacker in both Winnipeg and Saskatchewan, to go along with his reps at field half and field corner.
“SAM is basically a mixture of all those positions,” says Unamba. “So, I felt natural.”
“I don’t really like doing the same thing over and over,” the native of Arlington, Texas explains. “I like doing different things. SAM is like the perfect position for me. I get to blitz, I can tackle, I also can cover.”
After struggling to emerge as a star during his earlier days in the CFL, Unamba has found that status in 2018, in his first year as a SAM. In his opinion, a high level of play has always been there. All he lacked was the opportunity.
“I’ve made lots of plays on every team I’ve been on,” he says. “I just didn’t get that full season or that big sample of work.”
“This is, like, my first year of actually getting a full season, a full year of people being able to see what I can do.”
With his team positioned just one win away from a Grey Cup berth, and with him playing a key role on one of the league’s top defences, the sore feet and slamming doors of his old sales job must seem a million miles away to Don Unamba.
They aren’t, though. He’s taking stock.
“I look back at that stuff now and everything that’s happened to me now, me gettin’ all-star… it’s so mind-boggling to me,” he says. “It’s a blessing.”
Don Unamba, after spending time with three separate CFL teams, was just needing an opportunity to prove himself. That’s where the Ticats came in, allowing the former DB to make the position change to linebacker. (Johany Jutras, CFL.ca)
UNAMBA LOOKS FORWARD TO THE OTTAWA CHALLENGE
“We know them,” Unamba says of Hamilton’s opponents in this Sunday’s Eastern Final, the Ottawa REDBLACKS.
“They do a good job of trying to move their players around. A bunch of smoke and mirrors. Bunch of people moving around tryin’ to get your eyes. You just have to be focused in on your job. Know what you have to do and not let them get you with the extra stuff they do.”
Unamba will see a little of everybody, he figures, with both the REDBLACKS and Ticats moving personnel around from play to play, trying for a tactical advantage. He could see the small and speedy Diontae Spencer. Or the big bodies of Brad Sinopoli, Greg Ellingson, or Dominique Rhymes, for instance. Whatever the match-up, Unamba says he’ll stay consistent.
“For the most part, I’ll play my technique the same way. I don’t underestimate nobody. I’ll play the bigger guys just as if they was the fastest speedster. Make my plays when they’re there and try not to do too much. But let it come to me.”
The REDBLACKS beat the Ticats three times during the regular season, including two massive wins in October; victories that locked up first place for Ottawa. Unamba believes that the Ticats, buoyed by a thorough demolition of the B.C. Lions last weekend, are in a position to give the REDBLACKS a much tougher time.
“All the times we played ‘em, we left plays on the field,” he says. “We didn’t finish. There were some things we didn’t execute. And they made some plays, sometimes. It’s gonna come down to those same things.”
Not that Unamba is underestimating the REDBLACKS.
“They’re a good team,” he says, respectfully. “They’re well-coached, they do a bunch of good things, so we’re gonna have to increase our intensity and our focus this week.”
