O’Leary: How the CFL community goes ‘Beyond the Game’
Laid out at home recovering from a broken vertebrae last year, all that Andrew Hoskins wanted to do was go back to the Turf District.
That’s where Hoskins, 44, records his Eskimo Empire podcast. The room in the basement of his Edmonton home is a green and gold shrine to his favourite team, the walls lined with every type of team paraphernalia imaginable. The inspiration for the name of the room comes from the section of downtown Edmonton that was renamed the ICE District, in advance of the new Rogers Place arena opening in 2016.
Every week, Hoskins would meet in the Turf District with his friends and co-hosts, Mike Smith-Knutsen and Kayla Doucet. The trio would get comfortable and talk all things Esks. A tobogganing accident in January, 2018, took that from him. He broke one vertebrae in three different places and needed two surgeries — one to put rods into his spine and another to remove them — to fix his back.
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It would be four long months before Hoskins could make his way down the stairs in his home.
“That was difficult,” Hoskins said. “That’s kind of my world at home.”
In a life spent watching football, Hoskins had the saying ‘football is family’ embedded in the back of his mind but he never really thought about it. Teammates can feel a kinship for one another and a good coach can have a parental-like presence for their players. But as Hoskins spent weeks in his bed, using a walker to help him get around the ground level of his home, he began to learn what the saying meant.
It started with an outpouring of support from fellow CFL fans on Twitter and many that had met Hoskins through a tailgate party that he started hosting three years back. Members of the Edmonton Eskimos saw his situation and reached out to wish him well in his recovery. When he was in Edmonton for his cross-Canada town hall series, CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie stopped by Hoskins’ home to check in on him.
“That whole experience, the response that I got and the support that I got, you know, this is truly a family,” Hoksins said.
As his recovery progressed, Hoskins was able to go to the Esks’ training camp. At the end of practices, Esks players Calvin McCarty, Ryan King and Kwaku Boateng would come to where Hoskins was sitting and ask how he was doing. When he’d recovered enough to get back down to the Turf District, then-Esks receiver Kenny Stafford joined him to record an episode.
“You’re not going to get that in any other league, ever,” Hoskins said, laughing. Today, he’s about 90 to 95 per cent recovered, meeting his surgeon’s expectations. The football community helped pull him through what could have been a very dark time in his life, he said.
“To me, that’s so amazing. To have alumni, players, fans, everybody coming to see how things are. At Grey Cup last year everybody wanted to (ask), ‘OK, how are you now? Let’s talk about it.’
“It was incredible.”
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Courtney Stephen is in the midst of a seven-year juggling act.
The Brampton, Ont. native spent the first six years of his CFL career with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats before signing with the Calgary Stampeders for this season. The defensive back admits that football can be an all-consuming job, but he always takes time to think about his future.
At 29, Stephen is a lot of things. He’s a football player. He’s the founder of the Overtime Football Club; a group that aims to help future student-athletes. He works in marketing and business development management. Most of all, in his day-to-day life Stephen is a wise soul with a message to share. Some people shy away from taking on leadership roles and speaking up. Stephen is drawn to it. He’s worked as a motivational speaker for the last eight years.
His audiences range from students to the business world, with keynotes on topics that cover everything from team building (“Success is a decision.”) to mental health, confidence and growth mindset (“Turn adversity into energy.”).
As he’s worked his way through the football ranks, overcoming an injury in college and finding success at the professional level, Stephen is reminded with each season of what his coaches told him as he was growing up: Football’s lessons extend beyond the field.
“The game will always be with me because it taught me the things that I need to do to succeed in the rest of my life,” Stephen said.
On his podcast, The Come Up, Stephen and guests speak about personal development for leaders in sport, education, careers and for entrepreneurs.
In an episode this year on how to make life-changing transitions, Stephen explains how waking up earlier allowed him to read far more than he ever had before.
“If you’re unsure (about your direction professionally) just work on yourself,” he advises.
In the same episode he stresses the importance of never assuming that you know everything on a topic.
“How could you grow if you think you’ve already grown?” he says.
“You absolutely have to continue to dive deeper. I don’t care if you’ve read one book on personal development. Read two, read 10, read 15. I don’t care if you’ve gone to one leadership conference. Go to two more. Watch a webinar, go on YouTube, talk to someone that leads people.
“There’s always more that you can get and it’s not necessarily about getting everything (a speaker) says. It might be that one tidbit, it might be that one different perspective change.”
Stephen is fully committed to extending his football career for as long as possible, but he realizes that his post-playing days are waiting for him somewhere in the distance. He knows that there is life beyond the game.
