Landry: Bryant Mitchell’s patience, hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed

If you want to know what makes Bryant Mitchell tick, you could ask him directly because he’ll tell you. He’s a young man who seems to have a firm grip on who he is. Or, you could ask his seven-year old son Amaur’e, because he can fill you in, too.

“I tell my older son all the time,” says Mitchell, ‘what do you do when you want something?’ And he’ll tell you ‘you gotta work for it.’ That’s just something that I believe in. Working hard.”

It’s a theme that has imbued the life of the 26-year-old native of San Diego, California; Mitchell is now teaching the virtues of hard work and respect to Amaur’e (named after former NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire, even though the spelling is slightly different) after having those values instilled in him by his mother. They are values that brought Mitchell to pro football and they are values that have made him a popular teammate in Edmonton. Values that have served him well through some trying times with the Eskimos.

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Mitchell celebrates his touchdown against the Montreal Alouettes last week (The Canadian Press)

Bryant Mitchell is back in the Eskimo receiving corps and it was hard work that got him back. It’ll be hard work that keeps him there, too, he says. Because Mitchell has been grinding ever since he was a kid, when he first took to the game but the game didn’t quite take to him so willingly.

“I realized, at a young age, when I wasn’t good at football, that I wanted to be good,” he says, when asked why he keeps his nose to the proverbial grindstone so much. “So, I just kept working, you know?”

It has been a frustrating couple of seasons, for certain. But there is hope that now that Mitchell is finally, completely healthy, he can remain that way and contribute mightily to what is already an impressive Eskimo passing attack, with the likes of receivers Derel Walker, Duke Williams and Kenny Stafford in the starting line-up and Vidal Hazelton slated to return from the injured list on Thursday night when the club pays a visit to Hamilton.

Mitchell is coming off one of the best games of his intermittent Eskimo career, pulling in seven passes for 128 yards and a touchdown in a 40-24 win over the Montreal Alouettes and if you think it was a happy occasion just for him you’d be in error, as Mitchell has a fan club in that Eskimo locker room. A lot of that has to do with the kind of teammate he has been.

“It’s always special when he gets in there and does well because of how much work he puts in,” said Eskimos’ Head Coach Jason Maas after the game. “And when he gets his opportunity, everybody’s happy when he plays well.”

“When he gets in there” is a key phrase from that Maas comment. Mitchell has been trying to stick with the green and gold ever since 2015, when he saw action during pre-season but then none at all the rest of the year. In 2016, he stayed firmly on the practice roster for almost the entire season, before getting into the line-up for one game in November, activated in Week 20 against the Toronto Argonauts.

After that season, things were changing in Edmonton, with Walker heading for the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. There was an opening for Mitchell and he was expected to be a starter in 2017.

That’s when injuries struck. They would strike again.

A hobbled hamstring limited his action to seven games, in 2017, but Mitchell caught 32 balls for 482 yards. The promise was tantalizing.

Surely he would be a starter in 2018, and that promise would be fulfilled. This year, however, he suffered another hamstring injury – this one was worse, he says – limiting him to three fairly ineffective appearances in July.

Now, he says, that hammy is fine and he hopes the frustration that has been a regular companion will begin to disappear in his rearview mirror.

“I’m always an optimistic person,” says Mitchell. “I pray about everything. I trust God in everything. I have faith that it’ll work out.”

He won’t worry about an injury jumping up to nab him again, he says, because he just can’t. It’s not in his emotional make-up to worry. “If it happens it just happens,” he says, unwilling to fret about it.

Besides, worry would only temper another characteristic that Mitchell says he’s proud of and that is the desire to go full throttle all the time.

“I’m the type of guy that goes 150 in whatever I do,” he says, chuckling at his own comic expense. “Sometimes even at practice. Sometimes the receivers gotta tell me to slow down in walk-throughs and individual drills.”

He can’t help it, he says, and his teammates spur him on to even more.

“We have a special group,” Mitchell says, glowingly. “Some of the greatest players that I’ve ever been around in my entire life. It’s made me so much better. Made me wanna go harder.”

Determination and a respectful demeanor have played large parts in winning Mitchell his fans in the Eskimos’ locker room, including the team’s undisputed leader, quarterback Mike Reilly. Speaking to CFL.ca’s Kristina Costabile, last March at Mark’s CFL Week, Reilly didn’t rein in his admiration and his high hopes for Mitchell.

“He works his tail off no matter what,” said Reilly. “If he’s on the PR or if he’s starting somewhere in between, you wouldn’t know by the way he works. He works incredibly hard.”

“I’ve had conversations with him and I’m excited for him. I’ve been sitting there watching him go to work and not get the opportunity but he was patient and now he’s going to get that chance.”

That chance, again, was derailed by an injury during training camp, with Mitchell’s patience once more being tasked. It held strong once again, probably because of some deep roots that began spreading when Mitchell was a child.

As a boy, he grew up in a household with four siblings and his mom, Sharmaun. His father, Steven, died when Mitchell was about three-years-old. So it was up to Sharmaun to shoulder the parental load and she did so, Mitchell says, with determination and respect.

“I got to watch her work my whole life,” he says, proudly. “And watching her work just really inspired me.”

That is something that Mitchell, in turn, is trying to do with his own sons. Along with Amaur’e – who Mitchell has nicknamed “King” due to his being the oldest – there are three-year-old twins Kaleb and Kameron.

“They are my life,” he says. “I take it to heart, being a father.”

“Everything I learn, everything I’ve been taught, I wanna teach them.

From the good to the bad. I want them to understand why they shouldn’t do things and (also) teach them what hard work is.”

Daddy knows about that, because daddy’s time in Edmonton has been marked by it. No doubt, hard work will continue to be needed as the season moves forward. As mentioned, Vidal Hazelton is scheduled to return to the Edmonton line-up and Mitchell is listed as a back-up on the depth chart. So his patience and understanding might be challenged again, even in the wake of his big results from last week.

“I know it isn’t easy on him,” said Maas after the Montreal game. “When he does have to sit back and let the other guys play I know it hurts him but at the end of the day he’s a great teammate.”

That seems about as important to Bryant Mitchell as yards and catches are.

Probably even more so. It shows that all that hard work has been noticed.