Photo: Johany Jutras/CFL.ca

First he lost his grades. Then, his degree. With football on life support, it was time to make a call. Everyone’s path to the pros is different. But now, DaVaris Daniels is here. And now, nothing stands in his way.

By Jeff Krever and Kristina Costabile

DAVARIS DANIELS COULDN’T KEEP GOING TO CLASS.

Maybe it was the stares. Maybe the whispers. The young receiver was going into the third week of his suspension at Notre Dame and the glances, the looks, the judgment, finally, all of it became more than he could handle.

“My name is all over the ticker on ESPN,” he recalls. “I have all these teachers and students looking at me and they have all these crazy stories going around about why we’re not playing at the time. The teachers are looking at me differently from how they’re looking at everyone else.

“So we stop going to class.”

DaVaris was almost unstoppable in his first season on a Canadian Football League field. The 24-year-old, even without playing until Week 9, racked up 885 yards and nine touchdowns on 51 catches. He played in the Grey Cup in Toronto and, in the same week, was named Most Outstanding Rookie.

Yet for him, the son of a 15-year NFL defensive tackle, it’s hard not to look back and wonder. Wonder about the path he was led down. Wonder about what could have been. Because before ever playing in a Grey Cup, before winning rookie of the year and before even imagining going to Canada, there was a moment, no matter how fleeting, that hope was almost lost.

Statistics provided by CFL Statistician Steve Daniel. Photo by The Canadian Press

Nearly two months after the suspension, DaVaris left Notre Dame and declared for the NFL Draft. No team picked him. Then, every team that signed him, released him. Already stripped of his grades and his degree, he began to dread what he might lose next. Nearly the last thing he had left. Football.

“I’m like, ‘maybe I’m just done, maybe this is the end of my career’,” DaVaris remembers saying. “I started doubting myself, sitting at home and just so down on myself the whole time. I thought, ‘that’s the craziest way to end it — I never thought it would end that way’.

“At this point I’m like, ‘I don’t even deserve to sleep on the bed. I deserve to sleep on the floor’.”

You’ve probably heard the story. Before DaVaris’ third season at Notre Dame, after he played in the national championship, he and four teammates were suspended as the school launched an investigation over academic dishonesty.

As DaVaris explains it, he received help with his homework that wasn’t allowed.

. . . . . .

AS A ROOKIE, DAVARIS MADE IT LOOK EASY.

For him, though, it was nothing new. From his first practice in peewee forward, DaVaris was used to being the best.

It was that very first practice in peewee about a decade ago when DaVaris’ father, Phillip, a 15-year NFL defensive tackle, knew his son was going to be an exceptional athlete. Phillip took the eighth-grader to introduce him to his coaches and new teammates but when they arrived, the team was on the field.

“He had no idea he was going to practice,” said Phillip. “But when he got out there, the coach told him ‘hey, go get dressed’. DaVaris looked at me kind of funny. I said ‘you’re OK, go get dressed, you’ll be fine’. So he gets dressed and he didn’t have any cleats on, he had tennis shoes on.”

The coach had set up a tackling drill, with four cones on the field where the ball-carrier had to run around one side and the tackler around the other and they’d meet in the middle. First, when DaVaris ran the ball, nobody could stop him. His dad always said he’d be an offensive player anyway because he was too afraid to hit anyone.

Then it came time to switch sides.

“He came around the corner, he slid a little bit because he had on tennis shoes, he gathered himself, he came back through and hit this kid so hard and me being the father, I was proud, I was like ‘ooh’ and everybody’s like ‘ooh’ and the kid at the back of the line is like ‘holy shit’.

“That’s probably when I realized he was going to be something special because he got out of that fear of not hitting somebody.”

Phillip Daniels and his mother Georgia hold DaVaris following a college game at the University of Georgia (Photo provided by Stampeders.com)

Football was always an important part of the Daniels’ household – almost as important as family itself. DaVaris and Phillip fondly recall a photograph of the two of them along with Phillip’s mother, Georgia, after a game at the University of Georgia. Phillip was wearing No. 89, the same one DaVaris now dons with the Stamps.

“He was always around us, he was always around football,” said Phillip. “When I played at Georgia, he was a baby. I don’t think he remembers a lot of that but he still cherishes that picture — he was asking me about that picture the other day.”

DaVaris was still a baby when his dad moved to Seattle to play with the Seahawks. When DaVaris was a little older, Phillip moved to Chicago and that’s when DaVaris’ competitiveness really started to show.

“I just remember him coming up after games and stuff, we weren’t a very good team back then,” recalled Phillip, “he would come up with tears in his eyes and start saying he hates the team – he hated losing.”

So when DaVaris started playing in seventh grade in his home town of Vernon Hills, Ill., he didn’t lose. At least for the first few years.

“We’d talk to him and tell him, ‘eventually you’re going to lose some games, things aren’t going to go your way’,” said Phillip. “And then finally, they lost a championship game. This was in peewee league, he lost the championship game and I thought he was going to handle it bad and he actually handled it really well.”

For DaVaris, football and family really are life. As Phillip continued his transition from NFL player to coach, last year he took a job with the Philadelphia Eagles. The whole family moved out to Philly to live under one roof, including DaVaris, his mother Leslie, younger sisters DaKiya and Damara and 13-year-old brother DaKendrick.

Last season, Phillip made time during the busy NFL schedule to make it to four Stampeders games. And no one was a biggest Stampeders fan last season than mom.

Left to Right: Phillip, DaKendrick and DaVaris Daniels (Photo provided by Stampeders.com)

. . . . . .

DAVARIS SAYS THAT WHEN PEOPLE ASK HIM ABOUT NOTRE DAME — AND PEOPLE ASK HIM OFTEN — HE DOESN’T REALLY KNOW HOW TO EXPLAIN IT.

His dad has a better answer.

“If they ask me, I just tell them it’s a bunch of B.S.,” said Phillip. “That’s exactly what I say.”

DaVaris alleges that he, along with the other four players at the centre of the investigation, were hung out to dry. That, when told the investigation would only take a week, two months went by with little communication from the school.

“They never really cleared it up or put it out there,” said DaVaris.

For him, getting into Notre Dame, one of the United States’ most prestigious and athletic academic schools, was a proud moment. It was a goal he set out for early in high school.

“He started out slow,” Phillip recalled of DaVaris’ time at Vernon Hills High School, “but when he realized he wanted to go to Notre Dame, he worked his butt off in high school to get there.”

Once there, DaVaris worked even harder. Notre Dame demands the best from its students and in the fall of 2013, DaVaris had trouble making the grade. He was put on academic probation.

“He was suspended for academics and he went back that summer to work his butt off and get eligible to play football,” said Phillip.

On the field, however, no test was too difficult for DaVaris Daniels.

After red-shirting in his first season, DaVaris played 11 games as a sophomore in 2012, hauling in 31 passes for 490 yards. The following season, his first as a full-time starter, he caught 49 balls for 745 yards and seven touchdowns.

In a game against Purdue that year, Daniels caught an 82-yard touchdown pass, a play of the year candidate on which at least 30 of those yards were spent fighting off Ricardo Allen on the way to the end zone.

“I don’t really get nervous. Not for football. Football, I’ve been playing this since I was nine. Football, it’s simple for me. Get the play call, run the route, catch the ball. Whatever. It’s not too hard.”

DaVaris Daniels

DaVaris Daniels flips the ball to a fan after scoring in a 2016 game vs. Edmonton (Photo: The Canadian Press)

DaVaris’ draft profile described a player with NFL size who could catch the football with ease and run after the catch.

Most of all, for DaVaris, no lights were too bright. In the biggest game of his life, the 2013 BCS National Championship game against Alabama, although his team lost, DaVaris recorded a career-high 115 yards on six receptions.

“I don’t really get nervous,” DaVaris shrugs. “Not for football. Football, I’ve been playing this since I was nine. Football, it’s simple for me. Get the play call, run the route, catch the ball. Whatever. It’s not too hard.

“A lot of people do get nervous,” he added. “Because they want it so bad and they kind of forget what they’ve done all season, forget about the game plan, everything is a whirlwind.

“I don’t get nervous at all. I definitely get excited but nervous, not for me.”

Just like in the Grey Cup last November. While others got nervous, DaVaris, calm and cool, put forth a seven-catch, 89-yard performance. Losing hurt, he concedes, but that game, while fans held their breath across the country, never made DaVaris nervous.

For DaVaris, football was just in him. In his genes, like programming a machine.

. . . . . .

AT NOTRE DAME, IN THE FALL OF 2014 — WHILE THE SCHOOL SPENT TWO MONTHS INVESTIGATING — NERVOUS COULDN’T BEGIN TO DESCRIBE HOW DAVARIS FELT.

After playing in the national championship, DaVaris, already on academic probation after failing to keep a 2.0 GPA in the fall, was suspended in January for the spring semester for academics. He was re-instated in May.

In good standing both on and off the field, Daniels looked forward to defending his team’s national championship and improving his stock, with a keen eye on one day becoming an NFL draft pick. He was, after all, the team’s top remaining receiver heading into the 2014 season.

Soon, around the middle of August, all of that dissipated.

At the end of the summer session in 2014, the school suspected that students had submitted papers and homework written for them by others. The NCAA was informed on July 29 and on Aug. 15, DaVaris and four other players were informed they were being suspended.

“If the suspected improprieties are proven,” the release on Aug. 15 read, “we will use the experience to reinforce among our students the importance of honesty in all that they do. We are also examining ways of better conveying to students that they can avail themselves of legitimate academic assistance without resorting to cheating.”

DaVaris, along with KeiVarae Russell, Ishaq Williams, Eilar Hardy and Kendall Moore — three of them projected starters — were suddenly ‘cheaters’.

“They told us, ‘we are redeeming you with unacknowledged peer editing’,” recalled DaVaris, “and they said somewhere in the rulebook, it’s supposed to say that if you’re going to get help from anybody that’s not officially employed by the university, you have to cite that person’s name at the bottom of every single page that they helped you with.”

It’s common for U.S. colleges to employ student trainers, who are permitted to provide academic assistance to students who book an appointment.

Recently, in November of 2016, the NCAA’s investigation found that a female athletic training student completed course work for two student athletes during the 2013-2014 season. According to the same findings, the student trainer also provided ‘impermissible academic assistance’ to six other athletes in a total of 18 courses.

DaVaris admits to getting help with some small edits, but that he wasn’t the only one.

“They have a writing seminar but you have to sign up for an appointment,” he said. “And a lot of the time, the times aren’t open at your convenience – we have practice all day so we have a small amount of time where we can fit in a writing seminar.

“So if it’s booked, what are we supposed to do? You’re telling us we can’t talk to roommates, we can’t talk to friends, we can’t talk to family members? What are we supposed to do? The only thing we could do was that. So that’s what we did.”

DaVaris and his dad cite a divide between academics and athletics. That there’s a disdain for student athletes who, some believe, have it easier. What’s more, Phillip added, the panel determining his son’s fate was made up of students.

“I was never the greatest student, I was always middle of the pack. Just to be at Notre Dame, it’s a tough school and making it so far but being cut short for no reason at all…”

Davaris Daniels

DaVaris Daniels makes a catch during the 2012 season at Notre Dame (Photo: The Associated Press)

“A lot of students, regular students, resent athletes because they think we’ve got an easy ride,” said Phillip. “They think we’re spoon-fed and that we got the easy way out. So to have students on a panel to decide the fate of football players that are in the situation he was in — I think that’s sad and that’s bad because not all student athletes are going to look at things the way regular people would.

“I thought the university should have done it. It should have been people in the university — teachers, councilors or whoever should have decided it and not students.”

DaVaris also pointed to a double standard.

“I think, at the time, the academic side and the football side were clashing — they just kind of wanted to show who was in power and they set an example out of us five. I mean, that’s pretty much what it came down to.

“We don’t understand why we’re getting singled out because everybody does that,” he continued. “To us, that’s not a real rule. Nobody, even regular students, cites the person’s name at the bottom of every single page. Maybe you cite the person’s name at the end. Everybody gets help from roommates, friends, family members — those are the people they’re coming at us for.

“If you’re going to dismiss us, you have to dismiss the whole student body.  There was no reason that should ever have been a problem. And it was. Small edits.”

. . . . . .

THE WAITING WAS AGONIZING.

When the players were suspended, DaVaris says they were told the investigation would take about a week. On that timeline, in theory, the players in question would either have been dismissed from the team or reinstated in time to play their season-opener on Aug. 30.

On Aug. 26, 11 days later, the investigation continued and the players learned they would not play in the team’s regular season opener vs. Rice. Nearly a month later, on Sept. 23, there was still no conclusion while Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said at a press conference he was told an answer would come around the end of the month.

By that time, the parents were involved. For DaVaris, out of practice since mid-August, his football future and grades all in limbo, the situation was worsening.

Through the Lens: A superstar in the making

“We started e-mailing and calling the head people and they weren’t returning our calls or our e-mails and stuff,” said Daniels. “[Our parents] are calling, they’re e-mailing, everything. Still no answer.

“Third week, fourth week – at this point, I’m not going to keep going to class. Another week went by, another week went by. It was like, what am I supposed to do? You’re taking football away from me, you’re not telling me everything. I just sit at home all day, we can’t do anything with the team, can’t work out with them, eat with them – anything.”

DaVaris said that after all the waiting, he was given two options. He could withdraw from the next two semesters and return in the summer, finish school, get his degree and play a whole season. Or, alternatively, he could play the last two games of the season — including a bowl game, and never have the opportunity to return.

But when DaVaris chose the former, to come back in the summer and play a whole season, the plan hit a snag.

“After we signed the papers to withdraw and everything, it was like, three weeks that went by,” he said. “Then all of a sudden they were like ‘oh, and we’re going to change the grades from all of the classes we think you got extra help in, from the time that you got there to today’.

“Basically they just changed my good grades to bad ones.”

The new grades would have put DaVaris back on academic probation, sidelining him for the following season anyway.

“Therefore cancelling all hope I had of returning,” he said. “I was pressured to leave.”

Nearly two months after the investigation was opened, on Oct. 14, 2014, safety Eilar Hardy was re-instated and allowed to return to the team. DaVaris and teammate Kendall Moore revealed they were leaving.

Notre Dame has since confirmed that four of the five players under investigation that season were dismissed and issued retroactive grade changes in all affected courses.

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For DaVaris, the grade changes hit a nerve.

“Especially there, at a tough place like that,” he said. “Because I was never the greatest student, I was always middle of the pack. Just to be at Notre Dame, it’s a tough school and making it so far but being cut short for no reason at all…” he trailed off.

Worse may have been the way he left. His coach, Brian Kelly, was mad at him for avoiding the exit interview — DaVaris felt there wasn’t much to talk about — after pro day, while DaVaris felt that Kelly provided no support.

“He talked to me the first day we got word on the investigation and hadn’t reached out since,” he said, “but he was telling the media that we had been in constant contact and he cared — while we were told to stay silent.

“Things weren’t left off on good terms,” DaVaris added. “I felt as if the school did myself and the other guys pretty dirty.”

. . . . . .

THAT DAY, ON OCT. 14, A DAY SHORT OF TWO MONTHS SINCE THE INVESTIGATION HAD OPENED, DAVARIS TWEETED THAT HIS TIME AT NOTRE DAME WAS UP.

DaVaris showed no ill-will towards the school. He just wanted to go get his degree and play football.

“Not looking to transfer,” he wrote on Twitter. “ND was my team. ND is where my heart was. Unfortunately my time here is done, ready for my future.

“Thanks to everyone who supported,” he added. “I appreciate it and now it’s time to strap up for bigger things!”

Thanks to everyone who supported, I appreciate it and now it’s time to strap up for bigger things!

— DaVaris Daniels (@SincerelyToot) October 14, 2014

Not looking to transfer. ND was my team. ND is where my heart was. Unfortunately my time here is done, ready for my future.

— DaVaris Daniels (@SincerelyToot) October 14, 2014

Bigger and better things would come — just not how DaVaris or his father would have envisioned. DaVaris went undrafted, then was cut by the Minnesota Vikings and the New England Patriots before attending multiple mini-camps without receiving a contract.

Often, on that side of the border, politics come into play. Even if he was the best player on the field, it might not have mattered.

“Things that were said about him caused him not to get drafted,” said Phillip.

In Minnesota, Phillip recalls, a scout that recognized him from his playing days came up to him and raved about DaVaris’ play.

“Talking to DaVaris, I asked him, ‘how much practice time are you getting? Are they putting you in during practice? Are they using you?’ He said ‘not really a whole lot’ but he said they think he’s good. DaVaris stayed positive the whole time,” Phillip said.

“You know me, as a guy who had been through the league and knew the circumstances and how things should be done, I had doubts he’d be around because they never gave him an opportunity. You go to practice and you see them pick up guys that maybe coaches knew from other teams and they bring them in as a receiver in that position and you start doubting whether he’ll be there or not.”

In 2016, Phillip Daniels moved up the coaching ladder, signing up with the Philadelphia Eagles (Photo: Philadelphia Eagles)

Waived by the Vikings, DaVaris’ next stop was New England. Phillip says he believes the Pats had no intention of keeping him — that he was just a body for the fourth pre-season game. And once again, DaVaris felt like he was only being judged. Like he had committed a terrible crime.

DaVaris even began to wonder himself whether he was a good person — if he still even deserved to sleep in the bed at night.

“I went to the Patriots, I was there and I know they’re pretty tight with Notre Dame so I know they’re looking at the whole thing and thinking about me in some type of way,” he said.

In football, every player reaches an end. You know the adage: age is undefeated, in life and in sports. But for DaVaris, this wasn’t supposed to happen. Not to a player in his early 20s. The son of a 15-year pro. Named, out of high school, the top prospect in Illinois (247Sports.com) and the country’s No. 9-ranked receiver (Sporting News).

This was rock bottom.

“Now he’s outside of football,” said Phillip, “he’s going from team to team, working out for teams during the season and it seemed like every time he’d go to work out with a team, the Notre Dame stuff would come back into play – or they would keep a guy they knew.

“He’d say, ‘I’m killing the workouts, I’m doing really well in the workouts, but every time I go, it seems like the guy who’s working out with me, they already know from a previous staff or something’.”

Phillip, then a Washington Redskin, took on a new job with the Eagles, where he helped DaVaris get another camp invite. It would be the last NFL camp DaVaris would go to.

Shortly prior, DaVaris received a call from the Calgary Stampeders. The free agent had heard of the CFL but knew nothing about it. And the idea scared him. The league seemed strange and different.

“They wanted to give me an opportunity and it was iffy,” recalls DaVaris. “At that point, I had about ‘this’ much confidence, so I was like, ‘man, why would I do that? why would I waste my time’?”

DaVaris went to that workout in Philly and was, as he’d been accustomed to, unable to gain any ground on launching his NFL career. With the Eagles getting their first look at the veterans, the kid was on the back-burner.

“This was the first time he looked at me, and he said to me: ‘I need to be a part of something. I need to go to camp. I need to feel like I’m a part of something. I keep getting the run-around, nobody’s giving me the opportunity to go out there and show what I can do’.”

Phillip Daniels recalls his conversation with his DaVaris

It was then, in the hallway at the Eagles’ facility, that DaVaris and Phillip had a man to man, father to son talk. One that pushed DaVaris in a different direction.

“I told him, ‘I want you to go to Canada’,” said Phillip. ‘”I want you to go there and get your film right and do the things you need to do, because right now you’re not getting the chance that you deserve. I don’t think any of these guys realize what they’re missing out on in you as a player so you need to go there and show them you can play and come back to the NFL at a later date’.”

For DaVaris and all his overflowing, unrealized potential, it was exactly what he needed.

“The Notre Dame thing was crazy,” said DaVaris. “That’s the thing I had to realize, too. The whole time I saw my dad’s 15 years in the NFL, the NFL was my goal — I never even thought about the CFL or anything. It was definitely tough.

“For me, that whole year it was like, ‘man, I can’t even get out of my own head’.”

And it was right then and there, talking with his dad, when DaVaris knew what he needed to do next.

“This was the first time he looked at me,” said Phillip, “and he said to me: ‘I need to be a part of something. I need to go to camp. I need to feel like I’m a part of something. I keep getting the run-around, nobody’s giving me the opportunity to go out there and show what I can do’.”

. . . . . .

IN CANADA, WITH THE STAMPEDERS, DAVARIS WAS PART OF SOMETHING.

No one looked at him strange. No one whispered. No one stared. DaVaris, like everyone else, was there to pursue an opportunity. A second chance.

Every year, hundreds of Americans pack their life into a suitcase and move north having no idea what’s next. Some last a day. Others stay for the rest of their lives.

That’s the CFL. The league that first paved the way for black quarterbacks — before the NFL. The league that, without hesitation, welcomed its first openly gay player in Michael Sam. The league without politics. Football players, trying to do their job. Trying to earn their keep.

DaVaris appreciated the opportunity. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but with the help of Dave Dickenson and John Hufnagel and Pete Costanza, he started building himself back up. Slowly but surely. Starting with the practice roster.

In Canada, DaVaris Daniels found a place he could play football without any judgement or politics (Photo: J.P. Moczulski/CFL.ca)

“I gave it a shot and everything happened,” said DaVaris. “Pete had a lot of confidence in me, Dickey had a lot of confidence in me. It was good to actually see that. At first it was like ‘wow, I can’t believe they actually like me’.”

And they did like him.

“He came in, demonstrated very good patience,” said Hufnagel. “During his time on the practice roster, he did everything he could to get ready for his moment. He got the moment and he took advantage of it, like so many young players have to do coming up into this league.”

Ask any CFL vet and he’ll tell you there’s a certain humility required from an American coming north. Especially for those bigger-name players, from bigger-name schools. Newcomers here have to be willing to learn. To listen. To drop all preconceived notions. To rediscover football in ways they’ve never known.

DaVaris did all of those things. And much like you’d expect from the son of a 15-year pro, he did it with humility and grace.

“His dad played in pro football, you could tell he understood that he may have to bide his time a little bit,” recalled Dickenson. “He always knew that when his number was called, he was going to take it and run with it.”

At the same time, don’t confuse patience and humility with a lack of composure. DaVaris was far from timid upon his arrival. And while he may have lost confidence in some things about himself, he never lost sight of his ability.

Just like that first practice back in peewee, DaVaris wanted to be the best.

“On scout team, he was tearing guys up,” quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell remembers. “He was catching on guys, going over them, diving for balls. And I said, ‘hey man, chill, you don’t have to dive on scout teams’. And he said ‘no, I’m going to make the plays’.”

DaVaris got on the field in pre-season for the Stamps, catching a ball for six yards on June 17 vs. BC. After that, he didn’t get a sniff of the field until Week 9. On Aug. 19, DaVaris drew his first career start and caught four passes for 66 yards in a win over the BC Lions.

“The first game that I got to play was like, ‘man, I can’t believe I’m back on the field’,” he recalled. “It was kind of surreal. I was just happy to be there.”

DaVaris Daniels takes pride in making the most impossible plays look entirely possible (Photo: The Canadian Press)

By the end of the season, DaVaris wasn’t just the Stamps’ top receiver but one of the CFL’s best. His 885 yards and nine touchdowns in 11 games put him at 80.5 receiving yards and 0.82 touchdowns per game. Over an 18-game season that’d work out to be 1,449 yards and 15 touchdowns.

DaVaris’ contributions helped the Stampeders quickly forget about Eric Rogers, their leading receiver from 2015 before taking a job down south.

“Did we know he’d be quite as good as he was? I don’t know,” said Dickenson. “We thought he was going to be a good player, but he fit in well in our system and he and Bo developed a nice chemistry, made some amazing plays, had a great season.”

After a 15-2-1 season, DaVaris pulled down four catches for 107 yards and a touchdown in the Western Final, helping the Stampeders reach the Grey Cup. Before the big game in Toronto, DaVaris was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Rookie.

Along the way, DaVaris learned a lot about what makes an organization successful. For him, in Calgary, it was family. From the president and GM down to the equipment manager, the Stampeders are a family.

“From the second you walk in, Huff is there to shake your hand and talk to you one-on-one,” said DaVaris. “I remember my first day there, Huff came down to the practice field and said ‘sorry, I didn’t get to meet you yet’. He said, ‘I’m Huff’ and we just started talking. It’s a real family-like feeling as soon as you walk in there.”

For a kid that always put his family first — before football, before anything — it meant a lot that the Stampeders accepted him into theirs.

. . . . . .

IT WAS MARCH, FOUR MONTHS AFTER THE FINAL WHISTLE HAD BLOWN, AND DAVARIS STILL HADN’T WATCHED THE GREY CUP.

It was the largest upset in Grey Cup history. DaVaris still hadn’t relived it. Any conversation about it was short.

While DaVaris had learned how to lose early in his life, this one was difficult.

“He was hurt,” said Phillip, who was in the stands along with Leslie, DaVaris’ mother. “He was hurt after that game because they didn’t finish. He was hurt for the team.”

“It’s been tough,” DaVaris admitted. “Knowing how it ended and everything was tough. You want to take some things back but I think as a whole it’ll make us better for this year because we got a lot of the same guys back and I think everyone’s pretty hungry.”

For DaVaris, losing in the Grey Cup was much like losing in the national championship. And probably how he’d imagine losing a Super Bowl, too. Since then, he’s bottled all of that up while working out with his dad back in Philly.

DaVaris Daniels is interviewed by TSN's Farhan Lalji after winning Most Outstanding Rookie in Toronto (Photo: Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)

“I think he used that as motivation,” Phillip said. “He used that loss and the fact that he won rookie of the year as motivation –  that they didn’t get it done, that they didn’t finish. So he came home this off-season and he worked his butt off.”

Worked his butt off like the time he needed the grades to get into Notre Dame. Or when he was put on academic probation.

The Daniels always fight back. For both DaVaris and his dad, the NFL was the dream. And to be frank, it probably still is. In the four Stamps games he attended last season, Phillip says he saw receivers definitely talented enough to play in the NFL.

“To me, it’s almost like Canada gets a raw deal,” said Phillip. “When you mention Canada, they really don’t feel like the competition level is the same there as the NFL. But I’ve watched games, I’ve come over there and watched a lot of the teams play and I think there’s good competition there.

“Teams have good players,” he added. “A lot of those players over there are guys that were in the NFL. I know a lot of guys go to the CFL because they’re overlooked and you’ve heard success stories about them — years later they become stars.”

Phillip is right — some prominent NFL stars have come through the CFL. The number of receivers on the list, however, is null. Every year, it seems, some of the CFL’s top receivers try their luck south of the border and fail. Eric Rogers, Duron Carter and Bryan Burnham are a few of the latest.

“That’s something DaVaris will have to go through when it’s his time, if he ever decides to come back here,” said Phillip. “He may decide to stay over there, so we’ll see what happens with that.”

For now, DaVaris is just happy to be where he is. The Stampeders open their regular season on Friday, June 23, the first of back-to-back games against Ottawa.

It’s funny to think that not long ago, DaVaris knew nothing of the CFL. Now he’s contemplating a career here.

“You kind of have to understand that everyone’s path is different,” he said. “I’m just happy to be back doing what I love. The only thing I’ve ever wanted to do in my life is play football. I’m just taking it for what it’s worth and loving every second of it. Just playing and loving it.”

Part of his path, now, will always be here in Canada. Just like it’ll always go through Notre Dame, too.

This past November, the NCAA’s own investigation was concluded, confirming the school’s findings and levying a $5,000 fine against the university as well as the vacation of wins over two seasons that DaVaris and other players deemed ineligible would have played in.

Notre Dame is appealing the decision on the grounds that as soon as the school knew, it reported the incident and investigated it through its honour code process. The school also questions how all players and coaches can be punished for the actions of a few.

DaVaris and Phillip say they never talk about the incident — that it only ever comes up when they’re asked about it.

“He’s never even mentioned Notre Dame around the house,” said Phillip. “I told him to look forward. And he’s looking forward. That’s what he’s doing. He’s moved forward. He’s not going to look back and he’ll keep going.”

Phillip often says ‘the man above orders your steps and, whatever steps he puts you through, he does it for your good’. Those steps are now behind DaVaris.

At the same time, what happened at Notre Dame, it’s part of him. Part of his path, his story. It’s what he’s made of.

“He’ll never forget what was said about him. He’ll never forget what happened,” said Phillip. “Notre Dame, I think, is his fire that keeps him going. I think he uses that as a blueprint, a motivational tool to get him over the hump and to let him know that every day he steps on the field, he can think about that moment and all the things that were said about him and prove everybody wrong.”

DaVaris, who aspires to coach one day like his dad, says he plans to finish his sociology degree — although “it probably won’t be at Notre Dame.”

His dad’s keeping an open mind.

“I want DaVaris to eventually go back to Notre Dame and get his degree and he will go back, we talked about that,” said Phillip. “DaVaris doesn’t have any hard feelings about Notre Dame as the school, he has a lot of hard feelings about what happened to him. But at the same time, I want him to go back and get that degree, because a Notre Dame degree would mean a lot to him.”

For now, DaVaris is looking forward to next season. The here and now, with the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League. The 24-year-old says that after training with his dad this off-season, he’s bigger than ever physically. And while his dad wants to see him win Most Outstanding Player, DaVaris wants nothing more than another crack at the Grey Cup.

“Personal goals, I learned last year — it was the first time I didn’t set any goals and good things happened,” said DaVaris. “I kind of learned to just be in the moment and let things happen, to not worry about numbers because you’re either going to fall short or exceed them.”

If you ask Phillip Daniels, Notre Dame will always spark a fire inside his son (Photo: Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)

That talk about the past and future, for now it’s not relevant. At the moment, as his path continues, there’s nowhere DaVaris would rather be.

“I’m just over it and wanna move forward with my life,” said DaVaris. “I’ve grown a lot from the whole experience and I’m thankful for everyone around me now and blessed that Calgary accepted me and gave me a chance to show what I really am.”

“He’s happy in Canada,” added Phillip. “He loves Calgary, he loves playing for everybody there. He and Bo Levi have developed a good relationship there and hopefully this year he’ll get more targets – he’ll go from six or seven targets to 12 or 13 and maybe shoot for MVP. That’s what I want for him.

“I’m proud of all his accomplishments and what he’s done,” he continued. “Even through adversity, he’s been solid. He’s handled adversity the best he can. Better than I would, I’ll tell you that because you know me, I really do carry my emotions on my sleeve. But he’s handled it really well.

“To see him doing what he’s doing in Canada now, I’m just really proud of him and I just tell him stay humble, stay focused and good things are going to come.”

For DaVaris Daniels, the fire’s been lit. He’s just getting started.

From crying after dad’s losses to losing the Grey Cup and everything in between, the steps are in place. Exactly how God ordered them.

“It’s how you come out at the end that matters,” said Phillip. “It ain’t how you start, it’s how you finish.”

FURTHER READING
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