With a tip of the hat to the catchy old propagandist Ontario tourism board song, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers inked NFL castoff Onterrio Smith to a reported one-year-with-option deal while he serves a suspension down south.
Current Bombers running back Charles Roberts did his expected routine of raising hell about the much-anticipated deal and even reportedly demanded a trade in the process. Roberts is pretty much the boy crying wolf on the Bombers, a guy who has stomped his feet and gone public with his beefs in the past to the point where no one even really bats an eye when he throws out another idle threat. Now, that comment isn't said with any malignancy, it's just that Roberts has made a habit in the past of rocking the boat but with very little muscle behind his punch. Roberts is in a great situation in Winnipeg, he knows it — we all know it — and the Bombers aren't stupid enough to compromise the abilities of arguably the best RB in the league by putting him on the backburner.
However, it will be interesting to see how the Bombers use Smith and still get Roberts the number of touches he needs and should garner. One media outlet suggested he'd be used in a Keith Stokes-esque capacity, which would mean lining up in a slot, returning kicks and occasionally coming out of the backfield.
Whatever. Just get it done.
The Bombers have made, thus far, the biggest splash in the CFL off-season by signing — to date — the biggest name of the spring free agency period (statement subject to change; Re: Williams, Ricky). In fact, you could make an argument that the 25-year-old is the most marquis of signings since Dexter Manley signed on with the old Ottawa Roughriders. Or Andre Rison with the Toronto Argonauts? Albert Connell to the Calgary Stampeders? Big statement? Sure, but off the top of your head name a guy who's come up here from the NFL with such pedigree, pomp and circumstance.
Smith, if he ever gets his stuff together, is a bonafide NFL back who the Vikings were elated about having when he came out of Oregon. (Side note: He was also good enough to crack my fantasy football team as a rookie. Very impressive.)
What accompanies Smith's arrival in the Peg City is the expected condescension of those who say the CFL shouldn't be welcoming players like Smith and Williams who have each had much-publicized drug run-ins that have stalled promising, even all-star, careers in the NFL.
Get over yourself and look at what the CFL is. The Bombers could have an "Original Whizzinator" promotional night for all I care, as long as the guy packing the prosthesis helps put W's in the standings. This is also a league that houses the Hamilton Tiger Cats who, once upon a time, put steroid-addled sprinter Ben Johnson on its negotiation list just because he was fast.
No one in that league should be able to look themselves in the mirror and keep a straight face when they suggest that the league itself would even consider not bringing these guys in. The CFL is not only highly reliant on ticket sales and walk-up crowds but also constantly champing at the bit to get any kind of marquis name in its ranks, which is why Rison, Manley, Connell et. al. have found a home here if only for a brief time.
Now, this will come off as some hypocrisy on my part because I've always bragged about the Pittsburgh Steelers being a class organization that drafts and sign only class act athletes and coaches, and that that is one of the great things about being a fan of them. Terrell Owens, for example, would never be signed by the Steelers nor, for that matter, would Onterrio Smith quite likely. In fact, I found the Dallas Cowboys signing of Owens not only embarassing, but about as predictable as the sunrise. America's Team, if you haven't seen it before, is a mess with a nice track record of complete jackasses. But I digress.
Yet, the difference being — and it's a big one — is that that's the NFL, where you have your pick of the litter of talented players by the thousands waiting to play. Guys like Onterrio Smith and Ricky Williams don't come the CFL's way every day and any organization in this league would be insane to pass up the chance. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers aren't the Pittsburgh Steelers and that's fine with me.
Regardless, Smith is good. Very good. If I were running the Bombers and you had told me a few years ago, when he was at Oregon, that he would be a Bomber some day, I'd have jumped up, said "when" and then began printing his jerseys. And I'm not the only one.
This is professional sports folks, and in this particular case talent trumps all.
2 comments:
If that's your stance on pro sports, fair enough. There's a university that you cover, though, that's done the same thing in the past and welcomed outcast (I always want to spell that word with a K) athletes to its teams. Does talent trump all in that arena too?
Brandon University, in every sense of the word, is an anomaly. I would argue that BU's track record unfortunately has given it a black mark that isn't entirely deserved. Have their been poor representatives (read: players) of that university? Absolutely. But, as I've written in the Sun, I also believe the school has provided a number of opportunities for athletes to get what so many of their peers get a shot at, and that's a university degree while playing ball. This isn't an altruistic angle. For every bad apple, there's been 10 others that came from the same root and managed to make life better.
The problem I have with the CIS, seeing as how you've brought it up, is that many universities are doing what BU was always hated on for, yet because the conferences and national governing body is so oblivious/indifferent, then it's never even discussed. I have always just subscribed to the people in glass houses theory.
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