Meant to post this earlier this week, but got sidetracked...
The Jesse of whom I speak is the one and only Jesse Lumsden, the former Canadian university standout still trying to get his rep as a fulltime NFL running back.
For whatever reason, Lumsden's attention in the Canadian media is so grossly outweighing his potential and ability — as it translates to NFL competition — it's further from reality than Whitney Houston.
Listen, it's a nice thought to ponder a Canadian university-bred player, in one of the skill positions — and not, say, on the offensive line or special teams — taking the NFL by storm, but that's a pipe dream and everyone knows it. What Lumsden's goals are in the NFL, they're probably modest and likely no one knows better than he the major mountain he has to climb to make that lofty goal a reality.
But the national media — I'm looking at you TSN and Sportsnet — can't get enough of the Disney script to the point where they've painted Lumsden as a legitimate NFL hopeful each of the past two seasons he's tried to crack a roster down south.
When Lumsden became eligible for the CFL draft, and the Hamilton Tiger Cats subsequently picked the hometown boy, the ever obtuse "experts" who cover the CFL openly questioned the logic of picking a guy who had his sights firmly set on making the NFL. Never mind that Lumsden was the most talented Canadian coming out of the draft of CIS athletes (by far) or that keeping a local makes PR sense, the experts had fooled themselves into believing that the Ticats had wasted a pick for, as they reasoned, Lumsden wasn't long for the CFL with NFL glory surely awaiting him.
Yeah, right.
Sportsnet covered Lumsden's brief foray with the Seattle Seahawks in 2005 training camp with all the vigour they'd muster if Todd Bertuzzi and Steve Moore opened a coffee shop together on Richards St. (That is to say, with a lot of it.)
If Lumsden broke the line of scrimmage, Sportsnet was there with blanket coverage and this year has been no different as Lumsden tries to make it with the Washington Redskins. TSN has continued the unwarranted fervour with the same type of attention as last year.
Wanna know when that excitement should be toned down a notch? When the guy isn't even listed on the team's depth chart.
Look for yourself.
There's a major difference between a Canadian — and there have been quite a few of them — making an NFL roster and a Canadian attempting to be a running back on an NFL roster. I don't care how many yards Lumsden ran for in the CIS, he could have run for 10 grand in a single season, it still doesn't put him in the NFL elite. An article on Redskins.com highlighted Lumsden's 344-yard performance in a 2004 game. Impressive no doubt, but let's remember this was against the Waterloo Warriors, not the Texas Longhorns. The two-win Waterloo Warriors, I might add.
This is not to say I wouldn't pull for him to earn a place down there, for sure I would, I would just like the media to check their Lumsden for President signs at the door and scale back what is so utterly over the top it's embarassing. After all, what are the expectations for him down there? It can't be to earn a spot as the feature back, that's preposterous. So then what? To spell Clinton Portis? Not a chance. To be realistic, Lumsden's best hopes are to somehow weasel into a role as a third-down back, which would be a tremendous, (read: TREMENDOUS) accomplishment, all things considered. But even if he does, one day, earn that status would that alone be enough to garner the abundance of media attention he's been privy too already? I say no.
I know we as Canadians love to boast about and cheer for our own when they branch out into the big-time of the U.S. but while we're giving all this attention to every one of Lumsden's insignificant moves, it's also forgetting that there are in fact Canadians throughout the NFL.
Israel Idonije is on an NFL roster. Mitch Berger is on an NFL roster. J.P. Darche is on an NFL roster. So too is Jerome Pathon, O.J. Santiago and Brett Romberg.
Jon Ryan just beat out B.J. Sander, the incumbent, for the punting job in Green Bay despite the fact Sander was a former third-round draft pick and the Packers had once upon a time invested a handsome sum in the Ohio State product. That's not a story of note? Instead it has slid under the radar while we're all told what hand Lumsden used to try and high-five Antwaan Randle-El.
Maybe it's because Ryan's a punter, maybe it's because he's from Regina and Regina's not in Ontario. Whatever the case his story is significantly more... well, significant... than that of Lumsden who is bound to return to Canada.
In the meantime, TSN can champion Lumsden all it wants, I'll quietly wish well to those Canadians who will actually play a game this year.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
I wish that I was Jesse ...
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6 comments:
Nice rant. A standard misguided one, but nice nonetheless. What's wrong with such coverage of Lumsden? He's probably the best football prospect this country's produced in a good long while and if he wants to try for the big lights and much bigger paycheques of the NFL, God bless him. And God bless our sportscasters for covering him every step of the way. So what if our best RB prospect doesn't rank with the average NCAA Division III RB? The fact is he's getting a look at a position where we normally don't have a snowball's chance in hell of even asking for a shot at the position. And as for incessant coverage (and I must be watching too much baseball because quite frankly I have only watched one story on his tryout with the Redskins), you should know better than most that we Canadians are the biggest flag wavers and 'rah-rah' citizens on the planet, despite this nonsense myth that we're quiet and understated. Any Canadian that opens a hot dog stand in the US, and survives, automatically becomes eligible for Macleans' 'Top 40' Canadians of the year. This is no different. And actually, to bring out the conspiracy theorist in me, I would suggest that they're hoping the kid fails so they can document his "inevitable" fall. I don't think anyone thinks this kid is going to be the next Walter Payton but would be quite happy to see him crack the roster, in whatever capacity.
So lay off the coverage already. Give the sports writers their bone. Sure, they're not writing on the other guys you mention because they were never CIS stars that were expected to make the NFL. All sorts of All Canadian athletes never went. Lumsden's there. Whether he stays or not is a different matter and one that will be written about with equal vigour when the time comes.
And in other news ... how 'bout them Yankees. Not in my wildest dreams could I have seen a 5-game sweep of the Red Sox. Despite this, however, I still contend that their most important series of the year are coming up against the White Sox and the Twins: they could very well be facing one of those teams in the playoffs (and yes, let's settle that matter now: New York will make the post season.). And enough with your anti-Yankees bias. Coming from a Lakers fan, that's laughable.
Garasa, I don't know what's more foolish in that rant of yours, but rest assured it was all lunacy.
My point being is that we already have Canadians in the NFL and OTHER stories of Canadians trying to make their way that get nothing from the rest of our media and the ratio of coverage to potential is entirely overblown.
As for the Yankees-Lakers dig, I don't know how many times you can make that completely bogus analogy. But if you prefer to compare the skin of an orange with, oh I don't know, let's say that of an apple, feel free. The only person you're hurting is yourself and the thousands of young kids who look up to you as an employee of the great Government of Canada.
Larkins, reading your diatribes is like reading Krusty's autobiography: self-serving with several glaring omissions.
You and your ilk are in the business of writing about sports. Hence, your raison d'etre is precisely to overhype. If we review what this Lumsden kid has accomplished, it's pretty darn good, on any level. You of all people should know you can't compare the Texas Longhorns to the Waterloo Warriers. But even you must clearly understand that gaining over 300 yards against them is still a mean feat and an extremely rare one. There's some fairly horrible NCAA football programs out there but how many 300+ games have they given up? Anyone who can pull off something like that (and who consistently gains fairly big yards in all his other games as well) has to have some talent and should be given attention by his hometown/country media. And if he's asked to try out with an NFL team, then why not have the Canadian media hounds monitoring his every move? And as to why he's getting the coverage as opposed to others, please. He plays the sexiest position outside of quarterback and is the best prospect this country has produced in that position. Is there something I'm missing here? And to compare his situation to a punter? There are not enough hours in this week to ridicule that comparison.
In any event it's now a moot point. I suspect you must be fairly pleased? http://www.sportsnet.ca/football/nfl/article.jsp?content=20060829_170445_4336
Let's see: the two biggest teams in their respective sports; by far the most "celebrity" spectators at their respective home games; ownership with bottomless wallets and even bigger egos that make sometimes good (High Schooler Kobe Bryant; High School prospect Derek Jeter) sometimes bad (Gary Payton? Carl Pavano?) player signings; merchandise sales far and away more lucrative than most other teams combined; TV deals more lucrative than some countries' GDP ... Gee, those are some oranges and apples you have there. Look, just face it. We support the two biggest, richest, most arrogant franchises in their respective sports. Get over it.
When's Kevin (don't call me Kanye) Glenn coming back to save the Bombers' season? They're starting to play like we expected them to play. And is it just me or is Jason Maas not as great a QB as we all thought he was? If he stopped throwing tantrums and started executing timing patterns (as well as getting more than 0.8 seconds of protection), maybe they'd have, oh, 4 wins?
Well Garasa I see living in Ottawa has taught you the art of spin.
First, the Lakers-Yankees thing. You keep referring to the Lakers/Yankees payroll like there's a remote similarly. The silly league that the Yankees play in have no real salary cap (let's not argue that there is one please), hence they can get ANYONE they want WHENEVER they want because they have the payroll and the ridiculous flexibility to do it. The Lakers, yes, are a very lucrative franchise but because of the NBA's cap structure, they are in fact not able to just go and do whatever they wanted to. If that were the case then they would have thrown billions at LeBron James or Dwyane Wade in this offseason, completely trumping what the small-market team like Cleveland could have offered. Sound like any team you know? Instead, they are in a waiting period of a couple years before they can go make a real pitch at any big-name FAs and, even at that, will really only be able to land one big-time name, two at the very most. This is the way it is with every team in the NBA.
As for Lumsden, good he's cut. We can get over all the hysteria. All my argument was that it didn't match the level of possibility. Everyone knows he won't become an everyday back in the NFL and if he makes the team as a special teamer then I'm sure Hamilton will have the ticker tape parade down King St.
Larkins, has the prairies removed you this far from reality?
So what you're saying is that the only difference between the Yankees and Lakers is that the NBA prevents LA from being able to spend extra gobs of money (while at the same time making more gobs than anyone else in terms of media and merchandising revenues)? By which, logic follows, you are saying that if MLB had a spine, the Yankees would do the same under similar restrictions? Fine, I'll agree with that. Just don't delude yourself into thinking that the two organizations are so wildly different because of this restriction imposed by their league. It's not as if the Lakers are not spending because they are fiscally responsible or good corporate citizens where they feel parity should rule the day in the NBA. If the NBA had a similar, "flexible" cap as MLB, there would not be too many teams who could compete with LA anyway. They could outspend any team if given the opportunity. Even the Yankees have their limits (see Carlos Beltran, Vladimir Guerrero and possibly Barry Zito). They are both loud, arrogant and fairly successful. Funny you can't see how similar they are.
As for Lumsden, I think it's a shame you wanted to see him fail (or at least are glad that he did). He's good at what he does and the media hopped on board. It's not as if he has his own website or sniffs off the field from his college program because he doesn't get enough reps. With attitudes like yours, we may as well tell our kids to not bother dreaming big.
Really, children, enough!!
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