http://www.theprovince.com/sports/footb ... story.html
Very nice article by Ed Willes. Some excerpts ...
Neil McEvoy could see the kid had skills — hell, anyone could see that — but as he stared at the game video sent by the player’s agent a year ago, a couple of thoughts ran through the head of the B.C. Lions director of football ops.
First off, the young quarterback who looked so impressive was playing for that noted football factory Saginaw Valley State and, as McEvoy says: “A lot of guys look phenomenal in Division II.”
The video was also two years old and McEvoy had no idea what this prize recruit had been up to. He knew he’d failed tryouts with Kansas City, Detroit and Green Bay in the NFL and had even attended a Saskatchewan Roughriders’ free-agent camp. But McEvoy didn’t know if he was still in game-shape or “weighed 600 pounds.”
Still, the Lions had their own free-agent camp in Atlanta in a couple of months and, at the very least, needed a quarterback to throw to the receivers. An offer was made contingent on the kid showing up in Atlanta, and it was accepted.
Good job, McEvoy.
“(Lions head coach Jeff Tedford) saw the film and kept saying: ‘Who’s this guy?’” McEvoy recalls.
“I told him: ‘He’s a guy we’re going to see in Atlanta at the end of April. He may not show up. He might be good enough.’
Good job, Tedford.
“I was always confident I could play,” Jennings says. “I just didn’t know if I’d get the right opportunity, and there’s a lot of guys in that position. When you’re from a Div. II school, you never know if you’re going to get that chance.”
The Lions offered him that chance. Now they’re sitting on a winning lottery ticket.
“But you have to see it when the live bullets are flying,” says Tedford. “There’s a lot of guys with big arms who can run. The critical thing at that position is their composure, their poise, their intelligence. You need to be around them to learn that stuff.
“Obviously, he’s athletic and he’s got a quick release. But, with quarterbacks, you have to get to know their makeup.”
What Tedford came to know is that the intangibles Jennings brought to the game were even more impressive than his physical gifts. He was confident but humble and grounded. He always seemed to be in control and never panicked. He was 23 and had zero professional experience, but he was a leader.
“He plays the same as he practises, and that’s a rare quality,” says Lions receivers coach Khari Jones, himself a former star CFL quarterback from a Div. II school.
“Usually the enormity of the game and the speed of the game gets you playing outside your comfort level. But he’s just as calm, just as composed as he is in practice. Once you see that, you think this kid has got something.”
It was put to Jennings that it’s easy to stay grounded when you’ve flunked three tryouts with NFL teams and you were working in a warehouse.
He laughed, then said: “I was raised the right way. My parents (mother Brenda, who attended Cornell, and father Calvin, a U.S. postal worker) taught me about hard work. I come from a blue-collar background.”
“I was (in the warehouse) for three months (in late 2014) but this was their life,” he says. “This is what they did to put food on the table and a roof over their family’s head, and they worked hard. I have so much respect for those guys.”
This fan is enormously impressed with this young man. And this is why I love the CFL. The people. The stories.
I expect he is going to be just fine as a QB. But that is actually secondary to his character, where he came from, and how he sees his fellow man, as with the blue collar workers. Happy to have such a person associated with our team.
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.
Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.
Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.