My Career with the Alouettes
(and things that I learned)
Living in Montréal has given me the opportunity to do many wonderful things that I would have never dreamed of doing elsewhere.  This year I started something new - I now go to all the Alouette football games.  You might know that the CFL is now a rather low-budget operation with a total-team salary cap and all.  The upside is that it is much easier to get on the practice roster than it used to be.

Of course, being on the practice roster doesn't mean that you get to play, but I have learned a thing or two through this richly rewarding experience.

Things I've Learned:

1) You have to start somewhere (usually the bottom)

2) Grit your teeth and make your most scary face when carrying the ball.  This might scare away potential tacklers but more importantly it shows that you are a serious running threat (and every team needs to have one of those on the roster).

Below are several looks that work fine for photos but don't project the desired image for a ball-carrier:

The Smile:  No opponent will take you seriously with this look. Instead of tackling you he'll just stick out his hand in greeting and you'll probably shake it!

Thanks to Derek Simons for modelling this look.  Derek has charge of a crew of flight attendants for Air Canada where smiling is a rewarded behaviour.  He is so good at the smile and handshake routine (and other less pretty emergency procedures) that he now teaches it to other Air Canada flight attendant trainees.

Too Cool to Play:  If you are content to sit on the bench and collect your CFL minimum salary this look is as good as any other.  This is the look of someone who is going to go somewhere in his career.  In the CFL that means being claimed on waivers by Saskatchewan or Winnipeg and seeing two or three Canadian cities per year.

David Bernard, a man who has travelled to every major pulp & paper centre in Canada via his job as a chemical engineer, modelled this look.  Update:  David was too cool for Canada and made the jump to 4 down football (which is too boring for us real Canadians).  He now calls Allentown, Pennsylvania home and has chosen to settle down (for now) at the Fibermark paper mill just across the Delaware River in New Jersey.
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