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TSN Football Insider

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TSN CFL Insider Dave Naylor looks at the latest news and notes from around the league in his weekly column.

In this week’s column:

- Canadian talent on top

- CFL players, NFL dads

- Iannuzzi calls it quits

- Durant returns to Saskatchewan

- Stamps hit a bump

- Shamawd Chambers reborn

- Argos’ second season at BMO in the books

While Canadian players make up the heart and soul of the CFL, they’ve rarely been included among the league’s very best players.

When former Calgary running back Jon Cornish won the league’s Most Outstanding Player award in 2013, he was the first Canadian to win the award in 35 years. Only one other Canadian over that span ­– Stampeders receiver Dave Sapunjis in 1995 – has even been nominated for the award.

But 2017 has been an exceptional year for elite Canadian talent, with four players who rank among the very best at what they do and who are in the thick of the CFL highlights every week.

There is Andrew Harris, the Winnipeg born and raised running back for the Blue Bombers, who still has an outside shot at becoming the league’s first player to amass 1,000 yards rushing and receiving in the same season. He’s the favourite to be named league’s Most Outstanding Player.

There is Calgary linebacker Alex Singleton, who plays middle linebacker on the league’s best defence. He leads the league in tackles and set a new all-time single-season tackles mark for a Canadian. He’s the favourite to be named the league’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player.

Add in the fact that Calgary running back Jerome Messam leads the league in rushing, while Ottawa receiver Brad Sinopoli was leading the CFL in receptions before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury three weeks ago, and that’s a quartet of Canadian players like the CFL has never seen.

Interestingly, the four players have all had different journeys to stardom.

Harris and Messam weren’t drafted. Harris was a junior football player and thus territorial property of the B.C. Lions after playing in Surry. Messam played small-time U.S. college football and was completely ignored in the draft because of questions about his character.

Sinopoli won the Hec Crighton Award as the top university football player in Canada while playing quarterback for the University of Ottawa. He was good enough to be drafted by Calgary, a rare distinction for a quarterback from a Canadian school. He eventually lost his job to Bo Levi Mitchell, who blossomed into a superstar. Sinopoli, however, is a star in his own right.

Singleton, who played college football at Montana State, was raised in California to a Canadian mother. He obtained his Canadian citizenship just prior to being drafted by the Stampeders last season.

CFL players, NFL dads

Two of the three CFL Performers of the Week happened to be sons of players who had long and illustrious careers in the National Football League.

Duron Carter, who starred during his first game starting at cornerback for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, is the son of Pro Football Hall of Fame receiver Cris Carter.

James Wilder Jr., the other player recognized last week, is the son of the James Wilder Sr., the all-time leading rusher in Tampa Bay Buccaneer history.

Wilder and Carter, however, are two of at least nine current CFL players whose fathers played in the NFL. Like Carter the receiver and Wilder the running back, many of them play the same positions as their fathers.

Here are the others (apologies to anyone overlooked):

Brandon Alexander, DB, Winnipeg – Father: Derick Alexander, WR, Browns, Ravens, Chiefs, Vikings (1994-2002)

Jackson Jeffcoat, DL, Winnipeg – Father: Jim Jeffcoat, DE, Cowboys, Bills (1983-97)

Justin Tuggle, DE, Toronto – Father: Jessie Tuggle, LB, Falcons (1987-2000)

Luke Tasker, WR, Hamilton – Father: Steve Tasker, WR/ST, Oilers, Bills (1985-97)

Bryan Burnham, WR, BC – Father: Lem Burnham, DE, Eagles (1977-81)

DaVaris Daniels. WR, Calgary – Father: Phillip Daniels, DE, Seahawks, Bears, Redskins (1996-2010).

Ryan Lankford, WR, Winnipeg – Father: Paul Lankford, DB, Dolphins (1982-91)

Iannuzzi calls it a career

B.C. Lions receiver Marco Iannuzzi has decided to retire at the end of this season, closing out a seven-year CFL career, all with the Lions.

The 30-year-old has set career highs in receptions and yards this season but found the wear and tear on his body was taking its toll on life away from the field.

“There was a Sunday where I couldn’t get out of bed to go to one of my daughters soccer games, so I’m like, ‘Why am I doing this? What am I gaining from it?’ There are things I will miss and things I won’t miss. I’m looking forward to coaching my kids in soccer and hanging out with my friends at regular hours.”

The Lions captured the Grey Cup in Iannuzzi’s first season and missed the playoffs for the first time in 20 years in his last, a result of having too many young players who didn’t understand and execute their roles.

“I was one of four or five veterans who should have created a better tone in the locker room,” he said. “We let the young guys step up too much and their actions created an anarchist locker room, an immature locker room. When we’d lose guys were fighting with each other and when we’d win it was like we won the Grey Cup. It was too volatile.”

Iannuzzi was not just a dependable player but a stalwart in the community. He learned auctioneering and became a favourite at charitable events, where he estimates he’s helped raise roughly $6 million.

Iannuzzi may be done with football but not with the Lions.

The Harvard graduate has worked as an investment advisor since his second CFL season and wouldn’t mind putting his business experience to work for his soon-to-be former team, if and when the team is sold to new ownership.

“I’d like to be a part of things from the business side. I think I could bring a lot to the table from the inside-out,” Iannuzzi said. “I’d put my hat in the ring to be the first 30-year-old president.”

Durant returns to Saskatchewan

It’s certainly not the return he might have imagined but Montreal quarterback Darian Durant will get his chance to perform before the fans he thrilled for nine seasons back at the stadium that now awaits the wrecking ball.

It’s been a tough season for Durant, 35, who has battled injuries and seen his overall performance fail to live up to the standard he set in Saskatchewan.

Durant is undoubtedly one of the top-3 quarterbacks in Saskatchewan Roughrider history, along with Kent Austin and Ron Lancaster. But if you were looking for something to put him ahead of those two it’s the fact that he was part of four teams that played in a Grey Cup.

The first was in 2007, while Durant was still learning the game on the practice roster, before the back-to-back losses in 2009 and 2010 and then the home win in 2013.

Stamps hit a bump

The Calgary Stampeders still have the CFL’s best record and will host the West Division Final on Nov. 18, but lately they haven’t been the juggernaut they were during the first half of the season.

Calgary’s second regular-season loss of the season – and their first loss at home in more than two years – marked yet another game where the Stamps offence struggled. It’s been the defence that’s managed to do enough to get the job done week after week since mid-September.

Calgary’s lacklustre play of late has fed all kinds of theories about what’s wrong with the Stamps:

- The rest of the league is simply catching up. Coming off a dominant season where the Stamps kept most of their roster together, they were bound be way ahead of the competition through the first 10 weeks of the season.

- The Stamps are banged-up. Injuries to the offensive line, running back Jerome Messam and there’s suspicion that quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell is dealing with some kind of shoulder ailment.

- Constant change at receiver. The Stamps receiving corps has sustained injuries this season to Kamar Jorden, DaVaris Daniels, Lemar Durant and others.

- Human nature. Being so far ahead of the rest of the division by late September, the Stamps have fallen victim to a lack of urgency. Given how last season ended, at least subconsciously this group understands that late-season wins mean little in the big picture.

Take your pick, but don’t be surprised if the Stamps are primed and ready when they host the West Division Final a little less than a month from now.

Shamawd Chambers reborn

It’s hard to recall a trade that transformed a player’s production as much as the one that sent Canadian receiver Shamawd Chambers from Edmonton to Hamilton several weeks ago.

Chambers, who has battled injuries through a good part of his seven-year career, played six games with the Eskimos before the trade, with just four receptions. In five games with Hamilton he has 24.

Chambers felt his standing in the organization took a hit when general manager Ed Hervey was fired. And while he has no ill-will towards the Eskimos, he’s revelling in his new situation in Hamilton.

“I just feel like I was given the opportunity and I’m treated differently here, like a veteran player who has been around,” said Chambers, 28. “I’m learning from June Jones in a different way than I have from other coaches … it’s exciting to be treated like a vet. That’s what sets everything apart.

“If I have a good off-season and can stay healthy, I think I could make 1,000 yards next season.”

Argos’ second season at BMO in the books

The Toronto Argonauts second regular season at BMO Field is in the books. While the football team has been vastly improved, paid attendance has remained flat from a year ago.

That’s not all that bad considering the Argos season-ticket base fell from roughly 7,000 in 2016 to about 4,000 this season. That decline follows a season where the team hosted the Grey Cup, and the off-season marketing push was impeded by the late hiring of general manger Jim Popp and head coach Marc Trestman.

There’s no doubt the game day atmosphere at BMO has improved, thanks to more exciting football and some tweaks to the game presentation, and the feedback has been positive.

A recent exit survey revealed 99 per cent who said they would return to a game and 76 per cent who would consider buying season tickets.

Another survey done this season with general sports fans in Toronto revealed a significant problem the Argos need to overcome: 75 per cent of the respondents weren’t aware that the Argos were playing at home on the upcoming weekend.

That’s why a big part of next season’s marketing strategy will focus on raising the awareness of game days, according to team president Michael Copeland.

“We don’t have the number of people we’d like but we are very confident in the experience people are having that do attend,” said Copeland. “Our goal now is to make people across the city more aware of the Argos and the opportunity to come down to a game.”​