Shawn Lemon got a late start to his season after signing with the Toronto Argonauts in late July, but the veteran defensive lineman has been a revelation for the Double Blue as they continue to rack up wins.
The 15th-year player has amassed six sacks in four games, helping the Argonauts surge into second in the East Division with wins in three of those four contests.
Lemon joined First Up on TSN1050 on Thursday morning to discuss what has helped him perform in limited time this year, the different ways he helps the team succeed and the outlook for the rest of the year in Toronto.
“Just having faith in yourself, training, staying ready, and being in a good opportunity,” Lemon said, when asked how he has been able to be so productive after joining the team midway through the campaign. “I’m over here on a team with coaches ... that understand my skillset and puts me in a position to do the things that I do good.”
Lemon highlighted Demetrious Maxie, who is the Argonauts’ linebackers coach and assistant head coach, as a particularly influential voice in the defensive room.
“He played a great career at a high level, I think over 70 career sacks at defensive tackle, which is amazing,” said Lemon. “He’s always been like a mentor towards me throughout my career, and for the first time to be able to play for him, I’m definitely thankful for that.”
Few players can boast the resume that Lemon brings to the locker room - his 151 games played and 109 sacks are each the most among active defensive players, and he is trying to use that to his advantage in his second stint with the Argonauts.
“I believe in leading by example, being one of the first guys in the building and one of the last guys to leave,” Lemon said. “I try to take it one day at a time, being the best version of [myself] on the field as well as being the best teammate [I] can be off the field.”
A large part of that leadership role involves acclimating players who come from different parts of Canada, as well as from the United States and abroad, to playing and living in Canadian cities.
“It’s a huge adjustment going from the U.S., everything you’re used to, then coming to Canada,” Lemon said. “I [remember] playing in Edmonton in 2012, I bought a car up there... and I didn’t really realize, this is pretty embarrassing, I didn’t really realize about kilometres. You go on the highway, you can go 100 [km/h] max, and I’m like ‘Oh man this is great, this car speeds down the highway.’ Couple days later I get two tickets in the mail. So it’s little things like that. Giving guys advice like ‘You should probably change your meter to kilometres,’ and little stuff like that goes a long way.”
Lemon is one sack behind Canadian Football Hall of Famer Tyrone Jones for 10th place on the CFL’s all-time sack list, and that achievement is not something he takes lightly. He said he checks on those players ahead of him on the list often, both as motivation and as a way to try to incorporate new skills into his own game.
“I was actually looking at Tyrone Jones ... I do my homework on guys. I was watching his skillset, seeing if there’s something I could use that he used in his game, and he reminds me of myself, a lot of similarities,” Lemon said. “It would definitely be an honour to pass him, and I’m just thankful. I always look at guys before me who have done it at a high level, and try to use whatever I can use from their game to add to mine.”
The Argonauts enter a key clash in Regina against the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Saturday at 5-5, a game and a half ahead of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for the second spot in the East Division. Lemon’s strip sack of Tiger-Cats quarterback Tre Ford early in the fourth quarter keyed a 39-20 victory over Hamilton last week.
“It felt good, but you gotta know when to take your shots ... When I hit the corner, I see [Ford]’s still got the ball, so my first thought is to try to create a turnover for us so we can get the ball back and get the win,” Lemon said.
A victory over the Roughriders would mark wins in four of their past five games and get the Argonauts above .500 for the first time since Week 4 of the season. Lemon is confident the defence is playing well enough to make that happen now and moving forward.
“We have a lot of upside, Jonathan Kongbo is playing great football, we got Ralph Holley, who is the best defensive tackle in the league, we’re playing great football and we’re meshing well together,” Lemon said. “A lot of the time it just takes time to get used to each other, and we’re getting used to each other, we know how to play off one another, and it’s only going to get better from here.”
