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MISSISSAUGA — During the course of a season, CFL clubs get reams of unsolicited tips and tapes touting those from the depths of the football world as players who could make an impact.
That's simply the nature of a league that relies on finding talent the NFL either misjudges or that doesn't fit the four-down game, or, in some cases, players who fall completely through the cracks.
So when the Toronto Argonauts were first contacted last season about a 19-year-old running back playing semi-professional football in Georgia, their enthusiasm was cautious and a few red flags went up.
“When you get a call and they say, ‘I've got a guy who is six feet tall, 190 pounds and runs a 10.4 [second] 100 metres,' you're going, ‘Well, okay, why isn't he somewhere?' ” Argos player personnel director Greg Mohns said.
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“You think: ‘This picture isn't clear. There must be something behind the scenes.' That's your reaction.”
Mohns was curious enough, however, to return the call in December and learn a little more about Da'Shawn Thomas, a former high-school star from Atlanta who had apparently fallen off the map as a football prospect despite having loads of talent.
“I'd just filed it in the back of my mind,” Mohns said. “So in December, I called the guy and asked him to send some game tapes up. When we saw them, we were impressed.”
Semi-pro football is a patchwork of teams that feature varying levels of talent and commitment, with players ranging from former college stars to regular joes who strap on the pads mostly for fun. Almost none are considered pro prospects.
But Thomas looked every bit as good on tape as he'd been touted by Charles Burhanan, an associate of NFL player agent Adisa Bakari, who'd stumbled upon Thomas by accident last summer when a friend invited him to a Georgia Generals game.
Burhanan, a part-time actor who appeared in Remember the Titans, recalls being amazed when he watched Thomas enter a game in the second half.
“They put him in and on the first play he ran for 80 yards,” Burhanan said. “But it wasn't just that he ran for 80 yards, it was the way he evaded eight tacklers like Barry Sanders and then stood up and ran away like Eric Dickerson. I was, like, who is this kid? I talked to his parents and said: ‘Why is this kid here? He's wasting his talent in this league. He should not be here.' ”
The reason Thomas was there turned out to be simple. Academically ineligible for major U.S. college football after high school, he'd enrolled at Garden City Community College in Kansas in the summer of 2005, but lasted just two weeks.
“I was young and I got homesick,” said Thomas, who will turn 21 at the end of August. “It was too far away and I was missing mom and dad.”
He returned home and the next year joined a team in the National Indoor Football League, the third tier of arena football, but it folded after just a few weeks.
Then came the Generals, who play under the umbrella of the North American Football League, a semi-pro tier that includes more than 100 teams across the United States and one in Canada, the London Silverbacks.
When Burhanan made his pitch to Thomas about the CFL, he was caught off-guard but enthusiastic.
“I was, like: ‘Really, seriously Canada? You got to be kidding me.' But I told him, ‘You set it up and I'll do it,' ” Thomas said. “He just stumbled across me. He asked who I was, came to a couple of games to see if I was legit. Then he made a few phone calls and this popped up. I've been rolling ever since.”
The Argonauts made their own phone calls as well, contacting Thomas's high-school coach, the Generals head coach, and then running a background check to find out whether he'd been in trouble.
To their surprise, they found nothing to discourage them.
“Everyone kept saying, ‘He's intelligent and articulate, he just doesn't like going to class,' ” Mohns said. “He'd never been arrested or suspended from school. We kept getting the same positive comments from everyone. And then we thought, ‘Maybe he's just one of those kids.' ”
There have been other players who've jumped from similar depths to the CFL and had successful careers, but they are rare.
Former Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders receiver Larry Thompson is one. Another was Mike Sellers (who arrived in Edmonton out of semi-pro when Argos head coach Rich Stubler was on the Eskimos' coaching staff) and is now a member of the NFL's Washington Redskins.
“Thomas is an neophyte, but I need to keep him here as long as I can, teach him everything I can, put him on the practice roster and then put in some pro situations and see what he can do,” Stubler said. “The last time I did that was with Mike Sellers. He was 19, and he's still playing.”
