Crawford’s Work Pays Off

ARGONAUTS.CA STAFF

TORONTO — He may have grown up a Hamilton Tiger-Cats fan but Bryan Crawford feels no shame in calling himself an Argo.  A Hamilton native, playing for the enemy, Crawford lived about as conflicted a tenure as a football player in Ontario could.  Driving into the Big Smoke to don the Double Blue and then travelling back to Tiger-Town the same day.

Crawford announced last week that after a solid seven-year run with the Argonauts, he was retiring from football.

He still remembers his first game at Rogers Centre though it was not as a player.  It was during the 2001 season, the Argos were in a transition phase and former wide receiver Paul Masotti had just moved from the field to the front office to take over as Toronto’s general manager. 

“I remember we had known Paul’s father and he invited us down to SkyDome…I was just starting university, or ending high school, I think,” Crawford remembered.  “We sat in the family section, I still recall that it was section 114 in the stadium, behind the Argos’ bench.”

Those were the brief details leading up to Crawford’s first game in Toronto as a fan. His first game as a member of the Double Blue, however, was a bit more interesting.

An undersized running back/fullback hybrid, Crawford had 1,500 rushing yards in four years while playing for the Queen’s Golden Gaels, and he earned an invite to 2005 CFL Evaluation Camp.  The former Queen’s Rookie of the Year turned in the fastest 40 yard sprint time (4.5 seconds) at E-Camp but it did little to improve draft status. To put this into perspective, his time would have tied for fastest at this year’s camp (along with Andre Clarke), and would have been faster than times clocked by Anthony Parker (taken 3rd overall) and Marco Iannuzzi (taken 6th overall).

Crawford dropped to the fifth round of the 2005 CFL Canadian Draft and was selected 44th overall by the team he grew up cheering against.

Excited just to have a shot, Crawford attended training camp with an Argos team that had just come off a Grey Cup victory and had two capable backs, John Avery and Hakim Hill, as well as a veteran fullback and special teams demon, Jeff Johnson, on the roster.  What was more remarkable for Crawford was the fact that he went from watching the Argos go to the Grey Cup five months before and now he was competing to play alongside them.

“I was the youngest guy on the team and I was looking up to guys like Chuck Winters, Ray Mariuz and Mike O’Shea,” Crawford recalled.  “I was catching passes from Damon Allen…You shake it off and realize that you deserve to be here and you deserve to play.  So much is about timing and I was in the right place at the right time.”

Crawford had a great training camp and did enough to earn a spot on the practice roster come cut-down day.  He still remembers the day he was told he was sticking around like it was yesterday.

“Miles Gorrell was the guy we called the reaper back then.  He was usually the guy that called you into the coach’s office before you were cut,” Crawford explained.  “That first camp, Miles came up to me, my heart was in my throat, and he said ‘listen, we are not cutting you, I just wanted to thank you and let you know that you had a great camp and you made me look really good.  You were very close to making the active roster right away’.”

“I thought that making the practice roster meant that you made the team, which it sort of does. Later, Adam Rita said that everyone was joking that they had never seen someone so happy to make the practice roster.”

Crawford spent most of the season on the practice roster and, at times, considered going back to Queen’s. He says that it was then head coach Michael “Pinball” Clemons that convinced him to stay with the Argos and to keep perusing his football career, and patiently wait for his shot.

The first half of the season would come and go and after grinding it out on scout team, Crawford finally got his shot in Week 11 versus Edmonton.

“A few days before the game, Pinball pulls me out of meetings and says ‘are you ready?’ I said ‘Ya’, and he came back with ‘Okay then, you are up’.”

Crawford made his CFL debut on October 9, 2005, on Thanksgiving Day as a backup running back.  Late in the game, he got his first taste of the Argos offence, carrying the ball three times for 14 yards.

He didn’t really look back after that.  Crawford went on to miss only a handful of games and not only set an Argos record for most career special teams tackles with 137, but became a leader in the locker room and a team captain for five seasons.

Crawford retired last week with a solid career under his belt, a position with the OUA and his health intact.  He credits some of his teammates for his health, durability and ability to grow into a professional throughout his seven seasons on the field.  No player he credits more than Johnson.

“I feel pretty lucky to have some great teammates early on that took me under their wing, and I was lucky to spend my whole career with Jeff Johnson.  It is neat to become that older guy to help teach some of the younger guys how to be a pro and to have the opportunity to teach the guys about their career planning.”

Most of his teammates have an idea as to how much they had impacted Crawford and how much he impacted them, however, there is another group that Crawford feels he needed to mention before packing up his bags at the Argos’ training facility in Mississauga one last time.

For a player that some would argue as underrated throughout his career, he truly appreciates the fans of Toronto, which he believes goes underappreciated.

“In a city where there are so many other things going on, we really do have a truly dedicated fan base and I don’t think they get the credit they deserve,” he said.  “They are just as much a part of the team as anybody.  They have certainly embraced me all this time.  They really appreciate what you do and how you play.”