DON LANDRY – ARGONAUTS.CA COLUMNIST
TORONTO – Argos’ general manager Jim Barker was the subject of a phone interview on Winnipeg’s TSN 1290 radio, on Tuesday, opining on all things Argo, but particularly the team’s chances of slipping into the playoffs this weekend. The conversation then shifted to the topic of Toronto’s most outstanding player in 2014 and Barker was asked by host Gary Lawless to name his guy.
“Oh boy,” he replied, laughing.
“You know what? Right now, I would probably say Swayze Waters. He’s had a year like I’ve never seen a kicker have.”
“That may be taking it a little too far,” was Waters’ reply when told of the quote. “We’ve got a lot of great players on this team. I’ve just been trying to do my job.”
Now, Barker did quickly add his quarterback’s name to the mix and Ricky Ray is, indeed, the Argos’ nominee for outstanding player. That Barker would consider Waters a worthy choice, says a lot, though. Says a lot about the mammoth and on-going injury situation the Argos have faced in 2014, yes.
As importantly, however, it says a lot about the kind of year Waters is having.
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Related – Week 20 |
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-> 2014 Argos Team Nominees |
Moonshot punter. Long range kick-off artist. Point-chugging field goal kicker. Nationally renowned goat lobbyist. Everything’s coming up Swayze, including the Argos’ nomination for Special Teams Player of the Year.
With the kind of year, statistically, that Ray has had, it is some heady stuff to place your team’s punter/placekicker on even footing with him when it comes to the Most Outstanding Player Award. Waters’ stats in the world of pigskin hoofery, though, are on even ground with the quarterback’s numbers.
Tops in punting average, at 47.7 yards. First in points scored, with 173. Highest field goal percentage (89.8%) in the league. Named the CFL’s Special Teams Player of the Month for July and Special Teams Player of the Week in early October.
Waters delivers the goods for the Argos on the field and has started to blossom as one of the team’s most valuable off-field commodities, with his easy going, southern charm and friendly fun. He’s like Nuke LaLoosh, only with smarts and the good sense to be in on the joke, whatever the joke of the moment might be. Kickers could well be a different breed, generally speaking, but they are not all as affable and engaging as Waters.
“Just being yourself, that’s what everybody needs to do,” said Waters, when asked if he devises any part of his persona for the good of the team. “For me, I love football. I love being with the guys. I love everything that goes along with football. The road trips, the friendships you make. The ups and downs. I think what I bring to that is just kind of an attitude of fun, really.”
Like the fun of livestock?
“Everybody wants to talk about goats,” says the 27 year old native of Jackson, Mississippi. Waters, along with long snapper Jake Reinhart, took some down time, earlier this season, to check out a goat farm, north of Toronto. The YouTube video caught on, eventually leading to an interview on CBC Radio’s nationally broadcast “As It Happens” program this week.
“It’s kinda blown up bigger than anybody could have thought,” said an amused Waters, who recently spent some time at the Toronto Zoo (video to come). “One story spiralled into three. Seems like when those three got out, there’s five more.”
Quarterback Mitchell Gale spends a lot of time with Waters, as the two of them room together, along with quarterback Trevor Harris and strength and conditioning coach Chad Kackert. Gale says there is no fabrication when it comes to Waters. He’s authentic.
“Swayze is Swayze, no matter the environment, no matter the company he’s in front of. He’s gonna be Swayze.”
That means Waters keeps things breezy and lighthearted whenever he can. In the world of pro football, that’s a tonic – an indispensable one – in an atmosphere rife with stress and serious obligation. While he takes his job seriously, Waters is conscious of the joy that ought to be present.
“I’m always trying to remind everybody that ‘hey, this is a big deal. This is your job, there’s a lot of pressure. But, we’re playing football today. We’re twenty-something years old. Whoever would’ve thought that we’d still be playing this game? So just enjoy it.’ So that’s what I try to do is go out and enjoy it every day and help others to enjoy it.”
On the field, where there is very little joking around, Waters is continually working on the science of arc, distance and direction. When he first arrived with the Argos in 2012, his power was certainly not in question. His technique was, arguably, in need of polish. His punting, in particular, was being re-shaped.
Asked to work on direction and strategic placement, that work is not over and perhaps never will be.
“I don’t think you ever perfect it,” says Waters of a punter’s technique. “But, I do feel good. I feel real comfortable back there. In the past, I wouldn’t have kinda trusted myself to go for so much of an angle for fear that I would put it out of bounds (for a penalty). I guess I’ve earned my own trust over the course of three years here.”
His own trust and the admiration of his bosses, one of whom gave him serious MOP consideration.
Next week, Waters will find out if he’ll be the East nominee for Outstanding Special Teams Player. Hard to bet against him in a year where everything seems to be coming up Swayze.
“Swayze always seems to be at the centre of a confrontation,” says a laughing Gale, describing the social chemistry of four athletes living together. “Our love language tends to be sarcasm and mockery.”
That is in evidence, as Gale was asked to describe the ‘Swayziness of Waters.’ Did his roommate remind Gale of anybody?
“Woody,” he says.
“From Cheers?”
“From Toy Story,” is the reply. Then, an addition.
“Woody from Toy Story mixed with… he looks like Joel Osteen. I don’t know if you know who that is.”
Yes, I do, and the comparison makes me chuckle. Waters and the televangelist do share some similarities, appearance-wise, if not in leg strength.
Gale then talks seriously about the bond that has grown between team and housemates.
“When you can be brutally honest with somebody, it kind of goes unspoken that there’s a certain level of trust there, a certain level of love, if you will,” Gale said of his relationship with Waters, Kackert and Harris.
“It’s very brotherly. Our relationship is very brotherly.”