In 2021 Kadeem Rodgers earned the role as head football coach for Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia. After spending time with the program previously as an assistant coach and serving as a head coach for Millbrook School in New York, Rodgers says he is, “where I want to be.” He told JZ Media’s Jordan Zlomislic in an interview, “My first memories were at practices, and around football. My father coached football, and I ended up playing for him myself. I remember as a kid at school I was always writing up plays. I had my book open, on one page there was the school work and the other had my own playbook I was writing up. I’ve always wanted to be a high school football coach. I know the power coaches have in athletes lives growing up, and I want to help young athletes become the best versions of themselves.”
He and Episcopal are coming off of a 3-6 season in 2021, but he’s ready to turn that around for the 2022 campaign and build up the football program in Alexandria to the best of his ability. “We were the only boarding school in our league, and dealing with COVID it put us behind the other teams that we played. It wasn’t a great season, but it excites me to get better, and it gives us an opportunity to deal with losing.” Rodgers explained, “We can re-evaluate and come back better for next season, as a coach I’m looking forward to it.”
Historically, Episcopal has a great football team. In past years they have been able to win a number of games and even championships, but what makes them even better, and what is more important for the school is the amount of football players that have made it to the next level. Episcopal has football players playing at the division one level with schools varied from Wake Forest, Notre Dame to Yale and Dartmouth. It speaks for itself at that point, where Episcopal is successful for bringing players to the next level athletically at a high level, but also academically, seeing student athletes go to Ivy League schools. Coach Kadeem Rodgers told Zlomislic, “The proof is in the pudding. There are guys that have made it and are getting sent to division one schools and even Ivy League schools. Athletics and academics, what is better than that.”
Kadeem Rodgers with his daughter, a family man and excellent coach with a great vision for the athletes
Some players that have come out of Episcopal recently have been international students. With the rise of football talent in other countries like Canada, as well as countries over seas, Episcopal, as a boarding school has been able to help athletes like Luiji Vilain, Jonathan Sutherland, Chris Fournier, and Patrice Rene from Ottawa find homes in the NCAA and each one of them are likely to find homes as professionals as well. The boarding school, and the football team are great for young athletes with big dreams, Coach Rodgers just wants to be able to help the next generation of athletes. “I want to be able to build with this team here (at Episcopal) and coach a program that is known to play for one another, known for acting of class, and a team full of resilient and responsible individuals. I want to not only help my team become the best versions of themselves, but I want to be the best version of myself when I am around them.”
When it comes to the game of football, there has always been talent north of the USA-Canada border. As the only other country outside of the United States that has football in high school, college and the professional stage, the country of Canada has always produced good football players. But have they produced great, and phenomenal football players too? Yes they have. The CFL has always had some of the greatest Canadian athletes, and we’ve seen a number of players in the past make it across the border to play in the NCAA as well as the NFL, but for the majority of the players that have excelled in football, it has happened in the trenches. Canada has mainly been known for talent on the defensive and offensive lines over the years. It wasn’t common for us to see skill position players come out of Canada and have success down south.
In the last couple of years though, receivers Nkeal Harry, Chase Claypool and Joshua Palmer, running back Chuba Hubbard, defensive backs Tevaughn Campbell, Jevon Holland, Benjamin St Juste and linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiga have made their ways to the NFL as skill position players. John Metchie, Jesse Luketa, Chase Brown, Sydney Brown, Alonzo Addae, Jonathan Sutherland, Jared Wayne and so many other Canadian skill position players are already getting ready to enter the NFL as well, and that narrative, that Canadians can only play in the trenches is changing extremely fast. One player that is a great example of that narrative change is Dylan Djete. Djete is a 6 foot, 175 pound receiver originally from Montreal, Quebec. He excelled on both sides of the football, having played both defensive back and wide receiver, and even dabbling at quarterback as well in Canada before finding his calling at receiver across the border at Clearwater Academy International in Florida.
With the Clearwater Academy International Knights in Florida, Dylan Djete made an immediate impact, scoring three touchdowns in his first game across the border. He says, “I knew I was good at football when I went but I didn’t know what I’d be able to do there (in the states). In Canada we look at Americans and American football like its so big but it’s kind of overrated. They all are human, they breathe the same air as us and stuff. When I scored three touchdowns it was a blessing to see that I can do it there, and the rest is history.” As a junior with the Knights Djete caught 31 passes for over 780 yards and 9 touchdowns. He was the team’s number one receiver, and was only getting warmed up for what would be the most productive season in the history of Clearwater Academy International. His totals as a senior in 2021 put him above division one receivers Ajou Ajou, Jared Wayne and Nickolas Tshivuadi with 37 catches for 900 yards and 14 scores. “It was a blessing,” Djete told JZ Media’s Jordan Zlomislic, “I put in a lot of work and invested a lot of time to get to that point. For it to actually happen was a blessing and I’m only going to keep pushing at it and never give up.”
Just recently it was announced where Djete will be pushing at it next, as he received his very first division one offer from Wofford College in South Carolina and committed to it days later. When he got the offer, Djete said, “It was a relief,” and explained, “It was a long wait. I’ve waited over a year and a half for this. Since my first season in the states I’ve been waiting for it to happen. I’ve been working hard for it, and every hard worker knows that when you work hard for something, and you get it, there’s always that feeling where it’s like ‘finally!’ It doesn’t even feel real yet, I haven’t really realized it yet that it’s happened.”
He’s worked hard to get to this point in his football career, and there will be no looking back. As a dual threat receiver with a number of tricks up his sleeve, Djete prides himself as being a good route runner that is able to create separation with a good football I.Q and good hands. He told Jordan Zlomislic that he is a “playmaker,” and that at the division one level, “they can expect the same kind of production I had in high school, but better. I am prepared, and will only be a better player than I was before. I don’t want to put my goals out there or anything, but (Wofford) is getting someone that is going to work and make the most of the opportunity they gave me.”
With the long list of division one players that have come out of Clearwater Academy International over the recent years, and the success that Canadian skill position players are having, everything points towards Dylan Djete being the next best receiver to make it in the NCAA and soon the NFL. He’s got all of the tools to make it happen, and with his work ethic, it’s a name to remember and keep tabs on.
The 2022 CFL free agency period will open at noon eastern on February 8th. One week from today the Ottawa Redblacks will have a lot of major decisions to make, and they already have been preparing to make those decisions with the CFL’s negotiations window open as of January 30th. Of course, first of all they have a long list of free agents of their own to deal with, which they have started to by re-signing defensive backs Abdul Kanneh and Randall Evans. Kanneh, a 31 year old defensive star is coming off of a year, where is seemed like he could carry the Ottawa Redblacks at times… because he did. He had two interceptions in week one, including a pick six, and then had one more interception later in the year on top of 28 defensive tackles. Evans made a big impact in 2019 and 2021 with the Ottawa Redblacks as well, having made 150 tackles, 4 sacks, 2 interceptions and forcing two fumbles in 31 games. Re-signing Kanneh and Evans gives the Redblacks Sherrod Baltimore, Brandin Dandridge, Abdul Kanneh, Justin Howell, Jordan Beaulieu, Ranthony Texada, and Treshaun Abrahams-Webster in the backfield as experienced CFL players alongside both Denzel Rice and Anthoula Kelly who have been signed as American free agents. Ottawa has yet to re-sign defensive stars Antoine Pruneau, Micah Awe, Avery Ellis, Don Unamba and Davon Coleman. Before signing anyone outside of the organization next week Shawn Burke and his front office should prioritize re-signing some of their own star power on defence.
Once that is done though, there is plenty of talent around the CFL that he and his staff can get hands on and bring to the nation’s capital. Going into free agency, some of the key players and parts of the team in Ottawa right now stand as quarterbacks Caleb Evans and Devlin Hodges, running backs De’Lance Turner and Justin Davis, receivers Ryan Davis and Nate Behar (R.J Harris is a pending free agent), offensive linemen Jacob Ruby, Dino Boyd, Jakub Szott and Andrew Pickett, defensive linemen Cleyon Laing, Praise Martin Oguike and Kene Onyeka, linebackers Avery Williams, Shaheed Salmon, and Dwayne Norman and defensive backs Sherrod Baltimore, Brandin Dandridge, Randall Evans, Abdul Kanneh and Justin Howell as well as specialists L.P Bourassa, Lewis Ward and Richie Leone. The team’s needs would come at receiver, offensive line, defensive line and linebacker depending what they decide to do with their own pending free agents.
Reports have come in saying that Burke is looking to pursue veteran quarterback Jeremiah Masoli from Hamilton. In 2021 the Ottawa Redblacks struggled on the offensive side of the football. They weren’t able to put points on the board on a number of occasions and weren’t able to keep up with the competition a lot throughout the 14 game season, but the struggles rarely came from quarterbacks Caleb Evans and Devlin Hodges who are under contract with the Redblacks for 2022. The Ottawa Redblacks gave up a league lead 53 sacks in 2021 and the receiving core only helped the quarterbacks pass for an average of 194 yards per game. It was not the quarterback play that put the Redblacks behind in 2021. It was the offence built around the quarterback and the way the offence was managed that put the team behind. In 7 games under centre in 2021 Caleb Evans won 2 games. He threw for 1,279 yards and ran for 345 while scoring a total 8 touchdowns. He brought a spark to the Ottawa Redblacks’ offence, and at 23 years old he showed potential to be a great quarterback in the CFL. Shawn Burke and the Ottawa Redblacks do not need to pursue Jeremiah Masoli and spend what would likely be over $400,000 for a quarterback. They have their quarterback on the roster today, what they do not have though is a team built around him. With a strong and reliable offensive line as well as some playmakers to throw to, Caleb Evans is a quarterback that can bring a Grey Cup back to the city of Ottawa.
Building around Caleb Evans, or whoever the Redblacks want under centre in 2022 will be hard without Mark Korte on the team. Korte has been offered a contract from his hometown Edmonton Elks and is expected to sign with the Elks once free agency officially opens next week. Nolan MacMillan remains unsigned by the Ottawa Redblacks, he would join Justin Renfrow, Josiah St John, Brett Boyko, Matthew O’Donnell, Cody Speller, Kay Okafor, and a number of other proven CFL offensive linemen in the free agency pool including B.C Lions’ lineman Hunter Steward who the Redblacks reportedly have interest in. It is clear that the offensive line is an area in need of improvement for the Redblacks, and it should be addressed with proven and reliable talent.
Moving to wide receiver, and what could be the most influential positions for the Ottawa Redblacks in 2022, like it was in 2015 when Ernest Jackson, Brad Sinopoli, Greg Ellingson and Chris Williams came to the team, Ottawa is in need of a playmaker, or two. R.J Harris is a pending free agent, and should be re-signed as a proven veteran pass catcher. He may not have the flashy 1,000 yard seasons that you love to see for fantasy football, but he has been a great veteran on and off of the field for the Redblacks and is continuously a reliable pass catcher no matter who is under centre. If he is re-signed by Ottawa that gives Caleb Evans, or who ever plays quarterback in Ottawa R.J Harris, Ryan Davis, Nate Behar and Jordan Smallwood at receiver. On the market next week though is Duke Williams, Darvin Adams, Rasheed Bailey, Kenny Lawler, Hergy Mayala, Jake Wieneke, Brandon Banks, Greg Ellingson, Jevon Cottoy, Jaelon Acklin, Jordan Williams Lambert and Ricky Collins who would each come to Ottawa with an insane ability to succeed in red and black. To be able to get back in the Grey Cup, Ottawa needs at least two or three top tier offensive playmakers. Running back De’Lance Turner and receiver Ryan Davis showed their potential to be exactly that in 2021, but adding proven talent to the mix would only help Paul LaPolice and his Redblacks offence for the 2022 CFL season.
On the defensive side of the ball, if everyone is re-signed there is not much more to do to improve Mike Benevides’ squad. In 2021 the defence is what kept the Redblacks in games for the most part of the season. Players like Micah Awe, Randall Evans, Avery Williams, Abdul Kanneh, Brandin Dandridge, Sherrod Baltimore, Praise Martin Oguike and Davon Coleman were the heart of the Redblacks defence, and when they all were healthy it was a powerful defence to go up against. It is unlikely that everyone comes back from the 2021 CFL season though, so some names to keep eyes on in free agency would include Kwaku Boateng, Dylan Wynn, Darnell Sankey, Ja’Gared Davis, Ed Gainey, Cariel Brooks, Jevon Santos-Knox, Jumal Rolle, Trumaine Washington, Jonathan Rose, Branden Dozier, Alden Darby, Patrick Levels and more. Defence wins championships, and the Redblacks defence, all things considered, was very strong in 2021, with a couple of key additions this off-season, it could be one of the best in the league and lead the Redblacks to a Grey Cup.
As described, there are a lot of decisions to be made this week and next week for newly hired general manager Shawn Burke. Depending on the decisions he makes, as well as how they play out during the 2022 CFL season, a lot of what happens within the next couple of weeks will determine whether or not he was the right hire for the Ottawa Redblacks as they aim to get back into the Grey Cup after two three win seasons in 2019 and 2021. If you were the general manager in Ottawa, what would you do? Would you build a team around young quarterback Caleb Evans who is full of potential, or spend on a veteran quarterback like Masoli with limited space for a team built around him? How much of a difference would it be going with a veteran under centre?
On September 5th 2021, in week 5 of the 2021 CFL season, during a game between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg Blue Bombers defensive tackle Ezekiel Rose tore his ACL. The game he was in would be the first of his professional career, having been signed with the Blue Bombers since the 2019 off-season and through the cancelled 2020 season, but unfortunately it would also be the last game he’d play of the 2021 CFL season.
His time on the field for 2021 may have been up with the injury, but the injury wasn’t going to stop him from being active and bringing his energy to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. On the sidelines for the remainder of the 2021 CFL season, Rose found himself behind a camera, taking pictures of his teammates at practices, and eventually at the Grey Cup as well. “I’m very interactive,” Rose told Jordan Zlomislic of JZ Media in an interview, “so I brought my speaker out to the field for a couple of practices to start out and took pictures of the guys. We didn’t really have a photographer that came to every single practice so I ended up doing it. The coaches were getting into it, telling me to take pictures of certain drills and stuff, and when I started to send the pictures out to guys they all really liked it.” he said, “I was really feeling the photographer thing during the season.”
Zeke Rose’s picture of Alden Darby at the Grey Cup
Getting into photography during the 2021 CFL season helped Rose stay connected with the game of football as well as his Blue Bombers teammates, but it also helped him explore his interest of being a photographer long term more. “I like it a lot,” he said, “I’m always learning, and the best part about it is I can be doing this a long time. It doesn’t take a toll on my body like football would. I would love to stay in photography more when I’m done playing for sure. Would be cool to have a job at a school where I take pictures of all of the sports and be in the background.”
Zeke Rose at West Virginia University
Rose first got into photography while he was playing football and attending West Virginia University. He tells the story to Zlomislic, “I was at a basketball game or something and I saw one of the photographers with 3 or 4 cameras on him so I was like ‘I’m going to take your camera’ and I ended up taking some pictures with it. I did that a couple of times and then once at a women’s soccer game I took a lot of pictures. When he (the photographer) was back home editing he called me over and wanted to show me some of the pictures I took at the game, then he ended up actually giving me one of his cameras and some accessories for it.” Rose went on to use that camera during his time at West Virginia, taking pictures at all kinds of sporting events and fitting into the photographer community in the NCAA. He did so while playing high level football, playing in 25 games, making 42 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, 6 sacks, 4 pass deflections, 2 interceptions and one forced fumble in the BIG 12 coming from East Mississippi Community College, the original home of the Netflix special “Last Chance U”. Taking pictures at West Virginia, he realized the potential of being a photographer long term, and being able to stay within the game of football past his playing days. The execution of that came in 2021 when he was with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
With professional football being played right in front of him, and talent behind the lens, Ezekiel Rose took the initiative to take pictures of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and ended up taking pictures at the 2021 Grey Cup in Hamilton. Rose is just one of many athletes in the CFL that has been able to explore his opportunities off of the football field while playing in the league. It is great to see, and maybe one day soon, the CFL could see him as the best photographer in the league.
Zeke Rose’s pictures of Brady Olivera, Rasheed Bailey and Jonathan Kongbo at the Grey Cup
Rose will be a CFL free agent on February 8th, and if not signed by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers prior to that date, will be available to sign with any of the 9 CFL teams. He will be completely healthy from his ACL tear in 2021 and can be a great signing for any team for the team on and off of the football field. Ezekiel Rose, at 25 years old can be a star defensive tackle in the CFL, and can bring energy and creativity to the locker room as well.
In 2009, the NFL’s Miami Dolphins launched the professional football career of offensive lineman SirVincent Rogers. Rogers went played for the University of Houston Cougars prior to that point, and went on to play for 8 different teams during his professional career. His professional football career ended on Friday with a one day contract with the CFL’s Ottawa Redblacks.
The one day contract gives him the opportunity to retire with the Ottawa Redblacks, where he played from 2015 through 2018, having some of the more memorable years of his football career and more successful years in the city. He won the CFL’s most outstanding offensive lineman award in 2015, won the Grey Cup in 2016 and was named an All-Star in three of the four seasons he spent in Ottawa.
Over his playing career in the CFL, after time spent with the Dolphins in the NFL and a few other teams in arena football league, spread out between the Toronto Argonauts, Ottawa Redblacks and Edmonton Elks, SirVincent Rogers played in a total 90 games in the CFL.
On Wednesday, the NFL’s Miami Dolphins worked out DeVonte Dedmon, a kickoff return specialist and offensive weapon from the CFL’s Ottawa Redblacks. The workout was one of 6 he had in the NFL over the last couple of months, including those with the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, Arizona Cardinals, Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Chargers, but the one with the Dolphins seemed to be the most successful, coming out of it with an official NFL contract.
This is no surprise that Dedmon got his shot in the NFL, as it has been something waiting since he got out of university, from William & Mary. The 5-foot-10, 205 pound receiver, running back and kickoff return specialist may just be the best player that has ever came through the Ottawa Redblacks facility. In just 16 games in red and black during both the 2019 and 2021 CFL seasons (2020 season was cancelled due to COVID-19), Dedmon had eye catching 3,179 all-purpose yards and 6 touchdowns on 165 touches. With a mix between catches, rushes, punt returns, kickoff returns and missed field goal returns he averaged 19.26 yards per touch as well as 198.68 yards per game played. The numbers he put up were unheard of, and put him under a spotlight in Canada, winning the CFL’s most outstanding special teams player of the year award in 2021. He also broke a Redblacks franchise record in 2019 with 377 return yards in a single game and a CFL record as the fastest player in league history to reach 5 return touchdowns, doing so in just 15 games.
It is crystal clear that DeVonte Dedmon the football player is well deserving of the opportunity to suit up for the Miami Dolphins in the NFL, but what makes him even more deserving of the opportunity to live out his childhood dream of playing in the NFL is who he is off of the field. In a limited amount of time in Ottawa, only playing 16 games over a span of three years with the Redblacks, Dedmon became a fan favourite. Sure, what he did on the field had a big say in that but his personality, and the way he handles himself in a professional matter is second to none. He is and will continue to be one of the most humble athletes that has ever laced up the cleats, and because he may not be the loudest player when it comes to social media and his public appearance he is extremely underrated for the player he is as well as the person he is and will be off of the football field.
In 2021 the Miami Dolphins had both Jaylen Waddle and Jevon Holland taking the most part of kickoff and punt return reps. With both of them solidifying key spots to the team on offence and defence in their rookie years, it is very likely that we see Dedmon return kicks for the Dolphins in 2022 and show exactly what kind of player he can be in the NFL. There is a chance he can be featured on offence too. The Dolphins have DeVante Parker, Will Fuller, Jaylen Waddle, Isaiah Ford, Mack Hollins, Albert Wilson, Lynn Bowden, Preston Williams and Allen Hurns on their roster moving into the off-season, but after the off-season passes with the draft and free agency there is no saying who remains on the roster. Not a lot of players can offer the same skill sets as DeVonte Dedmon, having the ability to run the ball between the tackles extremely well and return 100+ yard kickoffs for touchdowns. It’s a very rare skill set. Be tuned in to see it on the big stage on Sundays with the Miami Dolphins.
Over the last week or so there have been a number of moves made across the CFL. The defending Grey Cup Champions, Winnipeg Blue Bombers have been focused on bringing back their championship caliber roster and other teams have also dedicated this time to re-signing their own pending free agents. Shawn Burke, the Ottawa Redblacks new general manager and his staff haven’t made too many moves since taking over. They did re-sign Jordan Beaulieu and Nate Behar from the 2021 Redblacks as well as sign a few free agents like Canadians Jacob Ruby, Mitch Raper, Shaiheem Charles-Brown, Will Corby, Connor Berglof (from draft), Jersey Henry, Eric Starczala, and Americans Ventell Bryant, Siaosi Mariner and Corey Thompson. Of all the moves thus far, alongside the roster cutdown, the biggest moves that Burke has made with the Redblacks would be re-signing Nate Behar, signing Jacob Ruby who has played in the CFL already and done very well for himself on the offensive line in the league, releasing Dominique Davis, Kenny Stafford, Na’Ty Rodgers, Brad Muhammad and Jerod Fernandez while also discovering American pass catchers Ventell Bryant and Siaosi Mariner. With that being said though, the Redblacks are coming off of back to back 3 win seasons and have a lot more work to be done than just a few moves. CFL free agency is approaching us very fast, and there is a lot of moves to be made by Burke and the front office, but what moves need to be done and who should be on their way to the nation’s capital?
Well to start off, the Ottawa Redblacks have a lot of free agents of their own. A lot of the players set to hit the market from Ottawa were key contributors to the little success the team had in 2021 and should return to the 2022 team to build off of what they started last season. On the list of players to hit the market include R.J Harris, Mark Korte, Davon Coleman, Avery Ellis, Micah Awe, Don Unamba, Abdul Kanneh and Randall Evans. Each of these players, as well as a couple of other big names like Stefan Charles, Anthony Coombs, Antoine Pruneau and Christophe Mulumba would be good to re-sign and bring back for the 2022 CFL season. In 2021 R.J Harris was the Redblacks’ leading receiver and was a reliable target for young quarterback Caleb Evans. If Evans is expected to start in 2022 it would be a no brainer to bring back one of his favourite targets. Korte was the Redblacks’ best offensive lineman in 2021 and showed his versatility and ability to play anywhere on the offensive line. If you don’t want the same or similar struggles up front as the Redblacks had in 2021, Korte would be a must re-sign alongside some new faces on the line like Jacob Ruby who’s already been signed to the Redblacks. As for the defensive side of the ball, its easy. Micah Awe was a top 5 tackler in the CFL in 2021, Randall Evans was in the top 10 while also leading the Redblacks in sacks with Davon Coleman (4 sacks) and forcing 4 turnovers. Abdul Kanneh was tied for third in the CFL for interceptions and played in just 8 of 14 games while Antoine Pruneau, Don Unamba and other pending free agents also played a large role on the defence. With the success that defensive coordinator Mike Benevides had in 2021 it would only make sense to just build off of what was built already instead of rebuilding.
In a perfect world, the Redblacks would see all of the players mentioned, and maybe even more pending free agents back in Ottawa for training camp in 2022, but who should be added to the team from around the CFL?
On the offensive side of the football, if Caleb Evans is to start for the Redblacks, it would be smart to target some offensive weapons as well as some offensive linemen. Available to the Redblacks to sign at receiver would be big name playmakers Bryan Burnham, Darvin Adams, Duke Williams, Jake Wieneke, Greg Ellingson, Derel Walker, Brandon Banks, Kamar Jorden and Kenny Lawler. Those players, if signed would be game changers, but there’s also other players like Rasheed Bailey, Steven Dunbar Jr, Ricky Collins Jr, Devier Posey and Jordan Williams Lambert as well as Canadians Hergy Mayala, Lemar Durant, Jevon Cottoy, Richie Sindani and Juwan Brescasin who can make an impact in the Redblacks offence. Running backs Ka’Deem Carey, James Wilder Jr, Don Jackson, Brady Olivera and Johnny Augustine are also set to hit the market if Burke is not satisfied with De’Lance Turner and Justin Davis in the backfield. As for the offensive line there are a number of experienced linemen available for the Redblacks to sign. Former first overall pick Josiah St. John is expected to hit the market as well as Brett Boyko, Drew Desjarlais, Kay Okafor, and others. If Mark Korte, and maybe Nolan MacMillan are re-signed, one or two offensive linemen would be good to pickup, especially if there isn’t any that can start out of the draft this year.
Then to add to Mike Benevides’ defence for the 2022 CFL season, there may not be any specific need to the Redblacks defence, but any defensive game changer would help big time. In 2021 we saw how much players like Abdul Kanneh can change games, hence week one of the season against the Edmonton Elks, so if more players like that are brought to Ottawa in 2022, there may just be a lot of success on the defensive side of the ball. Big names across the CFL like Darnell Sankey, Simoni Lawrence, Derrick Moncrief, Patrick Levels, Kwaku Boating, Ja’Gared Davis, David Menard, Winston Rose, Trumaine Washington, Jonathan Rose, Ed Gainey, Frankie Williams, DaShaun Amos, Royce Metchie and some others are set to be available for the Redblacks to sign. If everyone mentioned previously are re-signed by the Redblacks, a game changing pass rusher and defensive back would be huge additions to the Ottawa defence. With Sherrod Baltimore, Brandin Dandridge, Abdul Kanneh and Randall Evans potentially together again for 2022, adding one more threat to opposing quarterbacks could be big to recreate that D-Block that Ottawa had in 2016 with Abdul Kanneh, Jerrell Gavins, Forest Hightower, Jeff Richards, Jonathan Rose and Antoine Pruneau.
Free agency opens up on February 8th, and the CFL Draft will be a couple of months after. Will the Redblacks make the right moves that bring them back into Grey Cup contention? Only time will tell.
The CFL has been extremely busy over the last couple of days. With CFL free agency just a couple of weeks away now, and a number of players set to hit the open market on February 8th teams across the league have been signing back their key parts for the 2022 CFL season. The Ottawa Redblacks have joined the teams making moves in the off-season by re-signing emerging Canadian wideout Nate Behar.
Ottawa only has under contract right now at receiver, Ryan Davis, Jordan Smallwood, Terry Williams and Anthony Mahoungou so bringing back Behar is big for depth for the Redblacks but there’s a good chance it can be for more than just that. In the 2021 CFL season the Ottawa Redblacks struggled in many ways, only winning 3 of the 14 games on the year, but there were indeed some small victories here and there. The discovery of some great receivers was a small victory indeed. Ryan Davis in his rookie season in Canada caught a team leading 55 passes for 589 yards and two scores, winning him the team’s rookie of the year award, and then Canadian receiver Nate Behar found himself in a larger role than ever with the team. Playing in all 14 games, Behar went just one game without a catch. He finished the season with 38 catches on 64 targets for a career high 439 yards. The stats include 5 games in which he had 5 or more catches. It was clear that Behar was a reliable receiver for the Redblacks in 2021 and was able to move the chains on a consistent basis. Add in his Canadian passport and roots in the city having played with the Carleton Ravens, he’s a great fit for the Redblacks and will likely see himself as a starting receiver and a impactful player for the Redblacks again in 2022.
Not only is Behar a great fit for the Ottawa Redblacks on the football field, but he’s also a great fit off of it as well. The energy he brings to the team is phenomenal and is a huge positive when things may not be going so well on the score board, but what separates him from any random Canadian receiver the Redblacks could have gotten in free agency or the draft to replace him is his creativity. Off of the football field Nate Behar has made a name for himself as an entrepreneur. He’s launched his very own app, Firework, which connects athletes with brands to create brand deals directly with athletes. The app is a huge invention from Behar’s end, and will one day be very big in Canada and other countries, but right now helps his teammates explore their opportunities off of the field as well as explore their creativity with entrepreneurial minds around.
This is a win on the football side of things and in the locker room for new general manager Shawn Burke. Next on the list should be R.J Harris, Mark Korte, Micah Awe, Davon Coleman, Abdul Kanneh, and Don Unamba as there remains a number of pending free agents for the Redblacks.
In 2021, during his last year of NCAA eligibility Tyler Sumpter punted for West Virginia University 52 times, including one that went 72 yards, averaging 43.5 yards per punt. He was looked at to be one of the best punters in the Big 12, but punting isn’t all he was known for during the 2021 season with the Mountaineers. While placing his punts inside the 10 yard line consistently for the Mountaineers, Sumpter was also editing and producing some of the best videos on social media for NCAA student athletes.
The first look that Mountaineers fans got at Sumpter and his video skills was when he announced his commitment to WVU in May of 2020. He and his dad filmed a one of a kind commitment video as he transferred out of Troy University. It featured himself, back home in Birmingham, Alabama kayaking his way to Morgantown, West Virginia, and although this may have been the first time that Mountaineers fans and the NCAA got a look at Sumpter’s creativity, it wasn’t the first video he made. In fact, he was making videos long before he was playing football.
“I grew up home schooled so I had a lot of free time to explore my creative interests.” Sumpter told JZ Media’s Jordan Zlomislic in an interview, “When I was 7 my dad got into filming. He bought a bunch of camera equipment, and we even turned a tiny room in our house into an editing suite where we had a few monitors and everything we needed to edit videos. With all of these things at my disposal, as a kid I taught myself how to do almost everything it takes to make a movie. Me and my little brothers actually were making small movies. We were making ‘Star Wars 3.2’ and stuff like that. It was so corny, but we were making these whole 10 minute movies. Tried to make everything look so real, it’s really cool looking back at it.” Putting together short films and exploring the film industry at a young age, it seemed as if Tyler Sumpter would be a name that would resonate in the film industry.
It continued to look like that, however with some success on the soccer fields, doors began to open for Sumpter in the sports world at 5 years old when he started to play soccer. “I loved soccer.” he said, “I didn’t always look like a soccer player, but I was always one of the best on the teams I played on. I always had the biggest leg on the team, so my teammates and people called me ‘Big T’ and I remember when we played one of the competitive teams I actually broke a guy’s arm with a kick.” While playing soccer and making an impact doing so, Tyler Sumpter the creative mind was still at work. “My dad was one of my soccer coaches so whenever we played he always got people to film the games with his camera so that we would have video of our games and then I’d go and make highlight tapes for my teammates and then do recaps for tournaments and the season.” he added, “It was actually pretty smart because at the end of the year we would play the videos and put them on DVD for the moms to buy for like $25. I probably made a couple hundred bucks from that.”
Being one of the bigger kids on his soccer teams, and having the strongest leg in the area, Tyler Sumpter’s name got to the football community in the Birmingham, Alabama region. As he got ready to go to public school for the first time for middle school, after being homeschooled for elementary school he was asked to play football for the school. At first he was hesitant because of his commitment to soccer, but it didn’t take long for him to hit the football field. “I was asked by the coach to play football, he was a family friend so he was over for dinner… I ended up going to the special teams practice the next day and the kicker they had at the time had the second strongest leg on my soccer team (Sumpter had the strongest), and I ended up taking the kid’s spot as the kicker on the first day.” Sumpter went on to kick for Springville High School, and eventually found himself on both the offensive and defensive line as well. He was a busy dual sport athlete, playing both soccer and football, so he didn’t have a lot of time to spend on his filming, but with people around him bringing up the chances of Tyler Sumpter being an NFL kicker one day, it didn’t look like he would need to film. “When I started to play football, my typical day would go: school, football practice, and then soccer. I ended up quitting soccer when I played for our varsity team as a freshman. After going to some camps and training more I was kicking at a legit division one level in the 10th grade.” Sumpter remembers a buzz starting around his name that year. As a sophomore, schools like Auburn began to take a look at him and invite him to camps, but his recruiting process really took off when he made the move from Springville High School to Spain Park High School.
At Spain Park, Sumpter left quite the legacy. For a new guy on the block, without much expectations, he was very impressive, but he did run into some adversity in his junior year. In a thrilling homecoming game at Spain Park High School in 2014, the Spain Park Jaguars fell to the Hewitt-Trussville Huskies 64-63 in a fourth overtime. The game ended with a missed extra point by Sumpter. He reflected on the game, “our kicker was hurt for that game so I was doing all three (punting, kickoffs, place kicking) and I remember I was having a pretty good game but the missed extra point at the end of the game lost the game in quadruple overtime for us.” Sumpter continued, “The school that we played was close to the school I used to go to so I knew a lot of the guys on the team and that went to that school so after the game they started calling me Winnie The Pooh and I was a meme.” From that point on, Sumpter was unstoppable as a kicker and a punter. He finished his junior year off strong, starting to gain interest from more universities to take football into the post-secondary level, eventually being offered a scholarship by Troy University just prior to his senior season. As a senior Sumpter was named first team Super All-State as a punter in Alabama, first team Birmingham All-Metro as a kicker and also got the nod as the 13th ranked punter in the country as well as the 35th ranked player in all of Alabama.
Once his high school football career came to an end, it was time for a big decision to be made by Tyler Sumpter. With plenty of interest around the country, any team in the NCAA would have loved to have him on their team to punt and/or kick, but with Troy University being the only school to offer him a scholarship, it was easy for Sumpter to sign with the Trojans and play for head coach Neal Brown.
He would go on to redshirt as a freshman in 2016, then play a total of 38 games over the next three years with the Troy Trojans. In those 38 games he punted 156 times for a total 6,579 yards, averaging 42.2 yards per punt and made 39 of 51 field goal attempts as well as each of the 125 extra points he attempted. As a sophomore in 2018 he was named all-conference in the Sun Belt Conference as a place kicker and a punter. In 2019 as a junior he was named all-conference once again as a punter for Troy. After graduating from Troy with a bachelor’s degree in K-6 elementary education, Sumpter entered the transfer portal. The year prior, there was a coaching change at Troy, where they went from Neal Brown to Chip Lindsey, so things were a bit different with the Trojans than it was when Sumpter started there. On May 31st 2020 he released his commitment video, announcing that he would be following Neal Brown to West Virginia University and will punt for the Mountaineers. A main reason as to why he chose West Virginia though, was not because of the football team itself. It was the opportunity he may have to work with the video team at West Virginia and get back into filming.
Sumpter told JZ Media, “In 2019 I bought a Canon G7X to vlog. I got into filming again and got new softwares to edit. I graduated from Troy as one of the best punters and kickers in the country and originally I was going to LA Tech but I remember Neal Brown telling me, ‘I know you don’t want to be a teacher in Louisiana.’ He brought up the idea that I could do some video stuff with the team at WVU and I grew up a West Virginia fan so it only made sense to go there.”
There wasn’t any video action for Sumpter in year one. He was a new guy on the block and wanted to make a good impression on the field. During the shortened COVID year with West Virginia he punted the ball 37 times for 1,499 yards, averaging 40.5 yards per punt (4th in BIG 12), connected on 3 of 4 field goal attempts and was 1 for 1 for extra points. The highlight of his season came against Kansas where he booted a 37 yard punt down to the one yard line. His longest punt of the season was 56 yards.
“I finished my first season there, and when I was back home for Christmas I was like, ‘why am I not filming?’ because it was such a big part of my childhood, doing all this stuff with cameras and editing. So I ended up getting everything I needed to get back into it and when I got back to Morgantown during the off-season I would go to these training sessions that our offence would put on and it was just for experience and getting adjusted to it all.” Sumpter said, “All of the guys loved the work that I was doing, and I ended up doing this stuff all off-season. Did some photoshoots with teammates and their girlfriends and stuff like that too. I was finally getting into everything again.”
On the football field, his last year of eligibility was a good one. He averaged 43.5 yards per punt and had a long of 72 yards but he also made the most of it off of the football field as a videographer and content creator, making up for lost times.
“One of the guys I know on the basketball team, Gabe (Osabuohien) told me about a rapper, Dusty Locane’s concert in Morgantown. I ended up going and filmed behind the scenes, on stage and around him. After the concert I was editing until like 3:00 in the morning, and this was during game week, just before the first game of the season in Maryland so I had practice the next day and meetings and stuff. The best part was being at practice, and the kickers knew I was filming the night before, and I was still launching the ball across the field. They were like, ‘how is he doing this?’ But that is the reality of my season, I was either filming or at football. There was pretty much no inbetween, unless I was filming and editing at football which I ended up doing too.” About midway through the 2021 season, Sumpter started to release his highlight tapes of himself and his teammates at West Virginia and people across the nation started to take notice of the skills he had. “During the season I remember editing Akheem (Mesidor)’s highlight tape in the weight room,” Sumpter said, “it was cool because I was editing, and then about 10 minutes after I started and I was working there was about 3 or 4 guys around me watching and then by the end of the highlight it was like 20 some guys I was showing it to. The guys really like the videos and if my teammates like them, who are going to be in the NFL, NFL players will like them too. I know I’m going to be huge very soon because everything I do is cool. It has my little pizzazz on it.”
The majority of West Virginia players that have a highlight tape from the 2021 season had their highlight tape made by West Virginia punter Tyler Sumpter. Some of the best ones you may have seen so far, Sam James’ highlight, Sean Ryan’s highlight, Bryce Ford-Wheaton’s highlight, Kaden Prather’s highlight- Sump did it. Overall, Sumpter’s highlight tapes that he makes for his teammates and the ones he will make for athletes across the world are one of a kind. They have his “pizzazz” on it which separates it from highlight tapes made by other creators. As a football player himself, he has a different point of view when making the videos of course, which may have a part in it, but it really comes down to his editing style. Every single highlight tape he has made is a short movie. It gets your attention and it keeps your attention. It tells a story, and that is something he wants to do with the videos he creates. In the interview with Jordan Zlomislic he explained his style and touched on the goals he has for the future of his career as a content creator. “The videos I’ve made are highlight videos.” he said, “They are supposed to show highlights. The best plays. They are supposed to attract you to the highlights of the player’s season, and when I hear that people watch these 40 second videos 10 times in a row because it caught their attention and stuff that’s exactly what I’m trying to do. What I’m also trying to do a bit now is mix these highlight tapes into documentaries. Where I make videos that have the highlight tape style that I’ve been using but also tell a story in the video.” The first video that will follow that description may just be a video of Tyler Sumpter, Sump Did It himself. “I’m making my own mini documentary right now.” he announced, “I’ll be making the best punter highlight tape that the world has ever seen while telling my story.”
Tyler Sumpter will be entering the 2022 NFL Draft this April. His collegiate football career will officially come to an end at West Virginia’s pro day, and even if he doesn’t make it into the NFL or another professional league, there’s no doubting that Tyler Sumpter’s name will be a big one very soon. He is on the right track to be one of the best videographers and video editors in sports and music. Sumpter has been in love with making videos since he was 7 years old, making short movies with his dad’s Panasonic AG-DVX100 Professional Camcorder. With a good vision behind “Sump did it” as well, which highlights the idea of telling athletes’ stories, hopefully soon in podcast form as well, people should keep all eyes and ears on his future, and some work he may put out.
For the longest time, football, and all sports have been seen as a form of entertainment. People sit down with a snack and watch the games. Either on television or in person. There’s a reason why they watch it, and why it is looked at to be entertainment. It’s exciting. Football is a very fast paced sport, which if two good teams are playing each other anything can happen at any point in the game. It has gotten to a point in time where the game of football is a billion dollar industry and there are hundreds of opportunities for the athletes in the industry. The only thing though, a lot of this money, and the majority of these opportunities only go out to the football players in the United States. There is this narrative going around in the world today that only athletes in the U.S are marketable and are looked at to be “elite” athletes, but that narrative is slowly changing as athletes in Canada, and other countries take over.
One athlete that is taking over from all aspects of life is Stephane Tshishimbi. Tshishimbi, originally from Ottawa, the nation’s capital, plays for linebacker for the University of British Columbia’s football team. He got recruited by coach Blake Nill and the UBC Thunderbirds in 2020 after playing his senior year of high school in 2019 at Clearwater Academy International in Florida, and Nill is happy to have him on his team. As a rookie, Tshishimbi made 15 tackles and a tackle for loss in 6 games played. Down the stretch of the season he made 12 tackles over three games against Regina, Manitoba and Calgary, showing his potential for the future with the Thunderbirds, but his bright future is not limited to just football.
Stephane Tshishimbi is a brand, and a growing brand. He is living proof that Canadian athletes are parallel with American athletes, on and off the field. Tshishimbi has played across the border and held his own at Clearwater Academy International under head coach Jesse Chinchar, he and a number of his former teammates have had success in the U.S.A for football, therefore it’s been known that Canadians can play with the Americans, but it’s been the media and marketing around it that has been behind. As mentioned previously, Canadian athletes haven’t been looked at to be marketable, like American athletes have been. Players state side have made millions of dollars on their name, image and likenesses for years, something that Tshishimbi looks to do as well, but in Canada. “Its never been done before,” he told JZ Media’s Jordan Zlomislic, “in Canada, there hasn’t been a lot athletes that make their mark outside of their sports. There’s a narrative that we are only athletes and can’t really do much else, but I want to change the narrative.”
Outside of being a stud on the football field at all levels, from his time in Ottawa with the Myers Riders, to his time in Florida with Clearwater Academy and now with the University of British Columbia, Stephane Tshishimbi has also made a name for himself in the music industry as well as the modelling and film industry. Going by TGEStephy, Tshishimbi has released and featured on a number of hits, including “Pain” and “4X4”, he implies, “Music has always been with me, but not always seriously. I really got into it when I was in Florida where I was around a lot of artistic minds that I could relate more to. Johari (McGregor/ TGETruth) introduced me to “The Grey Era” which I am now a part of and we are all on to doing big things. I’m very excited about it all,” he continued, “music is a way I can express myself.” As for modelling and acting, Tshishimbi has also done numerous photoshoots, and appeared on an Amazon Prime Original, “The Reacher” as a background actor. He said, “being on set with big time actors and learning from experienced producers and actors was pretty huge for me.”
In the next couple of years, starting now, he looks to expand his name as an artist and an actor while still playing football, showing that it is not only possible to do both, but succeed doing both as well. On Friday, a documentary will be released by Tshishimbi and Apex Visual Productions to tell the life story of Stephane Tshishimbi the football player, and the brand. He tells Jordan Zlomislic, “The documentary is about my life. It tells my football story. How I got into it, my football in Ottawa, my time in Florida and being with UBC, but it also shows my life off of the field. It goes into detail about my goals and vision as a brand.”
“Its to show people that you don’t have to be confined to what people think about you. Some people think that I’m just a football player, or even some people think I only do music and are surprised about me playing football, but I do everything. I know that I can do anything that I want under my name, and really anyone can do this.”
Tshishimbi has the goal of one day being a professional athlete, whether that be in the CFL or NFL, a mainstream artist and a star actor in large roles of movies and television series. He’s already kick started everything to get their very soon, and wants to see more athletes like himself do more to be looked at as brands in Canada, like you can see in the states.
He says in a form of advice for young athletes in similar situations as himself, “Don’t be afraid to be different. Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t be afraid to be yourself.”
JZ MEDIA 