Arjei Franklin
CFL.ca
From the beginning of camp in May, all the way to the end of the season in late November, football is pretty much an all day, everyday affair. Whether it’s the full week of practice, the traveling, the game, the workouts, or the constant thought that is put into your individual and team performance, football is a part of life.
The amazing thing about football is that despite how physically demanding the sport is, I sometimes feel that it can be even more mentally demanding. It’s the consumption of this sport which makes this bye week so necessary.
Most of us travel to Winnipeg to play, so we leave our friends and family in our home towns. Furthermore, in a business where you are off for half of the year there is no such thing as a vacation day. As a matter of fact, I’m going to be missing the wedding of a great friend next week, and part me is nervous about the other important moments in life that I might miss as result of my profession.
I remember some of my teammates would come to the stadium in a solemn mood because they were on the phone with their young child who missed them, late the night before. Your only hope is that those closest to you can understand your situation.
I’m saying all this to tell you what the bye week means to a CFL player. It’s our opportunity to put football aside and think about the more important things in life. To be honest, I couldn’t wait to get home and see my family, spend some time with my friends, and believe it or not, do some work around the house. I’m actually pretty excited to go to my favourite restaurants, and sleep in for a few days, and of course get a couple workouts in to stay in shape.
We’ll all use our bye week to do different things. But the bottom line is that we use it to take a break from this great game, even for only a moment… because what awaits us when we get back will require our full and complete focus, and the only way to do that is to refresh both the mind and body.
In case you don’t know what’s in store for us, let me just give you a quick update. Standing at 2-6, we have dug ourselves into a pretty deep hole and we must continue our climb out of it with a back-to-back rematch of the 2007 Grey Cup (against Saskatchewan). Because of the situation we put ourselves in, we will have to scratch and claw our way into the playoffs. The one thing I can say; however, is that when I look at the men in our locker room I know we have the will and determination to make it happen.
We’ll worry about that when the time comes. As for now? The only thing I’m worried about is pulling the weeds out of my front yard.
Arjei Franklin #86
Arjei Franklin is a third-year receiver with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He was the Bombers’ top pick in the 2006 Canadian Draft.
