Ed Philion
CFL.ca
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the name Ben Cahoon? Well for me and many others who have had the opportunity to play with #86, the word, “Consistency” just rolls off my tongue.
Nothing exemplifies this as much as his consecutive games with a catch streak that should, barring a catastrophic event, like a Tsunami, approach the century mark versus the B.C Lions this Friday night. Not bad for a man who at nearly 5’8” looks more like the usher at your church than the CFL All-Pro that has driven defensive backs around the league crazy for the past decade.
Yes Cahoon is not your prototypical receiver. He is short and relatively slow (football slow). You see in this day and age of football, the experts like numbers. Numbers such as 6”4, 210 pounds with 4.3 speed.
Cahoon, if he played a generation ago, could be considered your prototypical wide receiver. Unfortunately, this is the twenty-first century and most people have not only colour televisions but “HD” which really highlights his lack of physical attributes that football people look for in today’s game.
Fortunately for Cahoon and the few players that have come along like him, the height of your eyebrows do not determine the success you will have on the football field.
For eleven seasons now, Ben Cahoon has been proving to all of us that desire, work ethic and yes, physical ability, have more to do with success then the “God Given” abilities placed upon us at birth.
Like most of us; however, numbers do matter. For Cahoon those numbers are 75 catches, 1,000 yards, 5.6 TD’S (all averages) for every season #86 has played. For those who have played with Ben it’s the number five that means the most to him.
Five you ask?
That’s the number of Grey Cups he’s been in since his arrival to Montreal.
If you average that out over his ten year career, Cahoon and his teammates make a trip to the “Big Dance” every other year. Now how is that for consistency from Mr. Consistent?
Ed Philion played eight seasons along the defensive line for the Montreal Alouettes. He was a three-time East Division All-Star and helped the Alouettes win the Grey Cup in 2002. Currently, he is a member of the Alouettes’ broadcast team on CJAD Radio in Montreal.
