Mike Hogan
CFL.ca
It’s something that doesn’t happen very often in the Canadian Football League.
The Eskimos have brothers John and Dan Comiskey in their lineup. Edmonton traded Brock Ralph to Winnipeg this off season while Brock’s brother Brett gets ready for another year with the Stampeders. The question is could there be another Canadian brother combo in the CFL?
The Crawford family of Hamilton, Ontario is certainly hoping so.
“It would be something pretty special for the two of us and also our families,” said Bryan Crawford, who has already established himself as one of the top special-teams players in the CFL.
Last year in his fifth season as a member of the Toronto Argonauts he finished fifth in the league in special-team tackles after finishing second in the same category in 2007. Now the elder Crawford will wait and see if his younger brother Brad can follow in his footsteps.
Brad is taking a different path to the pros. Bryan was strictly a running back with Queen’s while Brad is playing virtually everywhere with the University of Guelph Gryphons and playing very well in the process.
Brad is primarily a defensive halfback but has also played at corner, safety, SAM linebacker and even had a few reps at running back, the position at which he started his CIS career. He’s also played on every special team. It’s that positional versatility, coupled with the importance of special team play in the league that should make him very attractive to CFL teams come draft day on May 2nd.
“It would be fun if I was going to go on to the CFL, I would want to play for the Argos,” said Brad. “Because there is five years in between us, we’ve always played the same sports, but never been on the field at the same time or on the same team.”
Crawford the younger did not make the CFL Scouting Bureau’s list of the draft’s top-15 CIS prospects, but there are reasons for that. The main one is that he’s not projected as a starter at defensive back in the CFL. That doesn’t mean he’ll never be one. Winnipeg’s Ian Logan was a star at Laurier but went undrafted despite being a two-time All-Canadian. He had a handful of starts in his second year with the Bombers and last year, just his third in the league, he became the Bombers starting safety.
Likewise, Bryan Crawford is now a regular in the league despite not being a draft high pick himself. The Argos selected him in the fifth round (44th overall) back in 2005. As for physical stature both are roughly the same size. At 5’11”, 191 pounds Brad is an inch taller and about 20 pounds lighter than his older brother.
“He coaches me and motivates me a lot, someone to look up to,” said Brad of his older brother. “It would definitely be a dream come true to be on the field at the same time.”
In the case of the Comiskeys, as both are offensive linemen and now teammates, we’ll never get a chance to see them bang heads. Likewise, the Ralphs will never cover one another as wide outs. It would be very interesting down the road to see the Crawford brothers lock up on specials.
We’ll see on May 2nd if any team thinks Brad can become as good as his older brother.
Mike Hogan is the Voice of the Argonauts on THE FAN 590 in Toronto and has been the Voice of the Vanier Cup for more than a decade. He is also a member of the CIS Football Top-10 Committee.
