Rick Moffat
CFL.ca
Imagine a lawyer who can tackle. Imagine he’s your best friend and roommate. And he wants your job. Fair is fair. You want his. Welcome to the life of Etienne Proulay, or is that Mathieu Broulx?
The firm of Proulx-Boulay can pick your pocket or throw the shoulder pads at you. Damn they can even throw the book at you. They’re a two-headed monster that can pick off passes, bust up plays and run with the big and the fast dogs downfield. One may even be willing to represent you in court.
The Alouettes seem happy neither one of them can hold down a job. Mathieu Proulx pushes legal work aside during football season. Etienne Boulay pushes Proulx aside on assorted situations and they keep each other fresh rotating out after several series. Sometimes they are the double-barrelled weapon when the Als go to “twins” – two safeties deep.
“We have a lot of respect for each other and there will always be competition,” says Boulay. “We always keep each other fresh and rested, but we have to be on our toes too. We can never take a play off. We’re each other’s eyes out there, seeing things maybe we don’t see out on the field.”
“We’re roommates on the road; we spend time together off the field and watching film too. Mathieu and I will go in early and watch (opposing offenses) with Billy Parker and some of the other DBs.”
Would you let Proulx handle your legal work?
“For sure he could be my lawyer! He can tackle anyone suing me,” laughs Boulay.
The smarts – it is what has always been put on Proulx’s scouting report since Rouge et Or glory days at Laval. But Boulay bristles at the thought of his on-field IQ being bashed or ignored.
“I don’t agree that he’s the smart speedy one and I’m just the ‘athlete making plays,’” insists Boulay. “Mathieu has more ‘game speed’ than people give him credit for. And I’m making my reads. But it’s true – the biggest challenge for me coming out of University of New Hampshire was learning the Canadian game and 12 men on the field.”
Boulay came to the Als as a linebacker and credits Timothy Strickland, an American from the mean streets of Memphis, Tennessee, for teaching him the nuances of the CFL game. Boulay grew up across the street from a park in a tough part of Montreal. There was no high school football nearby so Etienne rode the bus 45 minutes each way every day to school in the next suburb over, so he could play the game he loved to watch on weekends.
The U.S. college game and the Cowboys fascinated and inspired Boulay. Even his high school played the 4-down game. Strickland, a speedy, savvy player from the ghetto repatriated Boulay’s three-down national heritage.
Boulay won a full-ride scholarship to the University of New Hampshire and fondly remembers the 2002 Grey Cup parade. “I was a freshman home for American Thanksgiving and got to see the Cup and I was a fan of Eric Lapointe. You know, another ‘Frenchie’, we’re proud of our own. I knew a guy he was working with and met Eric and started working out in the offseason with him too.”
“Boulay lowers the boom,” says Als’ assistant-GM Marcel Desjardins, who scouted both Etienne and Mathieu. “Athletically he was all over the place in college. He played the corner. He even ran back some kicks. They both make important contributions on special teams.”
Proulx was about “the intangibles.”
“How he sees things,” Desjardins said, “it was there for big games like the Uteck Bowl in ’04 or Vanier Cups or for any regular season game. Proulx was always a presence.”
The Als could have used a lawyer to defend their trade to acquire Proulx. It was the final hour before the 2005 draft. There was controversy over trading a kicker with eye trouble, Matt Kellett, for the Ottawa draft pick the Als used fifth overall to select the field-general with big picture defensive vision.
Proulx grew up across the river from Renegade territory in Gatineau. But Montreal was a homecoming for him, too. He moved there to play at the CEGEP level before heading on to University of Laval.
“Boulay has matured,” says Desjardins. “He was all-out all the time, non-stop energy when he first came to us. Now the cerebral part is more important.”
“They’re both so well-spoken, well respected. It is no surprise that they have thrived as #1 and #1A. They’re tremendously popular in the community.”
Boulay was proud to be at Mathieu and his wife Evelyne’s wedding in the spring of 2008 at Mont Tremblant. Boulay was on a break from New York Jets mini-camp. The Proulx’s socialize with Etienne and his fiancée Zoey, an American. About a month ago, Boulay gave his college sweetheart an engagement ring.
Of course, both Proulx and Boulay hope they each have another ring in their futures. One each. They’ll share the job, but of course they won’t share Grey Cup rings.
