Rick Moffat
CFL.ca
The CFL used to brag that its “balls were bigger.” The majestic Canadian field remains bigger than the NFL’s, but the Montreal Alouettes are further proof that we are living in a small football world.
For the Als, a pair of former New York Giants will be counted on to make big plays through the rest of the season if they are to stay in the hunt for first place and return to their respective perch on top of the East Division.
Brandon London and Seth Williams are both in their first seasons as starters in the CFL and both have mutual friends in New York that they stayed in contact with.
As London moved on from his quest to find a permanent home in the NFL, Williams arrived to try and take his place.
London will be counted on to come up with more big-play catches since fellow receiver Kerry Watkins is hobbled by hamstring trouble. The rangy receiver is only two weeks removed from his first CFL touchdown.
“I still feel I’m not really on the radar yet and I’m waiting to emerge as a star in this league and a real playmaker on this team,” confesses London. “I still need that game that makes everybody say ‘who is this guy and where has he been?’”
The same kind of questions he wished would have been answered in Pittsburgh and Miami after collecting a Super Bowl ring from the Giants during a year of learning and strengthening on the practice roster.
“I definitely loved that ride and being on PR was great because I wasn’t ready coming out of UMass. I got a chance to learn from the greats like Amani Toomer and Plaxico Burress, while Michael Strahan became one of my mentors,” said London.
“But that ring is for life and I’m not going to lie, after that loss in Hamilton (Labour Day) I brought out the Super Bowl ring and my Grey Cup ring (2010 Als PR) just to get that feeling back.”
“This season has really been another roller-coaster and those rings really reminded that, like coach says, this is going to be a journey like no other and another ring is going to be the final prize.”
“When you look at that ice, those diamonds, it’s a reminder we really need to get back on track. We need to get back to how the Als really are.”
“Yeah it is a small world and coincidentally we been in the same situation a lot of the time,” said Williams, who is developing into a steady defensive back in a secondary that, due to injuries, has needed emergency team-bonding quick as crazy glue.
The relationship Williams and London goes back well beyond their stints in New York.
It turns out that Williams was coached in college by London’s father at Richmond University. London still brags his father Mike taught Williams anything and everything he knows about football.
In practice or games, Williams is likely to hear the chirps from his own teammate: “My Daddy taught you that?!”
“His Dad was a great coach, one of the best I ever had,” concedes the product of Cape Fear High and the Richmond Spiders. “I got a lot of respect for him and you can see London was raised in that teaching as well.”
Mike London, now at Virginia, is a former Dallas Cowboy defensive back turned police officer and detective on the Richmond, Virginia street crimes unit before turning back to football as a coach.
London insists the statute of limitations still has not passed on a certain 55-yard TD caught against Richmond back in the day.
“But I was never covering him,” defends Williams. “Now going against him every day in practice we’re helping each other get better.”
