Justin Dunk
CFL.ca
In one of the smaller makeshift rooms at the Park Hyatt hotel in downtown Toronto, a couple senior-level CFL player personnel men prefer the quiet, but with good reason.
Calgary Stampeders general manager and head coach, John Hufnagel and his counterpart GM with the BC Lions, Wally Buono sit side-by-side as they watch each young CFL hopeful pass in front of them. Both safely away from all the commotion, bright camera lights and buzz surrounding the marquee event of day one: the bench press.
Instead of watching E-Camp prospects push out 225 pounds as many times as possible, Hufnagel and Buono spend their time watching potential CFLers go through the video shot and body measurement stations, where players are video taped and measured wearing nothing more than a pair of Reebok compression shorts.
“You can just look at a chart and see the numbers of how many times each guy bench pressed. I can read the numbers from the gymnastics part of it later,” Hufnagel said.
“Here you get a look and see what his body structure is like. How big are his hands, how long are his arms. It’s part of the evaluation, I have more confidence watching this aspect.”
“25 on the bench press is 25, I don’t need to see the guy do it to know that it’s good,” Buono said. “You can put the name, number and face together. I look at the body type – football is a game of bulk, it’s a game of power and a game of speed – some of the things here are very, very visible.”
Each long-time player evaluator conceded they are looking for certain physical specifications.
“Unfortunately, there are measurements that give you insight into whether they can succeed or fail,” Buono said. “It doesn’t mean that it’s fail proof or 100 per cent. But offensive tackles that are six-foot-five, that have long arms, that have power, they can probably compete very well.”
“It’s taken into account,” Hufnagel said of the physical measurements. “But the number one thing is: is he a football player? That’s number one.
“Number two is now you get the different specs to enter into the picture. So, by example, if you had two very, very good football players and one was two inches taller, maybe that wins out.”
When looking at the parade of pro prospects, scouts of course want to see how muscular each player is and how individuals compare with the rest of their group.
“In seeing the body types of athletes, it’s about whether they can put more weight on or whether they have too much weight on, which has a relative affect on how they can compete.”
“I look at the body structure, then I take out the medical report I have on them and see what type of injuries they’ve had in the past,” Hufnagel said. “Just get as educated about the person as I can.”
Ideally, all general managers would like to have athletes with perfect physical attributes at each position; like towering offensive linemen with long arms or tall receiving targets who have big hands for example.
But both GM’s know athletes with all sorts of different body shapes and sizes are capable of playing the pro game.
“All type of body types play football at the same position,” Hufnagel said.
“You’d like to always have six-foot-three receivers, six-foot-two linebackers, six-foot-six defensive ends. But that’s not always possible,” Buono said.
The tricky part is how to evaluate young men, or as Buono referred to them ‘old boys’, on how their body will grow and evolve in the future.
“There is a tremendous maturity between here and them being professional football players,” Buono said. “You have to look at whether physically they can mature to be men.”
“That’s developing strength, developing bulk and sometimes you can see the body that can, and sometimes you can see the body type that can’t. Certain body types have certain limitations. You have to look at all facets before you draft somebody and for me, that’s one of the limitations I want to see.”
Buono has been manning the body composition station for years.
“I think it’s quieter. I’ve done this for a long time and this is where I sit,” he said.
“For me, I want to be here. This is where I make my judgments, my little notes to myself. When we sit down and talk about personnel, I will have my notes as far as their physical impression.”
