Don Landry
CFL.ca
He’s a big man with a big beard and big determination to match.
Mount Allison Mounties’ offensive lineman Mike Filer, not originally an invitee of the CFL’s draft eligible evaluation camp, marshaled that determination to become a last minute addition to the roster, after a strong showing at Duane Forde’s National Invitational Combine, held the day before in Toronto.
Out of some 140 players plowing through drills at the N.I.C., the Brantford, Ontario native was the only player from that group asked to stay the weekend for another look.
“I heard that you could get an invitation to E-Camp through N.I.C,” explained Filer. “So that was my goal. To go through that and get an invitation through the back door.”
Back door, side door, repelling down through a skylight, you get the feeling that Filer couldn’t care less how he got there, just so long as he had a chance to continue to get noticed.
“It’s a dream of mine to play in the CFL. Ever since I was a little kid, I always watched the CFL. I love the CFL. I’d love to get drafted. That’s my number one thing. But, like I said, things don’t always go your way and you’ve got to go through the back door. You’ve got to get in there and you’ve got to work your butt off.”
The N.I.C. regimen, Filer says, was very similar to that of the CFL’s E-Camp. So, he may have been at a bit of a disadvantage when it came to repeating some of the tests that he’d blasted through on the Friday, in order to get noticed. Bit of a double-edged sword, that.
At least he didn’t have to do the bench press drill a second time. Wisely, E-Camp organizers didn’t make him repeat that daunting task, putting the 21 reps he pulled off on the Friday into their books as well. (Tops among the nine offensive linemen was Saskatchewan’s Ben Heenan with 32. Filer’s 21 put him in a three-way tie at the bottom of that list.)
Some of Filer’s E-Camp numbers may very well have been blunted by the rigours of Friday’s tests. Nevertheless, they were still very good in the offensive lineman class. His vertical jump was a little lower, his time in the 40 a little slower.
28 inches (ranked number one in class) as compared to 30 inches in in his N.I.C. vertical, 5.22 seconds in the 40 (3/100ths of a second slower than the leader, Tyson Pencer out of Washington State) as compared to the 5.02 Filer says he clocked on the Friday.
As well, he went through “about 20 one on ones” at N.I.C., and then went through those drills again, on Sunday.
“For these guys out there, they all had fresh legs. Pretty much what they did in a weekend I did it the day before. So, it was a little more challenging. But, hey, if that’s what I’ve got to do to get here… I’m happy with my performance this weekend.”
So was Forde.
“I think he’s a guy whose stock was boosted immensely,” Forde told CFL.ca’s Justin Dunk.
“He took advantage that it was a bit of a wide open group for guys to sort of slot themselves in terms of the rankings on teams’ draft boards. I think for Mike it really paid off. I think Mike is a guy who really jumped up. I think he played his way into the draft.”
As satisfying as that is for Filer, it just might be equally so for Forde, who endeavours to get as many young football players in front of as many CFL scouts, GMs and coaches as possible.
“I kind of knew what he was and how hard he was working,” continued Forde in his assessment of Filer. “I love that from the point of view of the National Invitational Combine it’s exactly the reason why we do it.
“Sometimes some guys are going to slip through the cracks and you want to make sure that those guys are still getting an opportunity.”
“I was a little disappointed,” Filer aid of his initial exclusion from E-Camp.
“Coming from a small school, we didn’t have a great record last year, I thought that might have had an impact on it as well, but, things haven’t always gone my way. I’ve always had to work harder than other people. Which is fine, because I knew that as soon as I got that invite through Duane Forde that that was my ticket through, so I took advantage of that.”
Filer and the Mounties stumbled to a dismal oh and eight record in 2011, after making strides with a four and four record and a playoff berth the year before. 2010 was a strong one, personally, for the 6′ 2”, 295 pounder. Not only was he named an Atlantic Conference All-Star for the second year in a row, he cracked the All-Canadian roster as well.
A little undersized (250 pounds) as an offensive lineman at Brantford Collegiate Institute, Filer nonetheless continued to slug it out on the line of scrimmage, rather than give it a go as a rush end or linebacker.
“At heart I’ve always been an offensive lineman,” he said.
Staying close to home, or playing at a big football school would have been nice, coming out of high school, Filer admitted. But, in the end, he was happy the way it turned out.
“Mt Allison came around and picked me up and I went out there. It was kind of like being a big fish in a small pond, so I kind of excelled out there and worked hard out there and got my name out there that way.”
He continues to try and get his name out there and believes he did just that with his performance this past weekend.
“Definitely being here has helped me, has moved my name up the ladder. I’ve talked to a couple of teams. Teams now recognize me and have my film, so I’m hoping for the best when it comes to draft day. (May 3rd)”
If not, you get the feeling that Mike Filer will simply look for another back door in the pursuit of his CFL dream.
