Isaac Owusu
Ticats.ca
One of the CFL’s most explosive players does his best work without the ball.
When most people watch C.J. Gable play football, they usually celebrate his long rushes and his ability to make plays as a receiver out of the backfield. Despite the great grabs, the hurdles, and the highlight-reel runs, Gable’s strongest sense of pride comes from how he protects his quarterback.
For Gable, blocking is a battle within a war, and he refuses to lose.
“It’s like a one-on-one match, man against man, and someone is going to lose and the one who loses is the one who didn’t want as much the other person,” he said.
“A lot of people can’t block. It has to be something that you want to do. If you don’t want to, it’s going to show when you’re out there. You can see the running backs that can’t block, they get run through because they don’t want to do it. They just want to get the ball and that’s it,” he added.
Gable had his best game of the season in last Saturday’s 33-23 victory over the expansion Ottawa REDBLACKS. He totaled 167 yards, which included a 47-yard rushing touchdown and an 83-yard catch and run.
Gable’s love for the less glamourous part of his position came from his unorthodox placement into being an offensive player at a young age.
“When I was in Pop Warner I loved to tackle. I liked contact period,” he said. “Blocking is close enough to tackling for me to get contact with somebody.”
“I loved to hit when I was in high school playing defence I was flying around and they had to move me from safety because I was coming down too much and making too many tackles. I had like 97 tackles at free safety. I just love hitting so blocking just brings me back to playing defence again,” he said with a grin.
Through the first three games of the season Gable was held to a total of 121 combined yards. His signature laugh and smile never disappeared, but he can admit how difficult the first four weeks of the season were.
“I know that we just had to stay patient and it would all come together,” he said.
With all the talent that Gable has, head coach Kent Austin feels that the entire CFL is fully aware of what his tail back is capable of.
“I don’t think C.J’s surprising anybody in the league at this point,” Austin said.
“He’s just a really, really good football player, who plays the game the way it’s supposed to be played in all three phases. He’s just an outstanding player and I’m glad he’s on our team.”
