THE CANADIAN PRESS
While two straight wins do not a “Jonathon Crompton Era” make, there can be no denying something special is happening in the Alouette huddle. Call it backfield “Bromance”.
“B-Whit and I have been joking about that,” admits Tyrell Sutton, in his second season with the Alouettes but now job-sharing with Brandon Whitaker, who he filled in for last fall. “There’s nothing wrong with me being Best Supporting Actor. You CAN be ‘The Man’ WITH ‘The Man’. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Sutton, a former Ohio high school running back sensation who made the Carolina Panthers as a free agent out of Northwestern, jokes that Tracy Morgan should be cast for his part in the Bromance. He hesitates to reveal who stars as Whitaker.
Timing is everything on a running play. Timing has been everything in Sutton’s career.
His first CFL start last fall coincided with the spinning of the quarterback roulette wheel to land on Troy Smith. Not coincidentally, the Als won two of their last three games and Sutton was Montreal’s most consistent offensive force, pulling off a near upset on the road last November against the Tiger-Cats.
He averaged 6.2 yards per carry in regular season, upping-the-ante to 142 yards and 6.8/carry in the East Semi-Final.
Sutton also provided some thunder with his season high 54 yards on nine carries this season in Whitaker’s only 100-yard performance of the year. He’s averaging 5.3/carry to Whitaker’s unusually low 4.5. Sutton will turn 28 shortly after the 2014 Grey Cup is won, Whitaker turned 29 this week.
“As I get older I realize this only increases both our longevity,” Sutton theorizes. “It gets more difficult to do it all alone. I think back to Northwestern and all the injuries I overcame. If we had a two-back system it may not have taken its toll.”
In college, Sutton won Big-10 Freshman of the Year, falling just shy of matching Adrian Peterson, Emmett Smith, and Marshall Faulk for reaching 1,000 yards in just seven games. Still, he crashed through opposing defences for almost 1500 yards on the ground, another 400 through the air.
Assorted injuries took their toll and Sutton gained less yardage his junior and senior seasons combined.
“I’ve matured enough to accept my role,” he admits. “In Carolina it was ‘play fullback or else.’ (He played, and his crushing block sprung DeAngelo Williams on just his second play from scrimmage in his first NFL start). But my heart and mind maybe weren’t in it.”
“We both can run, block, and catch,” says Sutton, who also has the Alouettes’ longest pass reception of the season, a 71-yard sideline dash in Winnipeg. “It’s like blocking for my brother.”
“We both play with pitbull-aggression,” he says of being teamed up with the former CFL rushing king out of Baylor. “
B-Whit has vision. We see things congruently, he has the speed, I have the power.”
Sutton reveals he was angry that injury early this summer extended an all-too-long off-season.
“Those memories (of the playoff loss) were still vivid, but that’s not where my mind is now. We’re the Phoenix rising from the ashes.”
Tyrell can be forgiven if he thought the “rising” would be led by his first “Bromantic” interest on the Als with former Heisman Trophy-winning QB Troy Smith. They’ve taken turns as each other’s “therapist” through the frustrations of each other’s stint on the 6-game injured list.
“Troy talked to me about it when I was hurt, now I’m doing the same for him,” Sutton reveals. “He’s a teammate first. If you can’t be #1 you take it in stride, just like Brink and just like me with Whitaker.”
The Bromance is actually developing into a healthy love triangle with Jonathon Crompton.
“He’s ‘California Dreamin’,” insists Sutton. “He’s one of the coolest guys I’ve ever seen in the huddle. He makes everybody on the team laugh.”
While the personal tragedy surrounding the death of Crompton’s former fiancée has been cast as “playing with a heavy heart”, Als offensive players are discovering a light-hearted self-deprecating humour from the “Locks of Love” QB.
“He’s still mad I didn’t take his pass into the endzone,” chuckles Sutton. “‘Really, you couldn’t get it in?’ He kept teasing me.”
Crompton will tease any and all teammates but save his worst ribbing for himself.
“If he misses a man, we hear him say ‘Throw the ball!’ He talks to himself and we smile, but he keeps us all even-keeled. He makes us feel lucky just to be playing.”
Even job-sharing, three straight wins will make it a Bromance in sole possession of first place.
