Edmonton Eskimo linebacker J. C. Sherritt has experienced a lot of pain during his football career.
There have been bruises, sprains, even broken bones. But nothing hurt more than the Eskimos’ 4-14 2013 season.
“It’s something I will never forget,” said Sherritt, still wincing at the memory. “It’s one of the hardest things, from an athletic standpoint, I have ever gone through.
“To be out of the playoffs with four games to go, it’s a tough work environment. It’s something that will stick with me forever.”
Time heals most wounds, but the memory of those dark years experienced by the Eskimos motivates many players as they prepare to play the Ottawa REDBLACKS in Sunday’s 103rd Grey Cup presented by Shaw.
Fullback Calvin McCarty was a rookie in 2007 when the Eskimos finished 5-12-1.
“I remember losing more games that year than I had my entire football career prior to that,” said the nine-year veteran, who grew up in Vancouver and played his college football at Western Washington.
“To be standing here, I guess it seems like one long, extended journey to me. Every year is different but I’ve never had an opportunity to end the season the way you want to it.”
The REDBLACKS are the Cinderella story of Grey Cup, rebounding from a 2-16 record in their inaugural 2014 season to finish first in the East this year at 12-6.
The Eskimos have also sailed some choppy seas since their celebrated five consecutive Grey Cups. This will be Edmonton’s first Grey Cup appearance since winning the 2005 championship. In the decade since the Eskimos have had five seasons where they won seven or less games.
Since joining Edmonton in 2011 Sherritt has been on teams good enough to lose the West Final and others so bad they cost the coach their job.
“You have to learn from the bad as much as you learn from the good,” said Sherritt. “That (4-14) was as much adversity as a team is going to see in one year.
“It tested a lot of people’s character and it revealed a lot of people’s character. It was a great thing to go through and learn from and learn how to handle that type of adversity.”
Quarterback Mike Reilly said the bad taste left by 2013 makes this year’s 14-4 record even sweeter.
“That was my first chance to be the starter,” said Reilly, who came to Edmonton that year in a trade from B.C. “Winning four games, you’re wondering if you are going to get another opportunity to be the starter.
“The core group of guys, we used to say all the time, ‘remember this because we are going to talk about this at some point and laugh about it.’ It was all worth it to feel this. It wasn’t fun, but I do think part of that made us the team we are today.”
The architect of the Eskimos turnaround is Ed Hervey, Edmonton’s vice-president of football operations and general manager.
It was Hervey who replaced head coach Kavis Reed with Chris Jones. The Eskimos immediately bought into his philosophy, finishing 12-6 last year and losing to the Calgary Stampeders in the West Final.
“As soon as coach Jones got here it became a very contagious work ethic, a contagious sense of what his vision is and where he wanted us to go,” said Sherritt. “It is something I am grateful to be part of.”
Off the field Hervey made changes to the scouting department, expanding to search for talent in all regions of the U.S. and Canada. He also introduced an amateur football summit with the goal of long-term athlete development.
Hervey, who won two Grey Cups with Edmonton as a player, said being honest in his dealings with the players was critical to the team’s turnaround.
“Everyone doesn’t take honesty too well,” he said. “For some I am an acquired taste when it comes to that honesty level.
“The Edmonton Eskimos taught me a lot when I played on how we were treated. If I learned anything from those days, it was how to transfer that into how we treat our current players. I believed if we were able to accomplish that, we would at least get the buy-in from the players and the players would feel comfortable enough to not only stay but recruit others to come.”
His bluntness wasn’t without controversy. In 2013 he called out offensive guard Simeon Rotter after the Labour Day loss to Calgary, saying “it would not bother me if Simeon did not play a down this year.”
Hervey makes no apologies.
“I was very frustrated with everything,” he said. “We had a lot of people willing to accept being mediocre.
“That wasn’t the Eskimos’ way of doing things. That wasn’t how we were going to continue to do things.”
In Jones, Hervey hired a coach who matched his level of intensity and desire to win.
“I think I figured out the final pieces of how to transcend our organization,” he said. “From there the sky was the limit.”
McCarty has experienced the dark years. That’s why he is enjoying the glow of Grey Cup week.
“To go from the bottom to have this opportunity to end at the top, I’m still kind of taking it all in,” he said.
“I’m definitely humbled by it. I’m looking forward to the opportunity. You never know when they are going to come around again.”
