The Canadian Press
John Ojo is coming back. And he’s hoping it will be like he never left at all.
You remember John Ojo. He’s the one who had you saying “who’s THAT guy?” early on during the 2015 season, his rookie campaign with the Edmonton Eskimos. He’s the guy you became completely aware of after only a couple or three games, as he tracked higher and higher into the CFL ozone, finishing the year as a league All-Star.
He’s the guy who quickly became one of the CFL’s top lockdown corners, a quick study who anchored an Eskimo defensive backfield that was a rather large factor in helping the team claim the Grey Cup that season.
A racing meteor of first-year success, Ojo suffered a thunderous fall to earth when a serious injury took him down before his second campaign had even begun. Now, after a lengthy absence – one characterized by sweat, determination and at times self-doubt – he has resurfaced, hopeful that he can return to glory, albeit in a different shade of green.
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Ojo talks to former teammate Aaron Grymes during his rookie season (CFL.ca)
When Ojo suits up for the first day of the Saskatchewan Roughriders training camp in May, it will have been nearly two full years between CFL practices for the 28-year-old native of Tallahassee, Florida.
He cannot, as you might suspect, wait.
“I am kinda getting happy feet,” said the lean and lanky defender. “Been a while since I’ve been in Canada and been near the game. So I’m excited and ready and looking forward to this new opportunity.”
The Roughriders found themselves in need of a new corner during this off-season, with the departure of Kacy Rodgers, off to try his game with the NFL’s New York Jets.
General Manager and Head Coach Chris Jones knew just where to look upon Rodgers’ exit, having been the man who brought Ojo north in the first place, when he was head coach in Edmonton.
“Definitely the Chris Jones connection was a factor for me,” said Ojo, who added that he had three other offers to mull over in consideration of the comeback he’s been mounting. “I was already concentrating on Saskatchewan since I’d already developed a strong connection with Coach Jones. Playing for him in the past definitely had a lot to do with it. I felt comfortable under him.”
The man on the comeback trail jumped at the chance to be reunited with the coach whose style he adores.
“The style that he plays is an aggressive style,” said Ojo. “Which I like. There’s a lot of press (man to man coverage).”
When Jones first brought in the six-foot-three, 210-pound grad of Florida A&M, Ojo spent the final month of the 2014 season on the Eskies’ practice roster before earning a starting job in 2015. A tremendous rookie, Ojo made 43 tackles that year, and picked off five passes, returning one of them for a 57-yard touchdown.
With lots of speed and full of football grace, Ojo blasted to the top of the defensive secondary charts, utilizing his lengthy stride, great reach and vertical abilities to the max as he soon made his area of the field a very dangerous one for opposing quarterbacks to consider throwing into. Sopping up all the wisdom he could get from veteran teammate Pat Watkins – “he really helped me out in understanding the game,” said Ojo – the rookie flourished.
He’d have been the team’s nominee for outstanding rookie, except that the Eskimos had another first-year sensation, receiver Derel Walker, on the roster.
With a Grey Cup championship and a personally fantastic season behind him, Ojo was eager to see how his second year in the Canadian Football League would unfold. But that sophomore launch would end up being postponed, as Ojo’s right Achilles was injured during a training camp practice.
“We were doing one-on-ones and I was up against Derel Walker,” recalled Ojo. “And it just snapped when I made a cut.”
“I was definitely looking forward to that second year, getting the rookie year out of the way. I was just getting a little more comfortable in the CFL. It was unfortunate for that to happen to me at that time. But it did.”
The 28-year-old will be looking to build on his rookie season in Edmonton with the Riders (The Canadian Press)
His season over, Ojo headed home to Florida, where he healed and rehabbed, buoyed by the support of friends and family. It took him ten months before he could make a strong cut on a field and “probably a year to really feeling back to my old self.”
Well, almost his old self.
While Ojo believes he was fairly well back to physical health, he knows now that he was not mentally ready to really take on the full investment of pro football. A free agent, he’d signed a deal with the New York Jets in April of 2017, but that didn’t last long. He was waived by the club after just a month and had some doubts about the future.
“I don’t think I was ready to play yet, mentally, because it was something that I hadn’t faced before. I’d had injuries before but this was different.”
Rather than actively seek out another offer, Ojo decided to back off.
“Something held me back from playing,” he said. “And I felt I should sit out one more year.”
That year is up and Ojo’s second CFL season is due to begin in late May, when he could potentially step onto the field for the Roughriders.
The team plays its first pre-season game on May 27th, in Edmonton. That would be two and a half years after Ojo last saw action in a game.
The trials and tribulations of rehab now well behind him and his head in the right space after last summer’s discontented doubt, Ojo has been pressing on the accelerator as his second debut inches ever closer.
“This past month I’ve been focusing on cuts and more realistic game-like situations, doing one-on-ones and things of that nature,” he said.
Asked if he’s concerned about getting back into the groove of manhandling receivers at the line and batting away passes downfield, Ojo shows no sign of self-doubt.
“I’m sure it won’t take too long,” he said, casually and confidently.
We’d all be foolish to doubt that, considering how quickly he picked up the game in his first go round.
The interruption of John Ojo’s CFL career is nearly over. Finally, we get to see what that sophomore season might have been like had it come, as it should have, two years ago.
