O’Leary: CFL prospects on new ground with team interviews

The short list of things that are to be missed about the off-season being eaten up by a pandemic is simple: Everything.

The dead of winter should have given way to a football spring that would have featured regional combines and a national combine that would have welcomed players from around the world. The global draft should have taken place last week and other events, like the Canadian Football Hall of Fame announcement would have been made almost a month ago.

To be more specific, though, one of my favourite off-season moments comes at the combine when teams meet with players for in-person interviews.

I’ve been lucky enough to sit in on a number of these over the years. I’ve seen the combo of Jim Barker and Scott Milanovich turn on a dime with players and ask very pointed questions. I’ve watched Wally Buono run the range of questions with prospective players, trying to get a feel for what they’re about. I joined former Riders head coach Chris Jones and his staff in 2016 and watched how every moment of their meetings with prospects were designed to be a test and how every response and non-response to those tests were measured.

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Roughriders head coach Craig Dickenson helped provide a new feel for the team’s player interviews at last year’s combine (Photo: Riderville.com)

Last year, I sat with a new Riders regime, led by GM Jeremy O’Day and head coach Craig Dickenson. Many faces from that Jones-led organization were the same, but the feel in the room was a little different. My favourite moment from the hour or so I sat in on those interviews came when a player was asked if he’d ever been in trouble.

He told the group that when he was a kid, he’d lost a fight in school and the teacher heard him call the other guy ugly. Steve McAdoo jumped into that conversation quickly.

“I’m more interested in how you lost that fight,” he said.

Those interviews are the only part of the lost combine season that have survived, though they look a lot different this year. Teams have been able to communicate with prospects the same way that we all have for the last month-plus now: Through video chat. For football ops people around the league, it’ll work. They get to have those conversations with players they’re interested in but it can’t be the same as that in-person setting. An evaluator like Chris Jones, for example, wouldn’t be able to see if a player fidgets with their hands when they’re uncomfortable, or if their leg starts bouncing when they’re trying to b.s. their way through an answer.

While players may be nervous — there are no combine times or measurements to talk about this year, no one-on-ones to prove your dominance on the field — it can’t feel the same as being on-site, waiting in the hallway of a hotel with three or four other equally nervous prospects before entering that room. Beneath the stuffiness of a shoulders-up video chat shot, players have the luxury of being comfortable. A button down shirt and blazer could still be accompanied by sweatpants or a pair of shorts. Just to the left of your laptop could be a full deck of cue cards, covering for any out-of-the-blue question you think you might get thrown at you. To the right could be a list of coaches, teammates, teachers, anyone that you can think of that might come up in the conversation.

As the circumstances around our meetings change, so too do the advantages and disadvantages. Maybe what GMs, coaches and scouts are looking at more than ever are telltale details that are available to them. The Zoom login name that shows up when a player joins the conversation could be judged, or more importantly, the wallpaper you might choose to go with for your big interview.

A picture of the blue and yellow confetti falling in Calgary this past November would be a great one for an interview with Kyle Walters and Mike O’Shea. A picture of Bo Levi Mitchell hoisting the Grey Cup in 2018 in Edmonton might carry some weight with John Hufnagel; given what the Stamps did to the host Esks’ locker room that year, maybe it works against you if Brock Sunderland sees it. Maybe a picture of the player hoisting a trophy of their own — a Vanier Cup or a high school provincial championship — relays the message about what’s a priority better than anything else.

It’s a different environment, but as long as football players are talking with team personnel at this time of year, there’s always a mental aspect to it on both sides.