Redblack's rookie DB in TC Dior Mathis is another football player for whom football was his salvation.

Football was always the saviour, the place Mathis turned to for answers. ...
Sure enough, the Hurricanes offered the high schooler a scholarship. He wanted to snap it up and be a Hurricane, but coaches were fired, things changed and he decided to look around, visit other schools. And he became a Duck.
“(Oregon) blew my mind,” said Mathis. “I was going to be able to run track as well. I knew that was the place for me.”
It wasn’t smooth sailing at first as he looked to find his place in the Ducks’ lineup. It was gut-check time, a character builder.
“I was 17, a real Detroit kid. I’m a city guy,” said Mathis. “I wasn’t used to being so far away from family and friends. I had some growing up to do. I had to find myself and evaluate if football was really what I had a passion for doing. Once I found out, everything worked out.”
Now the kid is trying to earn a living playing professional football. While he’s 5-foot-9, he can flat out run: he clocked an unofficial 4.2-second 40 a couple of years ago.
The Redblacks called him a few times before he agreed to come to Ottawa. Mathis was holding out hope for an NFL opportunity, but agreed to join the Redblacks a couple of weeks ago. Before getting on his flight, he learned as much as he could about the nation’s capital.
“Before and after I signed, I was probably on Google maybe like 10 times a day learning stuff about Ottawa, stuff about the team, stuff about Canada period,” he said. “Before I came here, I’d never been to Canada.”
Now that he’s here, he’s hoping to join a defensive unit that’s among the best in the CFL.
“I’m just coming every single day, giving it my all,” he said. “Whether I do good or bad, I try to take something at practice and try to get better the next day.”
http://ottawacitizen.com/sports/foot...-the-redblacks