Canadians in the NFL

[jerrym]

Here's an article on the American junior college star who ended up playing at the University of Regina because of recruiting violations. Pretty good for a CIS player many consider the Bears best DL.

An hour after the Chicago Bears’ training-camp practice concluded at Olivet Nazarene University on the sun-soaked last day of July, the Bears PR folks kindly arranged for both Hicks and starting quarterback Mike Glennon to give me some 1-on-1 interview time after practice. Fantastic. ...

Both men were ready to be interviewed, and now — with Hicks sitting in a golf cart about 30 feet away, and Glennon being directed from the podium straight toward me. Hicks and I locked eyes, and he could see for a moment I was unsure what to do. Then he smirked and shook his head. He knew before I did that I’d interview the quarterback first. ...

“Oh, NOWWWW you can talk to me. Yeah, man, I KNEW you’d talk to him first — I KNEW it. Talk to the quarterback and make the big ol’ lineman wait,” Hicks said loudly and demonstrably, in launching into his (mostly?) mock tirade.

The outsized Californian has an outsized personality, to be sure. At age 27 Hicks is in his sixth NFL season, playing out the last year of his second pro contract, a $10-million, two-year deal with the Bears. With another solid year of wreaking havoc in Chicago’s opponents’ backfields in 2017, Hicks knows he can command an outsized contract, worth many more millions of dollars come March, if not from the Bears then some other NFL club.

At age 27 Hicks is in his sixth NFL season, playing out the last year of his second pro contract, a $10-million, two-year deal with the Bears. With another solid year of wreaking havoc in Chicago’s opponents’ backfields in 2017, Hicks knows he can command an outsized contract, worth many more millions of dollars come March, if not from the Bears then some other NFL club.

Hicks has resurrected his career in Chicago. He’s arguably the team’s best defender after registering a career-high seven sacks in 2016, knocking down a couple of passes and getting in on 54 tackles — a true breakout season for him.

Not bad for a guy out of Saskatchewan. Or at least that’s where many Americans still think he’s from, after playing for two years at the University of Regina, 2010-11.

How often does Hicks get mistaken for being Canadian? “Allll the time. All the time, man,” said Hicks, who was born and raised entirely in the Bay Area of California, specifically within Sacramento County. “I don’t mind it, though. It’s sure not the worst tag you could have.” Uh, thanks. Eh?

But really. How does an American high-school football star in California wind up playing his college ball in Regina? Hicks doesn’t hesitate to answer. “I got kicked out of LSU.” Right. Coming out of high school, Hicks didn’t qualify academically to get a big-time NCAA football scholarship, so he played at nearby Sacramento City Community College. With dominating play in 2008 Hicks began to be recruited hard by the big-time universities. LSU swooped in and offered him a scholarship. But Hicks never wound up playing a down in Baton Rouge.

He’d received impermissible transportation and lodging during an unofficial recruiting visit. Furthermore, LSU’s receivers coach at the time, D.J. McCarthy, set up Hicks to live in an apartment of a former player, another NCAA violation, and McCarthy and Hicks made matters far worse by attempting to cover up that fact. Both got the boot from LSU, and the NCAA ruled Hicks ineligible. ...

McCarthy set up a meeting for Hicks with a University of Regina football coach. Hicks sums it up like this: “Canadian coach meets my LSU coach at the time, who got fired with me. They meet and they talk and he says, ‘We’d love to have your guy,’ and he flies to Colorado, meets me and we go from there. I drive to Canada from Colorado, 22 hours across the border, and became a Canadian for two years.”

What was that experience like for Hicks? How did he possibly fit in? What was it like playing alongside another future NFL player, defensive tackle Stefan Charles of Toronto? And after the NFL team that drafted him in the third round in 2012 — the New Orleans Saints — gave up on him two years ago and traded him to the New England Patriots, how did he wind up turning his career back around? ( long question and answer session follows at url below)

https://torontosun.com/2017/09/05/qa...5-146a342e5d9c