Football: Talkin' about pro career before playing a game in the CIS?

The Daily Gleaner has a feature story today about Fredericton native, and former V-Reds hockey power forward, Chris Hodgson. As readers of this blog may remember, Hodgson left UNB and the hockey program at Christmas to try his hand at football at StFX. Apparently Hodgson had some impressive numbers at the recent combines:
At the combine in Montreal he benched 225 (the measure of all measures for a football player) a solid 25 times, had a vertical of 39 inches and performed the shuttle in 4.34, but it was his 40-yard dash that got people talking: Hodgson ran his 40 in 4.47 seconds.

...

To the football layman, what does this mean?

"What it means is that this guy is a complete freak," said Knott. "Look at the numbers on the TSN website (Hodgson's are not listed because he was not an official invitee), they don't lie. Chris blew everyone away in his 40, the next guy was at 4.78 in his category. He was bigger and faster than all the linebackers there and he outperformed all the D-Lineman, as well.

"Clearly he proved he is on the same level as them, and in fact he showed he is above them from the physical perspective."

Now I'm no football guy, but Hodgson had the broadest shoulders and was the most ripped guy in the UNB locker room at 6'3" and 235 pounds, and now he has bulked up to 256 pounds. Football might be the perfect environment for this natural athlete who proudly says his favourite activities are to eat and work out.

But talking about him making a pro team on the practice roster before he's ever played a game in the CIS? Boggles the mind.

Related:
Hodgson making big strides in football (Robert Touchie, The Daily Gleaner)
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4 comments:

  1. The guy sounds like a great athlete, however thinking that a person can jump into pro football with zero pervious experience is stupid.

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  2. Cripes, Gleaner try to have some perspective. Did his agent write the entire piece, dictate it, or were you both fawning over the dude?

    The guy hasn't played a single down of football at CIS level and they're already fitting him for an NFL jersey because of a result at a combine he attended?

    Sounds to me like Hodgson's a good kid who loves sports and training and having the time of his life and good for him. That should have been the story. Lay off the ridiculous prognostications at this stage.

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  3. Lauren:
    Just so you know, the story to which you refer "good kid, loves sports etc." was written -- by me -- shortly after he left the UNB hockey program and surfaced at StFX.
    This latest story was written by a young reporter who had the voices of his trainer, the X hed coach, a former CIS player and the numbers of his results at the combine. Was it hyperbolized?
    Sure it was. The writer himself says "So why doesn't Hodgson just pack his bags for the NFL now?"
    "Because there's a lot more to playing football than working out in spandex tops and cotton shorts, that's why."

    In the piece I wrote with Hodgson/Waterman two months ago, they indicated he was a project. That's more or less what the piece says here.

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  4. he's in the cfl. end of story. point made.

    ReplyDelete