John Mackinnon
Edmonton Journal
Chances are you probably missed The Shove.
Nobody would blame you if you failed to notice Edmonton Eskimo offensive centre Kyle Koch putting his 310 pounds behind rookie receiver Shamawd Chambers to help him cross the goal-line for his first Canadian Football League touchdown last Friday night.
Fans being fans, most were probably focused on the young receiver’s right arm as he stretched out so the ball would break the plain, as the TV announcers say.
Some sharp-eyed aficionados may have espied Koch driving Chambers and the Winnipeg Blue Bomber defender that was trying to restrain him over the goal-line, not unlike one of those crammers that help people board the next Tokyo subway train at rush hour.
This was football at its most basic – and effective.
But it’s not as if you can view the play on YouTube. Nor is it likely to be immortalized in football lore.
We’re not talking about Green Bay Packers’ Jerry Kramer blocking Dallas Cowboys’ Jethro Pugh to provide just enough room for Bart Starr to plunge over the goal-line for the winning touchdown in the 1967 NFL Championship, the iconic Ice Bowl.
Nor is it even a replication of University of Southern California running back Reggie Bush pushing quarterback Matt Leinart over for the winning TD in the dying seconds of their 2005 classic game against Notre Dame.
This was just a four-yard TD pass from Kerry Joseph to the 23-year-old Chambers at 14.31 of the second quarter, a converted major that rang the score up to 35-0 in a 42-10 laugher over the Bombers.
Truth be told, the six-foot-three, 219-pound Chambers didn’t really need his teammate’s help to score his first pro TD.
He was getting into the end zone anyway.
I mean, would he have scored the TD without the big lineman’s help?
“Yes,” the jovial Koch said Wednesday. “I’m not telling him that, but I’ll tell you that.
“I was giving him a hard time. I said, ‘Listen, next time you score … you’ve got to do it on your own, I’m not helping you.’ ”
Still, Koch was in the area at the time. He could see one Winnipeg defender behind Chambers, trying to halt his progress and another coming over to help out.
Koch was happy to buttress his teammate’s scoring effort; he wasn’t going to take any chances.
“Aw, hell no. Whether he’s getting there or not, I know that if I land on the two of them, we’re going in the end zone together.”
The trick is to be close by when some heavy lifting – or shoving – is required.
“We put an emphasis on what we call ‘cover,’ ” Koch said. “You’re on a play, the ball gets off, now you cover.
“Because you don’t know what’s going to happen down the field. So, you look, you just try to be aware. I just happened to see it.
“It was somewhat lucky, but we’ll take it.”
Koch knows the opportunity to “knock him in like that,” comes along only rarely. Even the opportunity for a lineman to nudge a running back forward for a first down, or whatever, happens maybe once a game, or even every other game.
“Part of it is timing and luck,” Koch said. “A lot of times it’s guys holding up receivers.
“You’re going downfield and if they want to hold (a receiver up), if they want to hit them, I’ll hit him. Same thing with a back. He’s fighting for extra yards and you happen to be in a position to just jump on the back of it and push, it’s what you do.”
Now neither Koch nor any of his colleagues along the line expect any compensation or recognition for those kinds of plays. Not really. But that didn’t stop them from having some fun with a young teammate.
Chambers, being a rookie, wasn’t about to take the situation for granted.
“I have to give respect to Kyle, because he did give me that (Shove),” Chambers said. “I thought it was me, I didn’t know that he pushed me, at first.
“He did give me that extra push. But my arm was over the plane. All you have to do is cross the white line, right? So it was over the line, but he gave me that extra push, so my entire arm was over it.
“I’ve still got to do something for him. If it wasn’t for him, you never know what the refs would have called. I’m probably going to buy him something, maybe get him something to eat.”
I don’t think Chambers would have to twist Koch’s arm to accept that offer.
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