John Mackinnon
Edmonton Journal
Whatever problems have beset the 5-8 Edmonton Eskimos this season – and let’s not count the ways just now – talent acquisition has not been one of them.
Need a running back? Shazzam! There’s Cory Boyd. Need another one? Welcome back, Jerome Messam.
Punter down? Nice to meet you, Brody McKnight. On and on. Football talent is “out there” in abundance, if you know where to find it.
Anyway, nowhere has the airlift been more noticeable – or more necessary – than along the battered and bruised Eskimo defensive line. Regulars Marcus Howard, Julius Williams, Ted Laurent, Etienne Legare, Lee Robinson, Jeremaine Reid and Justin Capiccotti have all spent significant time on the injured list this season, prompting the infusion of Shawn Lemon, Alex Daniels, Desmund Lighten and Brandon Lang.
You can add Kade Weston to that list of reinforcements, if not yet the game-day roster.
The way things have been trending, chances are very good to excellent the 25-year-old Weston will see action at some point.
When that happens, Eskimo fans will certainly see Weston who, at six-foot-five and 320 pounds, fills out his No. 75 jersey in startling fashion.
“We had a hard time finding a helmet that would fit him, that was a big delay (Monday),” said Eskimo head coach Kavis Reed. “He’s big – that’s the kind of defensive lineman I love.
“We had our first knockdown in eight games last week. That’s a part of defence – being able to control passing lanes with size. Kade brings that. He brings length, he brings girth.”
Weston also brings innate athletic ability, too, not just sheer size.
In his native Trinidad and Tobago, Weston played the full range of sports, including soccer and cricket, the sporting passion of that Caribbean nation.
“I used to like bowling a little bit, putting a little spin on the ball,” Weston said, which conjured a truly arresting image of a mammoth man taking that long run-up cricket bowlers do, before windmilling the ball at some hapless, terrified batsman.
At Red Bank Regional High School in Little Silver, N.J., Weston was a thrower and a basketball player, as well as a football star. His family moved to New York City when he was about 13 years old. He attended Red Bank Regional High School, where his uncle was the principal.
That’s where he first got a load of “American football,” which he liked on sight, although his first thought was to keep on playing soccer.
“But folks didn’t believe me and the nurse was like, ‘Uh-uh, you’re too big to play soccer, you get the football coach.’ ”
Yes, and once the football coach got him, he wasn’t about to let go of Weston, who really lit it up in his junior year, recording 114 tackles, 20 for a loss, 14 quarterback sacks and five forced fumbles.
His high school achievements propelled Weston to Georgia, where he was a teammate of Eskimo rush end Marcus Howard for three years. He was drafted by the New England Patriots and spent a couple of years with that NFL organization, before spending time on the practice rosters of first the Indianapolis Colts, then the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Weston was back in Georgia, keeping fit at his alma mater, when the depleted Eskimos called.
“I was ready to get back on the field, up for anything, I was ready to go,” Weston said. “I’m excited to be here and I’m sure it’s going to be fun the rest of the season.”
Well, it sure beats working out. Which, by the way, was what linebacker and special teams player Kye Stewart was preparing for when the Eskimos found him.
Stewart, 27, played 34 games over three seasons with the Saskatchewan Roughriders before being released two weeks before their 2012 training camp. That’s about the worst time to be cut loose, since everybody’s roster is bloated with training camp fodder and few, if any teams, have the flexibility to bring in another player at that time.
Unlike Weston, who was biding his time for an opening, Stewart had moved on with his life, taking steps to become not merely a professional personal trainer, but one certified in the use of kettle bells for creative resistance work. He was in the midst of being certified when word came that pro football wasn’t done with him yet.
“I was shocked to get a call, but I’m kind of glad to be here,” said Stewart, who was sought out for his special teams ability and, secondarily, as insurance in case middle linebacker J.C. Sherritt is out for any length of time.
“My agent shot me a text message saying that Edmonton wanted to bring me right now, and was I in shape?
“I told him, ‘Yeah.’ ”
Stewart drove from the kettle bell certification course to his home in Virginia on Saturday and on Sunday he was on a flight to Edmonton.
“I was actually planning for life after football, my dad told me, ‘You need to move on,’ ” Stewart said. “In the back of my mind, I didn’t really want to move on yet, but (being) a grown man, you have to expect the unexpected.
“Getting released is unexpected, so I was moving forth with my life.”
Yes. Ask not for whom the kettle bell tolls, and so forth.