Vidal Hazelton set out to prove he is a good person and good teammate this season. He has also proven to be a record-setter.
The 29-year-old wide receiver has set aside the chips he’s carried on his shoulders for years to enjoy a resurgence with the Eskimos.
He ranks among the top CFL receivers with 385 yards on 26 catches. His three touchdowns include a 108-yard pass-and-run play last Friday against the B.C. Lions for the longest reception in Eskimos history and he scored the game-winner against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats two weeks ago.
“I was tired on the play, but I got there,” Hazelton said about his record catch. “I didn’t realize how big the CFL field is once you start running the whole thing. It’s pretty long.”
With Adarius Bowman, a CFL all-star each of the past three years and the league’s leading receiver last season, on the six-game injured list (hamstring), Hazelton has the most CFL experience – only 29 games – among Edmonton’s foursome of international receivers. Slotback Brandon Zylstra, who has 36 grabs for a team-leading 516 yards, has the second-most games played with 11, including six in 2016.
It’s hard to believe that Hazelton was reduced to wanting a role – whatever the Eskimos needed it to be – when he came to Edmonton last fall because “there were a lot of rumours through me leaving Toronto (about) what type of person I was, so I just wanted to come here and show everybody like, man, I’m none of that stuff that they said. I’m a good person and I’m just here to play.”
The six-foot-three, 212-receiver had been unceremoniously dumped by the Toronto Argonauts, along with three other receivers, in early October 2016. That experience forced to him to look in the mirror and realize he had to “grow up in a lot of areas.”
“I knew I was too good for that,” he said. “All of that stuff, just from me being benched last year when I was with Toronto, I play all of that stuff in my mind now. That’s why I play (hard) on every blocking play. I’m just going as hard as I can because I can’t allow that to happen again.
“I love meeting people, talking to people. I’m a people person, I like to laugh and enjoy time with my teammates.”
Two anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injuries hampered Hazelton’s aspirations of playing in the NFL.
“People see you with two leg injuries, they feel like you can’t do it no more,” he said.
Hazelton tore his first ACL in the first game of his senior year with the University of Cincinnati Bearcats after sitting out a season to transfer from the USC Trojans. As a result, he wasn’t selected in the NFL draft and bounced from team to team to team, only finding a place on the practice roster until he made the New York Jets’ starting lineup in 2013.
“That’s always been a chip on my shoulder because I always felt I was good,” said Hazelton, who spent time with the San Diego Chargers in 2011, Cincinnati Bengals in 2011-12 and Tennessee Titans in 2012.
Unfortunately, he tore the ACL in his other knee before the 2013 season opener and the opportunity with the Jets was gone. For good.
When another season passed without a call from an NFL team in 2014, he signed with the Argos and was runner-up for the CFL’s most outstanding rookie award to the Eskimos’ Derel Walker in 2015.
“That was another chip, me coming to the CFL,” he said.
He doesn’t regret it now, though.
“I tell everybody, you probably make the big bucks (in the NFL), but the CFL is just a whole lot of fun. I’m enjoying my time up here.”
Hazelton is also helping the Eskimos remain undefeated after five games for the first time since 2011. He totalled 159 yards on eight catches against the Lions last week and made two key catches during the final-minute drive at Hamilton, including a 15-yarder for the game-winning TD.
“Everybody knew we had this; that’s the beauty of what I loved about that drive,” he said about the Ticats’ game. “Everybody was so calm. … (quarterback Mike Reilly) was wired in and just to see that laser focus by the offence and then to go down there and score and put the dagger in Hamilton was just an amazing feeling.”
Even though he had been facing double coverage probably intended for the injured Bowman most of the night, Hazelton went to Reilly and offensive co-ordinator Carson Walch before the last drive and asked them to give him a chance.
“Man, there’s something about me right now,” he said. “Please get me the ball. I want to make the play.”
Then he delivered by turning a little eight-yard pattern into a 30-yard gain to start the final march and capped it off by wrestling the ball away from Hamilton defensive back Justin Rogers to score the winning touchdown.
“I could have run a better route,” he said. “(Rogers) had the ball in his hands and I just ripped it out and put my hand on the ground and knew I had to stay up. Then Duke (Williams) made a nice block and I got to the end zone.”
Hazelton also fought off B.C. defenders to score a touchdown in the season-opener at Vancouver.
“We’ve got such a great receiving corps that when the ball finally comes to you, that’s your moment so it’s like you’ve got to do something with it,” he said.
Hazelton, the Eskimos’ first offensive player to wear No. 15 since quarterback Ricky Ray was traded in December 2011, showed up at Edmonton’s training camp in great shape after all the one-on-one work he did with NFL buddies Antonio Brown, Melvin Ingram and Mohamed Sanu during the off-season.
“It’s just fun being around those guys,” he said. “It just makes football fun and keeps it competitive.
“This off-season, Ochocinco (former NFL star Chad Johnson, who still works out to stay in shape) came out and did some one-on-ones with us. He saw us working and called us out on Twitter so he pulled up to the park the next day, which was pretty cool. I was just picking his brain about a lot of things. He was a great mentor to me this off-season, as well as Antonio Brown and Mohamed Sanu.”