Don Unamba’s transition to SAM (strong-side) linebacker started off as a joke, but it seriously changed his professional football career.
While he was in training camp with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats last year, three different players were injured at SAM linebacker.
“I was looking at the way things were shaking out on the roster,” Unamba said. “With those injuries going down, I told (defensive backs coach William Fields), ‘I can play SAM.’ ”
The comment was made in jest because Unamba had never played the position, although he had been everywhere else in the secondary and linebacker corps in the CFL except middle linebacker and safety.
“I was like, ‘Why not play SAM?’ I knew I had the ability in me because I had done so (many other positions) that I probably could play SAM,” he explained.
Fields shot down the request, saying Hamilton’s new defensive coordinator, Jerry Glanville, doesn’t want to move a lot of people around in the training camp.
“ ‘Just stay where you are right now,’ ” Unamba recalled Fields’ reply. “But the next day, he said, ‘We’re going to try you out at SAM, and I never looked back.’ ”
Unamba became a star last year – an East Division and CFL All-Star, that is.
Previously, he had been a journeyman cornerback who bounced around the CFL from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 2014 to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2015, sat out a season in 2016 thinking his football career was over, and then bounced some more from the Montreal Alouettes to the Ti-Cats in 2017.
After compiling 59 defensive tackles, four quarterback sacks, an interception-return touchdown and three forced fumbles from the SAM position with the Tiger-Cats, Unamba caught the attention of the Eskimos and was part of the talented group of players Edmonton signed on the opening day of free agency on Feb. 12th.
“I honestly wish I would have played SAM coming in (to the CFL),” said the 30-year-old Unamba, a six-foot-one, 195-pound cornerback from Dallas. “It’s so natural for me. It feels good. I feel comfortable. I feel like SAM is the perfect place for me to play and show all my traits, my abilities.
“I’m a physical player. I play fast. I feel like it forced me to use my mind. I feel like I have a great mindset for the game. I can see everything so fast. And then I can cover, and I’m able to be in the box (middle of the defence) and hit. I’m able to blitz, so I’m doing something of everything, and I’m having fun with it.”
Unamba made a big splash in his brief pre-season appearance with the Eskimos against the BC Lions. He dove to intercept a pass on the first play of the game and returned the ball 28 yards to the BC 11-yard line. He also tackled a Lions running back for a two-yard loss and knocked down a BC pass before he left the game after only five plays.
“I’m just rolling off the momentum of last year and, hopefully, as the rest of the season progresses, I build off the momentum that I had when I played in my first game with Edmonton,” he said. “I’m still out here making plays.”
Unamba played boundary (short-side) corner and WIL (weak-side) linebacker “with this funny defence” the Bombers were running when he came into the league. But defensive coordinator Gary Etcheverry was relieved of his duties after the 2014 season, and Unamba was released by the new defensive coach about a week into training camp the following year.
The Roughriders picked up Unamba thinking he was a WIL linebacker because that’s where they had him playing on film, but later discovered at practice that he was actually a cornerback, so he played both positions for Saskatchewan.
Unfortunately, the Riders cleaned house after that season – getting rid of everyone from the general manager down to the coaching staff. When Unamba tried to get a new contract, no CFL team showed any interest.
“I actually thought for a little while that football was over for me,” he said. “I sat down for a whole year. Nobody would call me that CFL season.”
Unamba finally got another opportunity to play in February 2017, but it was with an Arena Football League expansion team, the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles.
“I played a couple of games there,” he said. “I had three or four interceptions and made a bunch of plays.”
That’s when Nik Lewis, a former CFL receiver who went to the same college (Southern Arkansas University) as Unamba, called him and said, “You should not be over there. That’s too easy for you. You should be back in the league.”
Lewis contacted Alouettes General Manager Kavis Reed, and Unamba soon had a contract and went to training camp with Montreal.
“And that started my whole career over again,” he said. “I played two games with Montreal before they released me and then Hamilton gave me a call, and I played with Hamilton for two years, and now I’m in Edmonton.”
Besides giving Unamba a chance to play SAM, Glanville also gave him a nickname, “The President,” last year. The 77-year-old coach was having a difficult time remembering the names of all the new players and staff, so he was always asking, ‘Who made that play?’ during film sessions. Fields would say, “That was Unamba who made that play.”
After a while “(Glanville) started botching my name and calling me, ‘Obama. That was Obama again!’ At practice, when I made plays, he’d be yelling and screaming, ‘Obama does it again! Obama!’ Eventually, he started calling me ‘The President.’ ‘The President did it again!’
“It’s something that stuck, and everybody started calling me ‘The President’ and I rolled with it,” Unamba said. “It’s Jerry Glanville. He’s a legend. Any time somebody of his calibre gives you a name like that, you rock with it.
“It’s worked out for me.”
When Unamba joined the Eskimos, he asked for the No.1 jersey, which he wore in Hamilton last year. But no Edmonton player has had that number since quarterback Warren Moon last played in Green and Gold in 1983.
So Unamba asked for No. 0, the next number on his wish list, not realizing that it hasn’t been used in Edmonton with the exception of defensive back Larry Highbaugh – briefly – and quarterback Mike Reilly, for one game (when he switched from No. 13 on the day Highbaugh and his No. 13 went up on the Wall of Honour).
“I didn’t know that (Equipment Manager Dwayne Mandrusiak) had never given ‘O’ out before, but I just wanted ‘O,’ asked for it and made it happened,” Unamba said.
This season will be the first time that Unamba has worn that number, as well.