The significance of Father’s Day changed for the new dads on the Eskimos football team.
Some of those players have always honoured their father or a supportive family member while they were growing up.
Now, it’s their turn to be the star attraction. Sunday was a day to celebrate all special father figures.
Wide receiver DaVaris Daniels, 26, missed the first game of the season with an injury, but he’s had lots of family around this past weekend. Parents Leslie and Phillip plus siblings Demara, DaKiya and DaKendrick all travelled from Philadelphia for the Eskimos’ season opener on Friday at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium.
“Just to have them here for the game is pretty important for me,” said Daniels, whose son, Jett, was born on March 29th. “I’m excited to have them up here, and I get to celebrate it all together. It’s my first (Father’s Day). I don’t know what number it is for my dad.
“Father’s Day was really important to me because my dad was really the only person I looked up to with him playing football (Phillip Daniels played 15 NFL seasons as a defensive end with the Seattle Seahawks, Chicago Bears and Washington Redskins from 1996-2010) and me knowing that I wanted to play football,” he continued. “It was like I really wanted to do special things for him.
“That’s why I’m so excited to see what they’ve got in store for me. My first one, I think they’ll do it pretty big.”
Veteran cornerback Anthony Orange, 31, always celebrated his grandfather and mother on Father’s Day because his dad “wasn’t there a lot for me growing up.”
“Being a father now, this year will be my first Father’s Day,” he said. “My daughter (Cecilia Lynn) is 10 months – she was born on Aug. 7th – so this a big stepping stone for me.
“I think my fiancée (Christina Ogilvie) is going to throw a big party because we threw one for her for Mother’s Day. I’m excited about it.”
Running back C.J. Gable, whose daughter, Jordyn Rose, was born four months ago, doesn’t need to have a special celebration on Father’s Day.
“I really don’t have to do anything,” said the 31-year-old Gable. “I’ve just got to be with them (his wife and daughter).
“It’s going to be special because it’s a big thing, my first child. I’m really excited that I have her and it’s an amazing feeling.”
National receiver Natey Adjei, 29, has been a starter in 18 of the Eskimos’ last 19 regular-season games. He said his dad doesn’t like to celebrate birthdays or things like that, but his mother always did special things like cooking his favourite meals on Father’s Day.
Adjei will have to wait for the Eskimos’ first bye week at the end of June/early July to celebrate Father’s Day because his wife and three-year-old daughter, Laila, are back in Toronto with Melody expecting the couple’s second child in August.
“She has a whole grand production set up for me,” Adjei said. “Each year, she definitely surprises me. I tell her, ‘I don’t want anything. I just want to hang out with you guys.’ But she takes it extremely serious, so I definitely feel appreciated on Father’s Day.”
He will be thinking about Laila, today, however.
“My daughter was actually born on Father’s Day in 2016, so this is something I’ll never forget, and it’s one of the proudest and best moments of my life,” Adjei said.
Eskimos quarterback Trevor Harris will be thinking about his father, Tom, while celebrating Father’s Day with his wife, Kalie, two-year-old son, T.J., and his mother, Suzanne. Tom is back home in Marion, Ohio.
“It’s special because my wife celebrates the fact that it’s Father’s Day and I get to celebrate my dad and her dad, just two awesome father figures for her and myself,” Harris said. “My dad is as blue-collar as it gets, and I’ve learned so much from him, the lessons are just invaluable.
“I really love to celebrate my dad on Father’s Day, and I really am thankful that I have a son and a family. It’s just a huge blessing.”
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