Linebackers Give Back To Community

Bert Faibish

Ticats.ca

In the world of professional sports there’s an unspoken boundary that often separates athletes and fans. Living just apart from the regular population and often pausing just long enough to sign an autograph, the gap between our sports heroes and us is obvious and often isn’t helped by their attitude.

The CFL provides a different dynamic than that of almost any other league. On Wednesday, an afternoon visit to the CAW Local 504 office on Queenston Road provided a fine example of this. Linebackers Otis Floyd, Markeith Knowlton and Jamall Johnson delivered 600 tickets for Monday’s Labour Day Classic to members of the CAW Local 504, the union that represents workers at the Siemens plant which is slated to close its doors next year.

This didn’t happen because it was a team initiative or because the PR department asked them to, but because when they heard about the situation the workers were in, they wanted to help.

“We just hope that for four hours on Monday we can help take their minds off of what their going through and entertain them a little bit,” said Floyd, who is from the Detroit area and knows well the consequences of job loss in the manufacturing sector.

All three took about an hour out of their off-day this week to drop by the union hall and deliver the tickets personally and to sit and chat with some of the workers for a while.

Conversation ranged from football, to politics and the weather and if you didn’t know any better you’d think it was any other day at the hall.

It was important for the players to communicate their appreciation for the support they’ve received over the years.

“These people support us, they’re hardcore fans even when times are rough they’ve stuck there with us,” said Knowlton.

“When we were one-and-this, and two-and-that, they were always here for us so I just feel like it was the least we could do, show that we support them too,” he said.

It was obvious that the workers appreciated not only the tickets but the personal touch that accompanied them.

“These will be well appreciated because there a lot of Ticat fans here and I think the generosity of the players is amazing,” said Doug Brown, Siemens hourly unit chair.

The ties that bind communities in Canada to their CFL teams are strong and run deeper than municipal borders. On Monday, 600 Ticats fans will know that while they cheer on their heroes for an afternoon, the players will be thinking about them too.