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Brock Sunderland’s first trade as Edmonton Eskimos general manager has some personal history behind it.

Dealing a second-round draft pick to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for veteran pass-rusher John Chick and a fifth-round selection on Sunday was signed off on the other end by Eric Tillman.

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Now GM of the Ticats, Tillman was the one who gave Sunderland his first professional football gig back when he was with the Ottawa Renegades in 2004.

While it didn’t last long, the unpaid management position allowed Sunderland to get his foot in the door on the way to rising through the ranks to become the youngest GM currently in the CFL this past off-season.

Photo by Ian Jackson / THE CANADIAN PRESS

“I told him when we were kind of commencing the trade, I said, ‘It’s pretty fitting that (you’re) the first person who really gave me a shot, even though it didn’t come to fruition,” said Sunderland, whose football education began at a young age under the tutelage of his father, Marv, an NFL scout of 41 years. “In the spring of ’04, I was cold-calling teams. (Tillman) called me back and basically said, ‘We can’t do anything financially, but we’ll give you t-shirts and business cards.’ I said, ‘Hey, I’ll take it.’