The road to the CFL is often a winding one, full of surprises and interesting twists and turns.

Not everyone starts out dreaming of a CFL career.

Players often bounce around other sports and other teams like tumbleweed, sometimes landing here on the winds of misfortune, missed opportunity, tragedy, financial concerns and domestic issues.

Here are the stories of five CFL players whose journeys took some sharp detours.

SWAYZE WATERS

The Toronto Argonauts kicker, 27, grew up in Jackson, Miss., and was his high school team’s leading receiver for three years.

“After college, I bounced around the NFL. I had wanted to be a baseball player or a wide receiver. I was blessed with the ability to kick. It was not something I worked at a lot. In high school, I kicked because I was able to kick. Once I got to the college level, that’s when I started to work at it. It’s something I have to work at daily now to kick at a high level. Early on, it was natural ability. It was not something I sought out.

“In the CFL, I met a lot of kickers and punters. A few have come up to the CFL and I tried to keep up. I signed with Edmonton two years ago and had a lot to learn. I had worked out for Chris Jones years ago when he was in Calgary. I think I signed with Oakland that year. That was my first insight into the CFL.

“I also got to know Eric Tillman, who was then the GM of Edmonton. Tillman is originally from Mississippi too. He knew who I was and gave me an opportunity. It got me in the door. I got released there. I was back in Mississippi for one day and that was the day (Noel) Prefontaine got injured. Coach (Jim) Barker (now the team’s general manager) called me and told me we were going to win the Grey Cup and he wanted me to be their kicker. I was on the plane the next morning. That was the third week of the season (2012).

“We ended up winning it. It was pretty cool. I get an opportunity to speak a lot with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and sometimes I’ll bring my ring. I have to educate kids down south on the CFL. I tell them when I say Toronto Argonauts, just think New Orleans Saints and when I say Grey Cup, think Super Bowl.”

DELVIN BREAUX

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats defensive back almost died playing high school football in New Orleans.

In a terrible accident on Oct. 27, 2006, Breaux broke his neck in an on-field collision while covering a kickoff. It was two days after his 17th birthday.

He also damaged an artery. He didn’t know at first how bad the injury was because his adrenalin was pumping. However, when he realized how bad it was, he and his parents broke down crying. He needed two operations.

Breaux wore a halo brace to support the muscles in his neck. He had already committed to Louisiana State University, and while he attended LSU on a football scholarship, he never received medical clearance to play football there.

He worked construction and as a bouncer to make ends meet. He played flag football, but a tryout with the New Orleans Saints fell through because he didn’t have any game film.

Breaux then got a break by catching on with the Louisiana Bay Vipers, a semi-pro team. He went to a tryout camp before NFL and CFL scouts in San Antonio, Texas, and was picked up by the New Orleans Voodoo of the Arena Football League in 2013.

After a couple of games, his agent, Anthony Griffith, called to say that Hamilton, Montreal and Edmonton were interested. Former CFL quarterback Danny McManus, a Hamilton scout at the time, attended the first camp in San Mateo, Calif.

“The next week, they said we want you to come up here and sign with us,” Breaux, 24, told the Star. “I didn’t know where Hamilton was. I just knew it was in Canada.”

He took the initiative and watched some CFL football on YouTube.

He has a scar stretching from the base of his skull, down his neck to roughly his shoulder blades. In the off-season, he proposed to his fiancée, Kasey Titone.

“She said, ‘I’m coming up with you, no matter what.’ They (Ticats) took a chance on me. I thank coach (Kent) Austin every day for this opportunity because no one took a chance on me.”

CHAD JOHNSON

The Montreal Alouettes receiver, 36, arrived in the CFL after GM Jim Popp took a chance on him following a domestic violence charge. In his prime, Johnson was making $6 million (U.S.) a season in the NFL.

With the Als, he is expected to make $85,000 a season. Although Johnson owns a Ferrari, Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce, he now drives a Smart car.

He was taken by the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL in the 2001 draft. He played for the Bengals for 10 seasons and was a six-time Pro Bowler. In 2008, he legally changed his name to Chad Ochocinco.

He was traded to the New England Patriots in 2011. In 2012, he played for the Miami Dolphins, but was released in the pre-season following a domestic violence arrest.

On July 24, 2012, he changed his name back to Chad Johnson. It was on Aug. 11, 2012 that he allegedly head-butted his wife, Evelyn Lozada, opening a gash on her forehead. Johnson was arrested and his wife filed for divorce, ending a 41-day marriage.

The Dolphins terminated his contract and he entered a no-contest plea. Johnson was sentenced to 12 months’ probation.

The Alouettes had put Johnson’s name on their negotiation list in March. Popp told the Star that around that time he got a call from former NFL star wide receiver Cris Carter, whose son, Duron Carter, is a wide receiver with the Alouettes.

Carter told him that Johnson was training with him and that he still had the hands and moves. Carter took video and sent it to Popp. Popp wanted to know if Johnson would be interested in coming to the team’s mini-camp in Vero Beach, Fla.

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In April, the Alouettes signed him to a two-year contract.

Popp doesn’t feel he’s sticking his neck out.

“We take chances on every player we bring in,” he said. “We studied the whole case. Lawyers and legal people looked into it before we moved forward. We talked to former coaches and players who played with him. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes. But we’re a club that gives people second chances.”

CHRIS GETZLAF

Saskatchewan’s Getzlaf, 31, is a slotback who was drafted into the CFL by Hamilton in 2007 after two outstanding seasons with the University of Regina Rams. He lives in Regina, where he works as a financial adviser.

His brother, Ryan, 29, is a star centre with the Anaheim Ducks of the NHL. When Ryan won the Stanley Cup in 2007, his older brother found himself on a Grey Cup championship team after he had been traded from Hamilton. Chris added another Grey Cup ring in 2013.

Chris has never hinted that he is jealous of his brother’s fame and fortune. They are best friends who grew up in Regina and both played hockey, football and baseball.

Chris has supported his brother’s success at every turn. He was there for him when Ryan was drafted into the NHL, and he was there in Vancouver in 2010 when his brother won the Olympic gold medal.

Chris, the smaller of the two at six feet and 200 pounds (Ryan is six-foot-four, 220), was such a long shot because he had never started for any football team in his first year. He said he has always had to prove himself.

Chris was a throw-in in a trade to the Roughriders and he rarely played in his first three CFL seasons. However, injuries gave him the chance to play, and he developed into a great receiver.

Ryan says he and his brother peaked at different times. They started in football together when Chris was 13 and Ryan was 11.Chris played a lot of hockey, too, since he was 7 years old.

“I was always playing at an elite level,” he said.

It hurt him, however, that he was cut from his Tier 1 peewee team even though he was a top-20 player in Saskatchewan the year before.

“(The coach) told me I was too small. I grew late and I wasn’t very big. He flat out told me, ‘I’m cutting you because you’re too small.’ I ended up having a couple of really poor hockey coaches when I played lower divisions for those two years. Football kind of took over as my love.”

“I got turned off of hockey a little, not that I ever stopped playing. When it came to make a choice, when I had grown going into Grade 12, I decided I wanted to be captain of the football team. I chose that. At a young age, guys like (Jeff) Fairholm and especially (Ray) Elgaard, you looked up to them. But mostly I looked up to Jason Clermont. He went to all the same schools I did. He was five years older. He was in his prime. I just loved the way he played. He caught everything and he played smart football. I made the goal to be a CFL player in my third year in junior. I made a little road map to accomplish that. I made a goal to get drafted after I got my degree and it panned out. I’d be lying if I said football was my first love. I was definitely more focused on hockey at a younger age.”

He said his brother excelled at everylevel of hockey. “He was probably the best player in Regina for six years straight, in my opinion. Do I ever think about it? Yeah. But do I ever regret it? No. I love where I am. There’s nothing to say I would have made the NHL if I had stuck to hockey.”

RAYE HARTMANN

The Edmonton Eskimos cornerback was drafted this season in the fourth round after two years away from football.

No one at the Eskimos camp could believe it. Hartmann went to high school in Mississauga, attending Our Lady of Mount Carmel. He got a letter from Southern Mississippi, and that was the first time he realized his potential to go to university.

Hartmann, 24, started looking at Canadian schools and went on a recruiting trip. He and a few friends chose St. Francis. With financial assistance, and using his savings from his summer job, he enrolled and started for the football team in 2010 and 2011.

In his first game, he made two interceptions.

In 2012, he pulled out of school to go home and help support the family. His mother, Joyce, was a single mother and could no longer rely on Hartmann’s grandfather for financial assistance because he had taken ill and was unable to work.

He has an older brother, Quincey, 29, who couldn’t find work at the time.

“My mom was the money earner,” Hartmann said. He and his best friend, Tarrick Defour, would hit the gym at midnight and work until 3 a.m.

Hartmann worked two jobs. One at Smuckers and one at a framing shop.

When he heard the CFL combines were nearing this year, he asked his mom if he could quit his two jobs to train full time.

“She said, ‘Go for your dream,’ ” Hartmann said.

Hartmann impressed at the Toronto regional combine and earned a spot at the national combine prospect camp.

He survived the final cuts this season and earned a spot on the Eskimos’ practice roster.

Edmonton GM Ed Hervey told the Edmonton Journal that it was the interview that won him over. “He was a kid who left school to pay rent and feed that family and those things touch me,” Hervey said. “We feel like this is a kid who is going to come here and work and work hard.”

Hartmann said Hervey and head coach Chris Jones really understood his situation.

“They didn’t hold it against me. I had to do something for my family. My mom’s really happy. My brother is happy too because he supported me a lot. When you actually see the plan go through, it’s amazing. I wasn’t sure. I hadn’t put on pads in two years. Everyone was like, what? That’s crazy. How can you take two years off and not play any football and come and do this? I get that a lot.”