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Giffen got him into St. Michael’s College, long before the place was front page news, and some will tell you Labinjo was the best high school football player anyone had ever seen around Toronto. He played running back at St. Mike’s and ran so hard and so well – he was large for his age – that Nick Saban offered him a scholarship to Michigan State. He didn’t run the ball for the Spartans, moving to defensive end, and sometimes linebacker, enough to have the Philadelphia Eagles sign him as an undrafted free agent in 2004.

In his first NFL season, he started one game – on Monday Night Football – and Andy Reid’s Eagles went to the Super Bowl. The first professional season couldn’t have gone any better.

“If it wasn’t for Frank, I don’t know if Mike even gets a scholarship,” said Paul Forbes, the former football coach at St. Mike’s . “I don’t know if he goes on to have the kind of college career he had. I don’t know if he gets to the NFL, or the Super Bowl or anything else. I just don’t know.

“What (Giffen) did for this kid, helping him get through schools, getting him tutors if he needed it, guiding him when he got into hot water. It’s an incredible story, really. Whatever he needed, Frank was there for him. The guy is a saint.”

And this is what can become possible when a young man and a mentor connect and grow together,

Labinjo might have gone to St. Mike’s because of Giffen and possibly got his scholarship because of Giffen’s push, but the NFL didn’t care much about his Big Brother. There it was all on Labinjo. He spent parts of three seasons in Philadelphia, Miami and Indianapolis, before landing in Calgary, which eventually became home.