Without any hesitation, Tom Canada will call himself an outdoorsman.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ defensive end is a surfer, whitewater rafter and committed hiker. In fact, when Bombers general manager, Brendan Taman, went looking for Canada, trying to offer him a new contract this past February, his best pass rusher was in Honduras working as a guide and rafting instructor for an American company called Omega Tours.
And while Canada loved his job, Honduras itself was a bit of an eye-opener.
“It was the guns,” said the 28-year-old Cal-Berkeley grad. “It was just a little too wild west for me. Everybody in Honduras carried a concealed weapon. I know, I’m an American and there lots of guns in the United States, but this, well, this was just out there.”
Canada is about as tough as they come. At 6-foot-2, 260 pounds, he’s not only quick and athletic, but he’s also mean. He loves the chase, as in chasing down quarterbacks, and making them pay for taking too long to release the football. With 12 sacks in 2007, he was No. 1 in Winnipeg and No. 3 in the CFL. He’s now third all-time on the Bombers sack list behind only Tyrone Jones (98) and Tony Norman (69).
And Thursday night, when 0-4 Winnipeg meets 3-1 Calgary at Canad Inns Stadium, the Bombers will need Canada more than they ever have before. With Barrin Simpson out of the lineup, possibly for the rest of the season, due to a painful pectoral muscle tear and with Kelly Malveaux, a defensive back, taking over for the banged-up Ike Charlton at outside linebacker, Canada’s ability to rush the quarterback will be acutely required as the Bombers front seven tries to overcome two devastating injuries.
If anyone, it’s Canada, with its get-to-the-quarterback-at-all-costs approach, who will be called upon to help his team turn around the prospect of falling to 0-5.
And, of course, it’s this never-stop-chasing-the-quarterback attitude that Taman and head coach Doug Berry love. That’s why, even though Montreal offered the free-agent lineman more money to head east this season, Canada signed in Winnipeg because, “I love the fans and I think we can win a Cup or two with this team.”
Still, as tough as he is, he also understands the concept of the great equalizer. He found out this winter that while offensive linemen are big and scary, they’re no match for a 45-calibre pistol.
“It all kind of crystallized for me when we went to the airport to get on a flight to go to these outlying islands,” Canada said. “I’m kind of sitting there, waiting to board the plane and all around me there are these well-dressed Honduran guys, just normal, business-type guys – I didn’t see any law-enforcement badges or anything like that — and they were all in a line in front of a table with a couple of security guys at it.
“Every one of them reached behind his back and pulled a .45 out of his belt. The security guy would remove the clip, put it in a plastic bag and then put a name-tag on it. Then, the security guys would take the gun and put it into a paper bag and staple all around the gun and hand the paper bag back to its owner and he’d walk on the plane. I’d never seen anything like it.
“Then, when we reached the little airport at this island, the guys would all line up and get their clips back. The security guys would take their paper bags, open them, put the clips in and hand them back their guns. Man, it was the wildest thing I ever saw.”
Guns aside, he enjoyed Honduras, but he always kept an eye out for the guy who just might pull a piece.
“This one night, we went into the town near us, Lacieba, to go to a bar,” Canada said. “There was a nice little bed and breakfast beside our tour operation that was run by a lady from Saskatchewan. She was married to a Honduran and this night, he drove us into Lacieba.
“Well, we got talking about all the guns in Honduras and he reached down and pulled a Glock out from under his seat and just fired it into the jungle. Could have hit anybody or anything. He didn’t care. He was just laughin’ and firing his weapon.
“All that night I kept looking over my shoulder to see if someone had pulled a gun, but everybody in Honduras has one so there was no problem. Still, playing professional football is a lot less scary than going to a bar in Honduras.”