This is very sad news
Latest injury may mean the end for Lumsden
Bruce Arthur, National Post Published:Friday, July 03, 2009
When Jesse Lumsden was young, everything was in front of him. Well, until he ran past it, which happened pretty often. On one fine autumn day back at McMaster, the Marauders trailed by a touchdown to Queen's after surrendering a 99-yard passing touchdown with maybe 30 seconds left. In the sideline huddle, McMaster coach Greg Marshall looked at Jesse and said, "Go back and take it to the house." Jesse said, "OK."
So Jesse went back there and fielded the kick and ran 108 yards, veering left and then right, for an overtime-forcing touchdown. He was a head-shaking combination of size and speed, and against the lesser kids playing for Queen's or Guelph or Waterloo, Jesse Lumsden was capable of such miracles.
That feels so long ago, now. On Thursday night, Lumsden was playing his first game for the Edmonton Eskimos. His previous two campaigns, with Hamilton, had been cut short by separate shoulder surgeries; this was his chance at a rebirth. It was a one-year deal.
He didn't get through one quarter. Just 14 minutes and 27 seconds into Edmonton's first game of the year, with a light rain falling and his parents in the stands, Lumsden took a short pass from Ricky Ray, squared his shoulders to head upfield, and got drilled by Winnipeg linebacker Siddeeq Shabazz. It was not a dirty hit. It was not a particularly vicious hit. It dislocated Lumsden's surgically repaired left shoulder.
"My gut says it's over," Matt Dunigan, TSN's CFL analyst said with sadness in his voice, "because that was a simple football play."
There is no specific prognosis, and more tests have been ordered. But it's not good.
Jesse Lumsden has now played parts of five seasons in the Canadian Football League. He spent most of his first two seasons trying to catch on in the NFL - the first year with Seattle, he sprained a hip and was released by the team; the second year, he was slowed by a groin injury, and Washington let him go. Both seasons, he finished the season in Canada.
He hasn't done so since. In 2007, Lumsden played nine games in which he often looked like the best back the league had seen in ages, averaging 7.6 yards per carry. But he injured his left shoulder and clavicle and missed three games; he came back, and hurt the shoulder again, tearing his labrum.
"It was a freak thing and my shoulder popped out and then when I hit the ground it popped back in," Lumsden told The Hamilton Spectator at the time. "It was rotten unlucky luck because all I did was put my arm up against one of the guys."
After that injury, Lumsden underwent season-ending surgery, and came back. In 2008, Lumsden played nine games before tearing his labrum again, in a different spot. He underwent season-ending surgery again.
There were other injuries along the way - ankle, hip, knee, groin - but the shoulder appears to be his weakest point. Lumsden looks built for football - 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, breakaway speed, powerful enough that he is working to join Pierre Lueders on Canada's Olympic bobsled team. His father, Neil, was a fine CFL player. Jesse looked like he could be better. He seemed, a long time ago, to be born for this.
Five years into his career, he has never carried the ball more than 98 times in a CFL season. He has played just 32 career CFL games. And for all anybody knows, that might be the end of it.
The easy comparison is Eric Lindros, but at least Lindros won a Hart Trophy, played in a Stanley Cup final, had a chance. Dunigan, who retired because of concussions, had a chance. If healthy, Jesse Lumsden could have been among the greatest running backs in CFL history; a pounding home-run threat with an instinct for the hole.
But he has never been healthy. For all his genius, you can't find the hole unless there is no hesitation, no fear. It's hard to see how that is possible, anymore. It's a shame, because the CFL never has so many stars - much less homegrown stars - that losing one is not a sad day. Eskimos coach Richie Hall, after Thursday's game, told the media "there's still going to be a lot of life in Jesse."
Life, yes. But football, no matter how much you love it, isn't life. Jesse Lumsden is just 26 years old, but as an athlete, he seems to be dying young. He'll try again, because that's who he is. But I agree with Dunigan. It feels like it's over.
I hope we're wrong. I wrote a feature about Jesse in 2004. We sat in the empty bleachers at McMaster's practice field and talked for a couple hours. He was at once childlike and mature then. He was on his way to a geography degree, with an eye towards teaching as a backup plan. He also had six Spider-Man figurines strewn around his room, and a Spider-Man pillowcase as well.
And he loved football so much that on nights when he could not sleep, Lumsden would flick around until he found some West Coast college football game, any football game, on TV. He would watch tape of his blocking with his father, with an eye towards improvement. But that seemingly perfect football body, whether due to bad luck or hidden flaws, has been a shell, either rotten unlucky or prone to cracks. He was born to do this, he thought. Maybe he wasn't.
http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=1758028
Latest injury may mean the end for Lumsden
Bruce Arthur, National Post Published:Friday, July 03, 2009
When Jesse Lumsden was young, everything was in front of him. Well, until he ran past it, which happened pretty often. On one fine autumn day back at McMaster, the Marauders trailed by a touchdown to Queen's after surrendering a 99-yard passing touchdown with maybe 30 seconds left. In the sideline huddle, McMaster coach Greg Marshall looked at Jesse and said, "Go back and take it to the house." Jesse said, "OK."
So Jesse went back there and fielded the kick and ran 108 yards, veering left and then right, for an overtime-forcing touchdown. He was a head-shaking combination of size and speed, and against the lesser kids playing for Queen's or Guelph or Waterloo, Jesse Lumsden was capable of such miracles.
That feels so long ago, now. On Thursday night, Lumsden was playing his first game for the Edmonton Eskimos. His previous two campaigns, with Hamilton, had been cut short by separate shoulder surgeries; this was his chance at a rebirth. It was a one-year deal.
He didn't get through one quarter. Just 14 minutes and 27 seconds into Edmonton's first game of the year, with a light rain falling and his parents in the stands, Lumsden took a short pass from Ricky Ray, squared his shoulders to head upfield, and got drilled by Winnipeg linebacker Siddeeq Shabazz. It was not a dirty hit. It was not a particularly vicious hit. It dislocated Lumsden's surgically repaired left shoulder.
"My gut says it's over," Matt Dunigan, TSN's CFL analyst said with sadness in his voice, "because that was a simple football play."
There is no specific prognosis, and more tests have been ordered. But it's not good.
Jesse Lumsden has now played parts of five seasons in the Canadian Football League. He spent most of his first two seasons trying to catch on in the NFL - the first year with Seattle, he sprained a hip and was released by the team; the second year, he was slowed by a groin injury, and Washington let him go. Both seasons, he finished the season in Canada.
He hasn't done so since. In 2007, Lumsden played nine games in which he often looked like the best back the league had seen in ages, averaging 7.6 yards per carry. But he injured his left shoulder and clavicle and missed three games; he came back, and hurt the shoulder again, tearing his labrum.
"It was a freak thing and my shoulder popped out and then when I hit the ground it popped back in," Lumsden told The Hamilton Spectator at the time. "It was rotten unlucky luck because all I did was put my arm up against one of the guys."
After that injury, Lumsden underwent season-ending surgery, and came back. In 2008, Lumsden played nine games before tearing his labrum again, in a different spot. He underwent season-ending surgery again.
There were other injuries along the way - ankle, hip, knee, groin - but the shoulder appears to be his weakest point. Lumsden looks built for football - 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, breakaway speed, powerful enough that he is working to join Pierre Lueders on Canada's Olympic bobsled team. His father, Neil, was a fine CFL player. Jesse looked like he could be better. He seemed, a long time ago, to be born for this.
Five years into his career, he has never carried the ball more than 98 times in a CFL season. He has played just 32 career CFL games. And for all anybody knows, that might be the end of it.
The easy comparison is Eric Lindros, but at least Lindros won a Hart Trophy, played in a Stanley Cup final, had a chance. Dunigan, who retired because of concussions, had a chance. If healthy, Jesse Lumsden could have been among the greatest running backs in CFL history; a pounding home-run threat with an instinct for the hole.
But he has never been healthy. For all his genius, you can't find the hole unless there is no hesitation, no fear. It's hard to see how that is possible, anymore. It's a shame, because the CFL never has so many stars - much less homegrown stars - that losing one is not a sad day. Eskimos coach Richie Hall, after Thursday's game, told the media "there's still going to be a lot of life in Jesse."
Life, yes. But football, no matter how much you love it, isn't life. Jesse Lumsden is just 26 years old, but as an athlete, he seems to be dying young. He'll try again, because that's who he is. But I agree with Dunigan. It feels like it's over.
I hope we're wrong. I wrote a feature about Jesse in 2004. We sat in the empty bleachers at McMaster's practice field and talked for a couple hours. He was at once childlike and mature then. He was on his way to a geography degree, with an eye towards teaching as a backup plan. He also had six Spider-Man figurines strewn around his room, and a Spider-Man pillowcase as well.
And he loved football so much that on nights when he could not sleep, Lumsden would flick around until he found some West Coast college football game, any football game, on TV. He would watch tape of his blocking with his father, with an eye towards improvement. But that seemingly perfect football body, whether due to bad luck or hidden flaws, has been a shell, either rotten unlucky or prone to cracks. He was born to do this, he thought. Maybe he wasn't.
http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=1758028
