Following a solid 12-year CFL career which included stops in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, Jock Climie has been an analyst on TSN’s highly-successful Canadian football broadcasts for the past five seasons.
MontrealAlouettes.com caught up with the former receiver…
What was it like to be part of the resurgence of the Alouettes in the late-90s?
Participating in rebuilding the Alouette brand from 1996 to 2001 is one of my proudest achievements. In 1996 I could walk down Ste. Catherine Street as a complete inconnu. By 2000, I couldn’t go 10 feet without people slapping me on the back and yelling “Go Als!”
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Nothing made me prouder than hearing from fans and pundits alike that the Als had actually displaced the Canadiens as Montreal’s team.
Now that you’re a broadcaster, how hard is it for you not to cheer for the Alouettes – or the Argos? TSN pays my salary now… not the Alouettes. So, every time I speak on TV, I am focused on adding the best value I can. You have to be objective in order to be taken seriously. That doesn’t stop fans from believing I (and the rest of my colleagues) have an agenda, but the truth is we don’t. However, we are all pulling for one thing – we want every team to be competitive so that every game has the potential to be exciting. Ben Cahoon essentially replaced you as the Als’ starting slotback when you retired… What was it like to see him set the team’s all-time receiving touchdown record against the Bombers earlier this year? But I did recognize something very special about him from day one. He’s the type of player who takes his rather modest physical abilities and does something exceptional with them. To watch Ben mature and grow as a receiver has been a pleasure. |
He was my roomie on the road and a good friend during my final years in Montreal and I’m genuinely honoured to have shared the field with such a great competitor.
Ben has put up some incredible numbers in his usual unassuming manner. He doesn’t showboat and he doesn’t dance after catching a 10-yard curl like so many receivers today.
He works hard and is respectful of the game – content just to do his job. Ben is deserving of every record he’s broken.
How do you feel about the state of Canadian receivers today?
I was quite concerned about the fact that in the early 2000s there were very few ‘star’ receivers hailing from this great country of ours. That has changed, however, thanks to the emergence of players like Andy Fantuz, Jason Clermont and Paris Jackson.
Then there are receivers like Andre Talbot, Kamau Peterson and the Ralph brothers who are very solid.
You’ll notice I didn’t include Cahoon in there. He played all his amateur football in the US and thinks of himself as an American, so I’ve always given him a hard time about the Canadian label that’s been bestowed upon him in the CFL.
What’s the best part of CFL football?
The best part about the CFL is that it is uniquely Canadian. Despite the fact that half of the players are American, this game is only played in this country.
With the wider field (the most significant difference in my opinion from the American game), the CFL places a premium on speed over size. This means the emphasis is on skill rather than raw power.
