MONTREAL — As the Montreal Alouettes’ walkthrough practice day was wrapping up, head coach Dan Hawkins spoke with the media about his 1-3 team, its struggles through the last three games and what has to go right for his team to turn things around on Thursday night against their 1-3 opponent, the Edmonton Eskimos.
The questions were winding down when I looked past the scrum and out onto what should have been an empty football field at Parc Hébert in the neighbourhood of Saint Léonard, where Vancouver Canucks’ goalie Roberto Luongo grew up and of course, where the Als practice.
Dressed in black from his skull-capped head to his uneven shoes (well, one of which is white and a few sizes smaller than the other shoe) in his unmistakable warm-up routine was Burke Dales. The veteran punter was released by the Eskimos on Monday, after spending the 2012 season with the club and rehabbing a foot injury he sustained in last year’s Labour Day Classic against Calgary.
Hawkins’ media scrum was almost over when I asked him about what was happening on the field. You can check that exchange below.
Having watched Dales punt with the Eskimos over the past year, I know him when I see him. When the scrum ended, a few media members went over to where Dales was stretching and spoke with him briefly. He hasn’t been signed to anything with the Alouettes, he said and added that he had to work out for them so they could see that he was healthy. After about 30 minutes of punting for special teams coach Ray Rychleski, Dales said the workout went well and that he couldn’t comment on anything yet. He hopped into a minivan with a member of the Alouettes’ coaching staff and was gone.
Dales, 36, knows Montreal well, having played his CIS football at Concordia University before embarking on a career that’s stretched 11 years. His name has been a popular one in CFL circles this week, with rumours popping up saying he might land in Hamilton, Montreal or even Ottawa when the Redblacks kick off next season.
