Mike Abou-Mechrek

Playing football for twenty years of my life I have managed to pick up a whole bunch of "football stuff." Some football fanatics would think some of this stuff is gold but my wife (and I to some degree) don't necessarily agree. That's why I restrict myself to(aka: she allows me) one very large, old, rusty trunk that I keep in the garage...the same trunk that put Chris Best on the DL in 2008 after it cut the palm of his hand open for a half dozen stitches when he helped us move.

I recently had to clean out this trunk to make room for some newly acquired football junk and found the answer to the second most popular questions I get asked:  What goes on in football meetings meetings? Everyone knows that the teams are going of the game plan for the week and studying film, but what really goes on?

In my trunk I found a 2007 game plan for the Toronto Argonauts. I think in today's CFL the players all get notebook tablets to watch film and go over game plans...gone are the days of the playBOOK but a long long time ago (four years ago) we used to get our game plans on a stack of xerox copies- and if you were lucky there would be a staple in the corner.

On the front of the xerox’s there was the standard offensive game plan with the defensive lineup for the Argos, their preferred defensive fronts and blitz packages, coverages and all the boring Xs and O stuff that make these meeting so tiresome.

There are only seven other teams in the CFL so I had played the Argos once or twice before. There is only so much that you can hear of the Argos playing a thirty defense and that Mike O’Shea and Adrian Belli were good players before the ol’ eye lids start to get heavy and your mind starts to wonder- especially when you’re sitting in a dark, warm room for two hours. I really needed to do something to keep me engaged in the meeting so naturally I came up with a hypothetical fight to the death elimination tournament

You see, there is every other imaginable type of competition that goes on in a locker room from NFL pools, to ping pong leagues, countless card games and weekly board game meetings so a tournament like this just the natural progression.

Now, I don't want to give the impression that I was some slacker who sat at the back of the room and had no idea of what was going on. I hope my record and character speak for itself but that is what was on the back side of the Argo game plan, and that is what when on in a 2007 football meeting.

I tried to match guys up as evenly as possible, or perhaps there was another reason for the match ups, such as the Makowsky-Best "look alike" match up, or the Jermese Jones- Belton Johnson "brother from Minnesota" match up( inside joke) but my favorite was the O'Day-Frenette grudge match. For the sake of not offending Joce, Geno or Jermese I will not tell you who won their first round bouts but naturally I came out on top...and not only because I was creating this made up world but also because I can scratch, kick, bite and pull hair better than anyone else in that room.

All this fight to the death talk got me thinking about this year’s team and who we could match up against each other in this make believe style tournament?

The first match up is easy. There can only be one dreaded receiver so Taj smith and Efrem Hill will kick off the card. The second bout of the night, and first in the heavyweight division has to be a good ol’ fashioned dog fight (please no Mike Vick reference) where former U of S Husky and 2012 draft pick Ben Heenan challenges his ex collegiate teammate and 2011 draft steal Patty Neufeld. And if there isn’t a  Bagg-Dresser match up on the card I’m not buying a ticket. I could go on and on but then the boys won't have anything to do in the back of the meeting rooms over the next few days.

Oh, and if you were wondering what the most asked question I get is, it's: Do I miss playing. The answer to that is inequitably no, I love being a financial planner and bringing clarity and efficiency to people’s lives. What i do miss about my playing days are these meaningless games that we played that meant so much...and matching up the people I work with now in a death match just isn't quite as fun.
 
(I enjoy your feedback at Mike.Abou-Mechrek@InvestorsGroup.com)