Nathan Carabatsakis was nearing the end of the long drive from Pittsburgh to Winnipeg on Monday, his college football career in the rear-view mirror, the road to the pros straight ahead.
Offensive lineman Nathan Carabatsakis of Winnipeg left home for his final year of high school and spent four years at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, all for the dream of playing pro football. (Photo: supplied)
The next intersection is a big one for the Winnipegger: Tuesday’s CFL draft.
“No expectations, honestly,” Carabatsakis, some three hours from home, told the Winnipeg Sun. “Just grateful for the opportunity, wherever I end up going.”
Carabatsakis is one of several Winnipeggers who could be selected Tuesday night.
Unlike the NFL or NHL drafts, getting picked by a CFL team is not the first step toward potentially life-changing money. Canadian rookies will have to play for a year or two before even being considered for a six-figure salary in their next contract.
For them, this isn’t about raking in the dough. It’s about the love for a game that’s not for the faint of heart.
“Legalized violence,” Carabatsakis calls it. “It’s the only sport where you can legally hurt someone and not get in trouble for it.”
The 6-foot-3, 252-pounder took a different road than some, leaving St. Paul’s High School a year early to attend Clearwater Academy in Florida: “To see if I was able to compete.”
From there, he took the huge step up to Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.
He calls those two moves the biggest challenges he’s had to overcome to reach this point.
“Just betting on myself and leaving Canada my senior year to go play football down south in hopes of getting a scholarship to play somewhere,” he said.
Carabatsakis believes he’s the first Winnipeg player to take that road through the Florida prep school.
University of Manitoba lineman Victor Olaniran of Winnipeg, shown here against Alberta, will chase his dream of playing pro football whether or not he’s taken in Tuesday’s CFL draft. (Photo: Dan Noordman, U of M)
Others, like friend and fellow O-lineman Victor Olaniran, take the more traditional route, trying out for the University of Manitoba Bisons.
The two share an attitude, though, that comes in handy in the trenches: loving the rough stuff.
“Being able to look at the man in front of you and dominate them for a good 60 minutes,” is how Olaniran put it. “Just getting to own someone, it’s very fun. They know that regardless of what (they( do, there’s no beating this guy, there’s no getting by him. And seeing the light fade from their eyes.”
Olaniran’s eyes will light up if he hears his name on Tuesday.
But even if he doesn’t and has to settle for a free-agent tryout, it won’t change his mindset.
“I’m prepared,” he said. “My name might not be part of the 72, but I know I’m going to get a shot, regardless. It would mean everything to me. It would mean the same thing as getting drafted. The mission doesn’t change.
“It’s been a very big goal of mine. I’ve loved the game since I was little.”
He can’t say the same thing about his good friend Nathan Udoh.
Receiver Nathan Udoh of Winnipeg pulls in a touchdown catch with the University of Manitoba Bisons. Udoh is expected to be picked in Tuesday’s CFL draft. (Photo: Dan Noordman, U of M)
Originally from Ireland, Udoh came to Canada as a kid and didn’t take up the local form of football until he was 17.
Now he’s in the same draft class, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound receiver who overcame injuries with the Bisons to get on the CFL radar.
“I started football a little late,” Udoh acknowledged. “I love this game and I’m good at this game, so I’ll take it as far as I can. It was never really about the financial aspect of it. Of course, everyone wants to get paid for doing something they love. I love the game, I love what it’s taught me, I love what it’s made me into. So I want to keep going.”
Udoh expects to be picked in the middle rounds, or maybe a little later. As for which team, he has no idea.
“I try not to pinpoint,” he said. “I had some pretty good conversations with a couple of them. But from past experience, just guys I train with, some guys get drafted by teams that never spoke to them. I’m confident that someone will give me a call.”
If it does, he’ll share the moment with his family at home and start planning to attend rookie training camp, which begins next week.
Still a year of university away from a degree in business, Udoh is ready to put that on hold to pursue his dream job, a combination of individual and team competition that fuels him like nothing else.
“It’s the ultimate team sport,” he said. “You need guys to be able to rely on each other. Getting a win together, it’s one of those feelings in the locker-room that’s hard to match in life, to be totally honest. That’s why I do it.”
Out on the highway, Carabatsakis already has his degree, having graduated from Robert Morris in December.
But pursuing something science or business-related can wait.
First, the pursuit of the dream.
“A goal of mine since I was a kid,” is how Carabatsakis put it. “See how good I could be.”
He’ll be as thrilled to hear his fellow Winnipeggers’ names as his own on Tuesday.
And he probably speaks for them all when he describes what it would be like if it’s the Blue Bombers who call it.
“That’d be awesome,” he said. “Growing up watching the Bombers play, imagining yourself playing there would be a surreal opportunity.”
The road, with all its twists and turns, beckons.
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