Ferdinand\u2019s late father, Denny, spent half of his eight CFL seasons with the Roughriders, for whom he was a running back from 1985 to 1988.<\/p>\n
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As a first-year Roughrider, he scored on a career-long 50-yard run in Edmonton on Aug. 23, 1985.<\/p>\n
\u201cDenny down the middle!\u201d Kaseem, who has seen a grainy VHS recording of the play, said with a smile.<\/p>\n
The reminiscences soon related to Sept. 4, 1988, when Ferdinand scored the Roughriders\u2019 final touchdown \u2014 a 59-yarder \u2014 in a 29-19 home-field victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.<\/p>\n
Late in the fourth quarter, Roughriders fullback Milson Jones took off on a 41-yard run. When his progress was halted, he alertly flipped the ball to Ferdinand, who sprinted 18 yards down the right sideline before reaching the end zone. And there was bedlam at Taylor Field in the midst of a breakout season for the Green and White.<\/p>\n
That was one of 11 touchdowns Ferdinand scored in the CFL. While playing for Saskatchewan, the Montreal Concordes (now Alouettes) and Ottawa Rough Riders, he rushed for 2,346 yards and averaged five yards per carry.<\/p>\n
With Montreal in 1983, he rushed for a career-best 603 yards (averaging 5.9 yards per carry), caught eight passes for 128 yards and averaged 27.7 yards per kick returns en route to being named the East Division\u2019s Most Outstanding Canadian \u2014\u00a0all of that at age 21.<\/p>\n
Post-football, he still looked like he could play, and carried himself in that fashion.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom said he would wake up and just sprint around the neighbourhood,\u201d Kaseem Ferdinand said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy brother Tristan would be playing basketball and my dad would just jog by. A jog for him was like a full-speed sprint for everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was especially shocking, then, when Denny Ferdinand \u2014 always cheerful and in great shape \u2014\u00a0died suddenly of heart arrythmia at his suburban Ottawa home on April 2, 2002. He had just turned 40.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe doctors who examined Denny said he had the heart of an 18-year-old,\u201d his wife, Alexia, told the Montreal Gazette in 2003. \u201cHe had a checkup just before he died and he was in perfect health.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut his heart rate apparently was so low \u2014 what they call an athlete\u2019s heart rate \u2014 that when he lost it, he never got it back.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019d been in the kitchen preparing macaroni dinner for the boys. He was just slicing it up when he fell. The doctors later told us he was probably dead as soon as he hit the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was unreal for all of us. It still is. Denny was too young and too strong to die.\u201d<\/p>\n
Six months later, Kaseem and his twin brother (Denny Jr.) were born. Denny Sr. had three sons (Cedric, Tristan and Justin) from a previous marriage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never really wanted to ask my mom what happened, because obviously I felt it would be a tough conversation,\u201d Kaseem recalled. \u201cThere was Google and Wikipedia and iPads and iPhones, so around Grade 8 or 9, I kind of Googled it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw that it said he had a heart attack, so I asked my older brother what happened. Eventually we had that conversation with my mom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long before that, Kaseem had noticed that something was different.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say I didn\u2019t really get curious about it until the third or fourth grade,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you start to become a little bit more conscious of things, you realize, \u2018These kids have their dads picking them up from school every day.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the start, I\u2019d be a little bit jealous and wish I had something like that. The older I got, I realized that my mom is the best person of all time.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, she\u2019s a goddess. I put her on a pedestal above everybody. I\u2019d do anything for her. I\u2019m here in front of you right now because of her.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are myriad examples of Alexia Agraniotis Ferdinand taking parenting to the next level.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has driven me to every practice,\u201d Kaseem marvelled. \u201cEven in my first year of university, Mom would still drive me to practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have my driver\u2019s license yet. I was still 17 and it was during COVID, so it was a little bit harder to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring COVID, they wouldn\u2019t let the parents come to watch practice or anything. She would sit in the parking lot and have the car face a certain way so she could see us through the trees. \u201cAfterwards, she\u2019d say, \u2018Kaseem, you had a crazy play!\u2019 I\u2019d say, \u2018Mom, how are you even seeing that?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though I never had a dad, I would say that my mom was more than enough. The one parent I did have was better than two or three anyone else could have had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, Alexia is flying to Regina to watch Kaseem take part in the Combine, having enjoyed his many feats of excellence as a Raven.<\/p>\n
The 5-foot-10, 176-pound speedster has registered at least 40 receptions and 500 receiving yards in each of the past three U Sports seasons. Those numbers, extrapolated over the length of a CFL team\u2019s regular schedule, would put him over 80 catches and 1,000 yards per year.<\/p>\n
Each year at Carleton, he has produced a peak total \u2014 in catches (51 in 2023), receiving yards (645 in 2024) and TDs (seven in 2022).<\/p>\n
Additionally, he has maintained an admirable academic standing while studying global law.<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball and school have always been connected,\u201d Kaseem stated. \u201cIt\u2019s not like you do one and not the other. Football and school move together.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I want to play in the CFL for 20, 25 years. If it was up to me, I\u2019d like to get drafted and Kobe it \u2014 win seven or eight championships and be in one city the whole time.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you never know what could happen. Your leg could get sawed off or you could tear your ACL four or five times and \u2014\u00a0bang! \u2014\u00a0now you need a career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thinking that I\u2019d like to be diplomat with global law. I\u2019d like to travel the world and see a bunch of things.<\/p>\n
\u201cI figure being a diplomat wouldn\u2019t be too hard \u2014 sign some papers, eat some good food, and live in a couple of different countries. That would be nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
And fitting, considering that his father loved to travel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never seen him but, based off the stories and from some of the things that have happened in my life, I feel like I know him,\u201d Kaseem said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I\u2019ve trained all my life. I love football. That\u2019s all I ever do. But every now and then, I\u2019ll go back and watch film and think, \u2018I don\u2019t know how I did that, but there\u2019s a guardian angel up there.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHe might be giving me that little bit of extra strength or extra speed that, on a regular basis, I might not need. But as soon as the game\u2019s on, as soon as the ball is in the air, and soon as there\u2019s a dude coming right at me, I can make that move and I know that the guardian angel has blessed me with a little bit of extra strength and speed.\u201d<\/p>\n
And here\u2019s another blessing: He is taking part in a Combine in Regina, where his father resided while taking part in 51 of his 96 CFL regular-season games. In fact, Day 2 of the Combine is his dad\u2019s birthday (March 22).<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a coincidence,\u201d Kaseem said with a smile. \u201cI think that everything that happens in life happens for a reason.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way God has it set up for us, life is beautiful. To see how everything goes, you should always be thankful for what you do have and not think about what you don\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kaseem Ferdinand began the conversation by informally interviewing the interviewer. \u201cWhat do you remember about my dad?\u201d the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-542188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}