Every game, don\u2019t miss Barney Shynkaruk\u2019s Behind the Face Mask, taking a closer look at your favourite Saskatchewan Roughriders.<\/p>\n
This week, Tommy Stevens.<\/p>\n
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\n<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
There we go, there we go. All right, Behind the Face Mask. Beautiful day here. Tommy Stevens.<\/p>\n
Now, Tommy, you\u2019ve been on the show \u2014 not this year, but a few years ago. We\u2019ve got to know each other.<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
In the spring.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Yeah, yeah, true, true.<\/p>\n
Okay, but the whole nickname thing \u2014 I haven\u2019t had a chance to ask you. Did they ever decide on one? Did you ever decide on one?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think it was my call. I feel like picking your own nickname is a no-no, so I don\u2019t know if they ever decided.<\/p>\n
I think the Stone Cold thing caught on a little bit. I signed a couple of Stone Cold jerseys, so maybe that\u2019s what stuck. I don\u2019t know. I like that one the best, I think.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
My 15-year-old son said he\u2019s a unit, and I said, \u201cWell, I\u2019m not just a unit,\u201d but okay.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the first question out of the gate: best sports nickname for a player of all time?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
Wow. I think Iso Joe was sweet. Iso Joe \u2014 that one was a really good one, which is ironic, too, because that\u2019s what we call Robustelli, and we\u2019re playing him this week.<\/p>\n
So that one\u2019s an all-timer. I\u2019ll go old-school and say the Fridge was pretty good.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Yeah, that\u2019s a good one.<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
Nigerian Nightmare \u2014 that one was good.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Okay, you got any good ones?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
No, like the best sports nickname ever?<\/p>\n
Mr. October for Jeter is good. Peanut Punch \u2014 yeah, he\u2019s got a signature move.<\/p>\n
Yeah, those are good. There\u2019s a favourite one, but those are kind of the ones that come to mind, at least.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
What other sports did Tommy Stevens play as a kid?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
Oh, I played everything. The first sport I played was baseball, and then that led me to either soccer or football tryouts.<\/p>\n
We pulled up to a T-intersection, and my dad and I were in this Camaro. He was like, \u201cHey, man, you want to go to soccer tryouts or you want to go to football tryouts?\u201d<\/p>\n
I went to football.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
He pushed that a bit.<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
Yeah, just a little bit.<\/p>\n
So I played those three. I ran track one year in high school, but yeah, I played all those pretty much throughout high school.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
What year Camaro? What colour?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
It was a black Camaro, I think an \u201901, if I remember right. Somewhere around there.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Beauty.<\/p>\n
When\u2019s the last time you weighed yourself?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
Sometime last week. 247.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Fastest 40-yard time ever for you?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
4.49, coming out of my pro day.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Favourite football player growing up?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
Peyton Manning.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Favourite non-quarterback football player of all time?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
I was a big Marcus Mariota guy in high school. I loved Mariota.<\/p>\n
I got to meet him before my junior year of high school at the Manning Passing Academy. He walked up and introduced himself after I\u2019d looked for him all weekend, and that meant a lot to me in that moment.<\/p>\n
So I really liked him in high school, I\u2019d say.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Fantasy time now. You could throw one touchdown pass to one player, dead or alive. Who would it be?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
The first guy that comes to mind is Trevor Harris. He\u2019s never had a receiving touchdown in the CFL.<\/p>\n
It would have been really cool. Growing up, I was a huge Colts fan. Obviously, they were really good, and I watched Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, Brandon Stokley. There are a lot of those guys.<\/p>\n
So when I was a kid, I would have said one of those guys, but I\u2019ll go with Trevor Harris for now.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
One football game from the past that you could teleport yourself into and watch live \u2014 which one would it be?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
Any football game, or one I played in?<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Nope, any football game.<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
I\u2019d love to go back. Am I part of it, or am I watching?<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Watching.<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
Watching? I want to go back and watch that Rams-Chiefs game. It was either in 2020 \u2014 I think it was 2018, if I remember right \u2014 when they scored like 100 points.<\/p>\n
Yeah, I\u2019d like to go back and watch that again for the first time. That was a good one.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Mom\u2019s home cooking. When you go back, what\u2019s the one thing she\u2019s making you?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
Oh, man. I\u2019m just trying to think of my favourite one. There are a lot of good ones.<\/p>\n
Okay, a few of them. I\u2019ll go with the beef and noodles. The beef and noodles are an all-time classic in our house.<\/p>\n
Mashed potatoes are good. Corn makes a really good steak, too. We have a lot of good pasta, too. We do spaghetti.<\/p>\n
As you can imagine, food is a priority in the Stevens household, so you can\u2019t really go wrong with any home cooking from my mom.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
What\u2019s your guilty pleasure for food, even to this day? What\u2019s one thing, one snack that you kind of snack on \u2014 maybe you shouldn\u2019t, but you do?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
I\u2019d say the most consistent snack \u2014 I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s a bad one \u2014 is sunflower seeds.<\/p>\n
I crush sunflower seeds. I mean, I\u2019ll go through one of those big Costco bags. I\u2019ll go through at least one of those a week.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Be careful, because when you get older, that\u2019s one thing that triggers my gout.<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
A lot of salt. A lot of salt.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Gotta stay hydrated.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Are you better at ping-pong or Madden?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
Madden, for sure. Madden, for sure.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Where do you rank with all these guys?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know. I haven\u2019t really played many guys on the team. I feel like I\u2019ve played Trevor\u2019s son the most, so he\u2019s the one who\u2019s always challenging people to play Madden.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d say it\u2019s Madden because I wasn’t a very good ping-pong player.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
One Olympic sport \u2014 if you could compete in one Olympic sport, what would it be?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
I would love to say track and field. I couldn\u2019t compete in it. I\u2019m not nearly fast enough.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Which part of track and field?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
Just the 100 metres. I feel like winning the 100 would be an all-timer, right? That\u2019s the one that gets the most attention.<\/p>\n
The 4×100 relay was also sick. I ran both in high school, but I wasn\u2019t nearly good enough to compete at the Olympic level.<\/p>\n
I think bobsledding is pretty cool, too.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Yeah, I was going to say a winter one.<\/p>\n
Okay, that\u2019s good. Can you play any instruments?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
Not very well, at least. I can play them, just not very well. I\u2019d say the drums would be my favourite.<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
You know what I want to learn? The piano. I need to talk to Daniel Wiebe, because he can play the piano, and he can play a lot of instruments, actually.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
There are some apps out there. My daughter uses one that teaches you. It\u2019s pretty dummy-proof.<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
Yeah, I think I just got a new liking for it on my own. Playing the piano would be sweet.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Favourite concert you\u2019ve ever been to?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve only been to a couple, and my first concert was when I was a junior in high school. It was Drake versus Lil Wayne, and the pre-show \u2014 or whatever they\u2019d call it \u2014 was Wiz Khalifa.<\/p>\n
That was a really good one. The people I was with were like, \u201cHey, man, sorry, that\u2019s the best concert you\u2019ve ever been to. It\u2019s probably the best one you\u2019ll ever go to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
If you do karaoke, what\u2019s your go-to?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
If they don\u2019t sing \u201cLivin\u2019 on a Prayer,\u201d that\u2019s just wrong. That\u2019s probably the easiest one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWest Virginia\u201d would be a good one. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s what it\u2019s called, but you know what song I\u2019m talking about.<\/p>\n
\u201cSweet Caroline,\u201d because I\u2019m from Penn State \u2014 that was another good one. All of them are pretty easy.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Do you have a celebrity crush?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
You\u2019re going to get me in trouble. I\u2019ll go with one that won\u2019t get me in trouble: Sabrina Carpenter, because my fianc\u00e9e loves her.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Who\u2019s your fianc\u00e9e\u2019s celebrity crush?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
Sabrina Carpenter.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Okay, and then how much of the Canadian national anthem can you sing?<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens:<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t feel comfortable saying I\u2019d get it all, because I don\u2019t want to be like, \u201cOkay, go ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
But I\u2019ve been here for five years. I feel like I\u2019d be able to at least hum along. I feel like I know most of the words.<\/p>\n
Barney Shynkaruk:<\/p>\n
Tommy Stevens, Behind the Face Mask. Always a pleasure, man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every game, don\u2019t miss Barney Shynkaruk\u2019s Behind the Face Mask, taking a closer look at your favourite Saskatchewan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,323828,82],"class_list":["post-946198","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-saskatchewan-roughridersriderstommy-stevensbehind-the-face-mask","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946198","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=946198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}