No Canada For Syvelle
posted by Scott Hood, Monday, June 18, 2007
Newton signed a two-year contract with the club.
I grew up about four hours from Montreal and have visited there many times. In fact, my wife and I were in Montreal last summer for a jazz festival. It's my favorite city in North America.
Syvelle would have had a great time there, and with his outgoing personality and great athleticism would have quickly become a fan favorite. Montreal is a culturally rich, vibrant and historic city of 4 million people that loves sports, great food, the arts and fashion. It's the most Europeanized city on the North American continent.
Why did Syvelle leave the Alouettes during training camp? He said he didn't agree with his move from quarterback to wide receiver. Newton asserted he didn't want to go through the same things in Montreal that he did at USC.
I will concede one point to Newton – he sacrificed greatly to help USC during his outstanding college career. Spurrier often said during this spring's Gamecock Club tour that moving Newton to QB helped save USC's season after the offense sputtered out of the gate.
Newton wondered aloud once or twice to the media if he was hurting his NFL chances by moving from position-to-position. The answer is probably yes, because scouts like to thoroughly evaluate a player at one position.
But here's what will hurt his chances at getting a future opportunity with a NFL club even more – signing a contract with a pro football team and then leaving town just because you don't like the position you're playing. I fear Newton will develop a reputation of being a crybaby. I know Newton wanted to play QB at the next level but if wide receiver was his best shot to stick in the CFL, then so be it.
No NFL club will offer a tryout, let alone a contract, to any player it thinks will skip out simply because he doesn't like what the coaches tell him. So, I feel Newton made a huge mistake by leaving the Alouettes.
He should have stuck it out. I only hope Syvelle visited St. Catherine's Street before he left Montreal.
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Last week's published reports that Syvelle Newton had left his CFL club (Montreal Alouettes) after two weeks and returned home to South Carolina saddened me.
Newton signed a two-year contract with the club.
I grew up about four hours from Montreal and have visited there many times. In fact, my wife and I were in Montreal last summer for a jazz festival. It's my favorite city in North America.
Syvelle would have had a great time there, and with his outgoing personality and great athleticism would have quickly become a fan favorite. Montreal is a culturally rich, vibrant and historic city of 4 million people that loves sports, great food, the arts and fashion. It's the most Europeanized city on the North American continent.
Why did Syvelle leave the Alouettes during training camp? He said he didn't agree with his move from quarterback to wide receiver. Newton asserted he didn't want to go through the same things in Montreal that he did at USC.
I will concede one point to Newton – he sacrificed greatly to help USC during his outstanding college career. Spurrier often said during this spring's Gamecock Club tour that moving Newton to QB helped save USC's season after the offense sputtered out of the gate.
Newton wondered aloud once or twice to the media if he was hurting his NFL chances by moving from position-to-position. The answer is probably yes, because scouts like to thoroughly evaluate a player at one position.
But here's what will hurt his chances at getting a future opportunity with a NFL club even more – signing a contract with a pro football team and then leaving town just because you don't like the position you're playing. I fear Newton will develop a reputation of being a crybaby. I know Newton wanted to play QB at the next level but if wide receiver was his best shot to stick in the CFL, then so be it.
No NFL club will offer a tryout, let alone a contract, to any player it thinks will skip out simply because he doesn't like what the coaches tell him. So, I feel Newton made a huge mistake by leaving the Alouettes.
He should have stuck it out. I only hope Syvelle visited St. Catherine's Street before he left Montreal.
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Scott Hood. Since February of 2005, Scott has covered the South Carolina football, men's basketball and baseball programs for GamecockCentral. He may be reached by email at scottblog(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.