From Missouri to Italy to Edmonton, Kendial Lawrence's journey may yet lead to the Grey Cup
The Edmonton Eskimos are playing in the West Final Sunday (4:30 p.m. Eastern, TSN/ESPN3) against Calgary despite not scoring an offensive touchdown against Saskatchewan last week, and slotback/running back/returner Kendial Lawrence is a big part of the reason why. While the Eskimos' defence was great, the Edmonton offence had plenty of struggles against the Roughriders. Even the kicking game wasn't great, with Hugh O'Neill only making three of his five field-goal attempts. The crucial play of the game came in the second quarter when Lawrence went back to return a punt:
That 81-yard punt return touchdown gave Edmonton a 17-0 lead, and they'd only add a rouge afterwards, hanging on to knock off the Riders 18-11. It illustrated Lawrence's remarkable return instincts, something he's shown off on numerous occasionsthis year. It also gave the Eskimos an unassailable lead, and Saskatchewan head coach Corey Chamblin cited it as the pivotal point in the game afterwards:
“The same thing that was a weakness for us during the season came back to bite us in the ass in this game,” Rider coach Corey Chamblin said of Lawrence’s touchdown. “You can’t expect to win games like that. If we don’t give that up, it’s 11-10 and you do a couple of little things and you win.”
Great returns are only part of what Lawrence has brought to the Eskimos this season, as he's also been effective as a rusher (413 yards on 65 carries, an average of 6.1 yards per carry) and a receiver (437 yards on 41 catches). That's not bad for someone who started the year in Italian semi-pro football. I spoke with Italian journalist Andrea Campagna earlier this year about what Lawrence accomplished in Italy, and Lawrence himself talked about that experience with Rita Mingo of The Calgary Herald this week:
Lawrence, a star at Missouri, signed on with the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2013 and later that summer inked a deal with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. When that association ended, he decided to continue his career on the other side of the pond in the semi-pro league based in Italy, a radical option for most players, joining the Rhinos Milano.
“Weird deal,” he said. “The guy found me on Facebook, sent me a message, let me know about the league. I wasn’t doing anything at the time but I had a few workouts lined up so I was like this is a perfect opportunity for me to play football and I don’t know the next time I’ll take a trip to Italy so it all worked out well.
He also had a chance to play tourist.
“The coach I had, he’s a chiropractor, his name is Alex Trabattoni,” said the 23-year-old. “He showed me a lot of things around there as far as going into the mountains, out of the city, all the sites around the city, the Duomo and all that, that was really nice.”
Lawrence is still listed on the team’s website as part of their ‘Prima Squadra’ — number one team. Suffice to say, he was probably the more entertaining guy to watch in the 8,000-seat Velodromo di Milano.
“A lot of those guys weren’t very experienced,” he pointed out. “I was able to go and teach those guys the zone scheme, the man blocking, the counter blocking, just things like that. At the same time, I tried to learn more about their version of the game.”
That's a really cool story (Mingo's whole piece is highly recommended), and it illustrates how much things have changed for Lawrence in a short span. He shone at Missouri and then got some NFL looks in 2013, then briefly played with Hamilton last year without getting much of an opportunity before being cut. In less than a calendar year, he's gone from playing what's mostly semipro football in Italy to being a game away from an appearance in the Grey Cup, and if last week's game is any indication, he may be crucial to the Eskimos' hopes of getting there. We'll see if Lawrence's odyssey takes him even further this year.
