Once a local hero, it had been nearly three years since Yorkton's Jordan Matechuk stepped on a CFL field to start a regular season game. A 2011 drug bust at the United States border where Matechuk was found with 543 anabolic steroid pills and assorted other illegal drugs including small amounts of marijuana and oxycotin resulted in Matechuk's immediate release from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and some jail time.
Prior to that, Matechuk was living his dream by all accounts. One of the best high school football players to ever play for the Yorkton Regional High School, Matechuk parlayed a stint with the Victoria Rebels into an eventual starting role with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Listed at 5' 10' and 245 pounds of ripped muscle, Matechuk was a freak of nature when compared to most linemen and long snappers, in addition to snapping Matechuk's athleticism landed him on the kickoff team where he would show his ability to make tackles on occasion in Hamilton.
In the offseason he would hold a yearly football camp every May to kickoff the YRHS' spring camp as well as to introduce young players to the sport. Due to his success and support of local football, a photo of Matechuk in action with the Tiger-Cats was erected on the Century Field scoreboard overlooking the highway leaving the city.
That all changed and after two months in jail and a year away from football, Matechuk began having to face the music. He spoke to Yorkton and faced his hometown, as well as doing the media rounds and giving his side of the story, admitting to having bipolar disorder and now still taking prescribed mood stabilizers, Matechuk allowed mental health issues to consume his life, something that he self prescribed with the combination of performance enhancing drugs, painkillers, and marijuana, eventually nearly costing him his career.
Sending an apology letter to the GM's of every CFL team, Matechuk successfully lobbied his way onto the Winnipeg Blue Bombers practice squad last season, spending time on their injured reserve while becoming a spokesman for the Canadian Mental Health Association and attempting to restore his public image at the same time as getting the word out about a health issue that affects many men and young adults in Canada.
This year Matechuk was given a tryout with his childhood team in Saskatchewan after some good words put in to head coach Corey Chamblin by his former YRHS coach Roby Sharpe, in Regina and Saskatoon for training camp Matechuk couldn't quite impress enough to make the 46 man active roster as a longsnapper/linebacker. It was looking like another year of low pay and a humble lifestyle for Matechuk as he agreed to stay in Saskatchewan for the time being on their practice roster, hoping that they would experience longsnapping issues and that he would get a chance to showcase his skills.
He would get his chance sooner than he thought, but it would require quite the drive. Early last week Matechuk was claimed off waivers by the B.C. Lions after Tim Cronk had some communication issues with new rookie punter Hugh O'Neill that resulted in costly field position turnovers during the opening two weeks of the CFL season. Those problems were enough for the Lions to break an unwritten CFL rule and claim a player off of another team's practice roster, something they hadn't done as a franchise since 2003.
With CFL rules dictating that Matechuk would have to be activated to switch to the Lions, Matechuk got his first chance to play in the CFL regular season since his bust at the border, putting an end to a journey that saw Matechuk go from jail to the practice roster of two CFL teams before now finally getting his chance.
Lowell Ulrich of The Province was critical of the Matechuk story upon his arrival in B.C. last week, commenting "In football, long-snapping is a snap. Do it well enough and you can have a rewarding career - even if a small part of your life has been spent in a jail cell."
To some Matechuk may be a criminal, a man who made a mistake at a dark point of his life that will define him forever in the mind's of narrow minded individuals. His bipolar disorder and mental health insecurities drove him to cheating and breaking the law to achieve his CFL dreams, and yes "a small part of his life was spent in a jail cell" but he has faced those who judge him on more than one occasion and has asked for forgiveness.
He has had his life completely fall apart before working hard and humbling himself in the process to earn a second chance. Shouldn't that be enough?
Yes many people in the world don't get a second chance when placed with Matechuk's circumstances, but that still doesn't mean it is right.
There is more to the story of Jordan Matechuk's path back to the CFL than steroids and jail. The path of a young man from a troubled life to newfound redemption took another step in the right direction at Commonwealth Stadium when Jordan Matechuk stepped on the field in a B.C. Lions uniform.
Those who have been following Matechuk since his arrest and using him as easy target should take notice, his troubles and return to success can teach us all about forgiveness and learning from one's mistakes.
