Football teams get days off. Football organizations rarely do.
Although the Tiger-Cats players are not formally required to be at the stadium today and tomorrow –so they can savour their big win over Toronto Saturday night, and to get much-needed emotional and physical rest before entering the middle third of their season in Edmonton on Sunday–that doesn’t mean the rest of the staff shuts down too.
Far from it.
Tuesday night the Tiger-Cats will host ‘Play It Forward Day’, the highlight of the on-going Play it Forward Program, which provides youth from local Indigenous communities with unique Tiger-Cats experiences, including tickets to games and mentorship opportunities with players.
And John Macdonald, the former Ticat defensive lineman and first-round draft choice, is happy and thankful to be part of it. Since retiring from the CFL in 2004, he has gone on to a successful career as a high school educator, coach in several sports and strong supporter of, and advocate for, Indigenous rights and causes.
He’ll join Ticat players in welcoming approximately 150 Indigenous youth from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, the Mississaugas of the Credit and from the city itself, who will participate in a mix of football drills and other activities led by current players like Taylor Powell, Jordan Murray and Felix Garand-Gauthier, plus Haudenosaunee Lacrosse, the Ticat Dance and Cheer team, and special guest coaches including Macdonald, who is Mohawk, Wolf clan from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory.
“Any time I can give back to Six Nations or to Indigenous communities, it’s a huge point of pride for me,” MacDonald says. “That’s the ultimate, considering I grew up in Simcoe kind of isolated. When I was a kid the only Indigenous people I was around were my family members when I went to visit Six Nations, and my mom and my sister. So I missed out on being part of organized sport in that community, I missed out on playing lacrosse. In those days nobody drew a half-hour to play a sport, we all played community sports where we lived.
“I coach players now, so it’s an extra special feeling.”
Kevin Sandy of Haudenosaunee Lacrosse, who has worked with the Ticats for several years in various social and cultural outreach programs and is a lifelong fan of the team says the isolation Macdonald felt is not uncommon and it’s one of the reasons programs like Play it Forward need to exist and be generously supported.
“To me, Play it Forward is all about keeping the kids active and making sure they have to keep their bodies moving. It’s medicine. It’s in our philosophies: taking care of ourselves in a topsy-turvy world. We’re there to remind them of that.
“I enjoy the camaraderie the Ticat players have with each other and their energy, and I think we feed off each other so the kids have fun.
“I look to our teachings. Haudenosaunee people are people of great peace. We say ‘Sgäno’ and we’re not just saying hello to somebody we’re saying, ‘Where are you at with your own peace of mind and your own wellness? “I relate it to that: when people are in isolation, to me they’re trying to find their peace and their balance.
On Tuesday night (6:30-8:30) attendees will cycle in groups through a number of stations including run-and-tackle sessions with the Ticat players, passing target practice, also with the Ticats, Tee off Golf run by First Tee, a dance school organized by the Tiger-Cats Dance and Cheer team, while Sandy and Haudenosaunee Lacrosse will run skills and drills in lacrosse, by far the most spiritual-based of all team sports. They’ll also get tickets to an upcoming game for both the Ticats and Forge FC, courtesy of LIUNA.
Larisa Skye, Primary Prevention Services Supervisor at Six Nations says, “The opportunity for something like this is just tremendous. We’ve worked with the Tiger-Cats in the past on various programs and they’ve always been so accommodating.
“I think it’s amazing we can open it up to so many kids. Typically, a lot of programs we provide—just from staffing and funding aspects—we’re not able to reach this many youths. And it’s nice that it’s involving both Six Nations and the Mississaugas of the Credit.”
Former Ticat star defensive back Courtney Stephen, now the Senior Director of Marketing of Hamilton Sports Group, which owns the Ticats and Forge adds,
“Play it Forward is a key community program for Hamilton Sports Group and is a great opportunity to get our players involved with our local Indigenous communities. We’re excited to see the kids come out and have a great experience at Tim Hortons Field alongside their favourite Ticats and special guests.”
One of those guests, of course, is Macdonald, who starred in hockey and football growing up in Simcoe and then had an outstanding football career at McGill, resulting in the Ticats making him the CFL’s No. 7 overall draft choice in 2002. He started on the defensive line that year but a back injury eventually hastened his retirement in 2004. McGill had also produced another Ticats first-round choice (No. 1 overall) who’s Indigenous (Cree); all-star offensive lineman Val St. Germaine in 1994.
Macdonald said in a poignant interview with 3DownNation three years ago that, growing up, he’d always kept his heritage low-key in public. He recalled hearing derogatory comments from other children when he was young and telling his grade one teacher that, “I was half Indian and half person because I just didn’t have the understanding of what it meant to be Native.”
He said that although he was disappointed more wasn’t made in the mainstream media of his heritage when made the CFL, he felt supported and celebrated by his Ticat teammates, particularly his Black defensive linemates and quarterback Danny McManus. That was a big moment for him, “in terms of my identity.”
Macdonald was among the leaders who helped get McGill’s sports teams’ nickname changed from the Redmen to Redbirds in 2020 and has been such an advocate that in 2018 the Dreamcatcher Charitable Foundation presented him with an award for achievements in Indigenous leadership in education.
“I’ve brought kids to the stadium with the Ticats before but this is the first time I’ve actually been to Play it Forward Day, and I’m really looking forward to it,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of leaders in our community.”
