August 1, 2018

Ten Things – Dylan Wynn

Dylan Wynn (98) of the Toronto Argonauts during the 105th Grey Cup game at TD Place Stadium in Ottawa, ON. Sunday, November 26, 2017. (Photo: Johany Jutras)

Who is your favourite musician and why?

“Right now my favourite musician Chris Stapleton. It’s mellow. He’s a vocalist that I really enjoy. I haven’t seen him in concert yet, but I want to. It’s funny, he always plays back in the Bay (Wynn is from the Bay area in California) right when I come out here. He plays in New York right when my wife goes back, so one day I’m going to see him in concert.”

You’re a Californian who likes hockey. What’s your best memory as a San Jose Sharks fan?

“My first Sharks game. It was against the Blackhawks, there was a big fight, and I bought my first “Big Joe” Thornton jersey. It was fun, I love hockey and it was a blast to watch the pace and there’s no bad seats in the arena. Me and my brother snuck up pretty close to the ice, so it was a good time.”

What was your first vehicle?

“A silver Saturn station wagon. It was a fun car and I just drove it into the ground. It lasted a while. Yep, a Saturn station wagon, that’s what I drove around in high school. I used to drive it like it was a race car (laughs).

What is your biggest food weakness?

Otter Pops* are good. In college I always had a refrigerator in my dorm just filled with Otter Pops*, but I’m going to take the easy track being from California and say In-and-Out Burger*. In high school it was two 4-by-4’s*, large Neopolitan shake, and animal fries*.

*Wynn was speaking full-on American at this point and your correspondent had no clue what he was talking about. Exhaustive research by Argonauts.ca uncovered that Otter Pops are like Freezies. A 4X4 is a burger with four patties and four slices of cheese, while animal fries are fries covered with melted cheese, grilled onions and Thousand Island dressing. Estimated calorie count, 3,547,913.

If you weren’t playing football what would you be doing?

That’s a good question. Going into college, if I didn’t have a scholarship I think I would have gone into the military. Right now if I wasn’t playing football I’d like to think I’d either be coaching or I’d try to go into law enforcement. I think being U.S. Marshall, Fugitive Recovery Division. One of my buddy’s dads used to do that and I thought it was really cool.

What’s the best advice you were ever given?

“Adapt or Die.” Things happen and you can’t control things. You can either stick to the same way you’ve been doing it your whole life and fall to the wayside, or you can adapt to it and get better. I used to be a linebacker and then went to D-end, then to D-tackle. Even in life, going through everything, you have to adapt.

You have a ritual the night before a game of playing the ukulele. What’s the coolest thing you play?

“It’s a song a buddy taught me back in college. It’s not actually a ‘song’ song, it’s more like a lullaby thing. “At the Altar” by Finn is another one.”

You were with the Cleveland Browns before you became an Argo. A lot of people make fun of Cleveland, what’s the biggest misconception about the city?

“There’s a ton of amazing food places. One of my favourite spots was a country bar called “The Dusty Armadillo”. My buddy Artie is the bartender there and he liked to bring in a bunch of up-and-coming country artists, so I got to meet a lot of them, there were a lot of fun nights there. Besides that the food is amazing anywhere you go. For some reason Cleveland is a huge culinary place, so there’s always a good place to eat.”

Do you have a favourite area in Toronto?

“I like around where I live, which is near the stadium. Anywhere from Liberty Village to King St., Queen St. is pretty cool, I like to walk all the way down it. I tend to stay localized, but you can’t really go wrong anywhere. Toronto is a really, really cool town. I’ve had fun with it for sure.”

At Oregon State you subjected yourself to an orange Mohawk. Would you recommend that choice of hair style to anyone?

“I rocked the Mohawk. Why did I do that (thinks to himself for a moment)? It was the end of my freshman year and I went Mohawk. I used to dye it different colours. I wouldn’t recommend it, that was kind of crazy. It was just something to do, something different. My whole thought process was how long am I going to have a job where I can do just whatever with my hair? I thought it was fun and crazy. It was fun for breast cancer month because I dyed it pink.”