TD Place Stadium is situated along the banks of the Rideau Canal, the 200-kilometre waterway that scenically winds its way south to Kingston, one of the cities Ottawa replaced as Canada’s capital.
For a member of the Toronto Argonauts, Saturday’s game is a chance for a redo along the Rideau.
After two all-star seasons in red-and-black, Ottawa released strongside linebacker Adarius Pickett on January 13th of this year, only to see him sign with the Argos three days later. On the day he signed, he told Argonauts.ca that four teams contacted his agent, but one general manager was a little more eager than the others.
“As soon as I was released, ‘Pinball’ (general manager Michael Clemons) was the first person to call me. As soon as the release (was announced) Pinball called me 30 seconds later.”
Five months later Pickett is ready for a return to the capital and isn’t planning on bringing any baggage.
But is it just another game?
“Absolutely,” he told Argonauts.ca. “The next game on the schedule, game two. We’ve got some things to clean up this week during practice. It’s game two and I’m excited about this one.”
Pickett is someone who practices what he preaches. Football is fun for him, but he understands the business side of it as well as anyone. He’s not one to carry a grudge against a former team.
“It’s always business,” he said. “When we get a chance to make those decisions it’s always about business.”
He was all business in last week’s season opener in Montreal. Pickett looked like he did in his previous stint with the Argos when he had a career year, totaling 105 defensive tackles, 19 special teams tackles, 6 sacks, and 5 tackles for loss. He was named an All-CFL player and was chosen as the Eastern nominee as the league’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player.
Against the Als he had 3 defensive tackles, adding a pair more on special teams, and he had the Argos only sack. Despite the loss, the UCLA product liked a lot of what he saw in week one and is confident things will be better this time around.
“We played really hard,” Pickett replied when asked what he liked the most about the opener. “We played extremely hard. We’ve just got to get some details cleaned up, but we’ve got a really good football team. We played a really good football team, they were in the Grey Cup last year for a reason. The game was really close, it could have gone either way, it didn’t go our way, but we’ve been really detail oriented this week. We’ll come out ready to play.”
Pickett was brought back by the Argos for a couple of reasons. His talent is obvious, but it’s also the way he plays that made the front office so eager to bring him back. He’s an exceptionally physical player, whose style of play is infectious.
Just ask the man who plays next to him.
“Pick is relentless,” middle linebacker Isaac Darkangelo said of his new teammate. “He’s high I.Q., he’s a ball player. Coaches always talk about those elite ball players and Pick is one of those. Whenever you can add an elite player to a defence it makes everyone better and that’s what Pickett does. Whether it’s his energy in the locker room, whether it’s his energy on the field, he’s always going to give you a smile in the morning when you see him. Elite players definitely bring joy to every aspect of this team.”
The man known as “The Party Starter” is anxious for things to turn around, something he expects to happen sooner than later, even though there’s a new defensive coordinator this year in Greg Quick.
“It shouldn’t take too long,” said Pickett. “We’ve just got to understand the game plan going in, and when they come out, adjust to what they’re doing. Montreal was doing a lot of max protection, so we had to do a few different things. Coach Quick is a great DC, we’ve got some great coaches on defensive side, and we’ve got some great players out there playing, so we’ll be ready to go this week.”