Ian Hamilton

AROUND THE CFL

Alexander anxious for return to form with Alouettes

Troy Alexander just can't wait to get to Montreal.

Forget the football end of it for a second; Alexander first wants to see how his high-school French stacks up.

"It's poor, but I'm really excited to try it out," the personable Alexander says with a laugh from his Vancouver home. "I've played there a few times, so my distorted version of French has been tested.

"People have been very receptive to what I've tried to say. Sometimes they've become frustrated -- well, maybe not frustrated, but they've started feeling sorry for me and eventually reverted to English.

"It's kind of an adventure."

Alexander's excellent full-time adventure in Montreal is to begin this summer, when he reports to the training camp of the CFL's Alouettes.

Montreal acquired the 27-year-old defensive end -- along with veteran defensive back Glenn Rogers Jr. -- from the B.C. Lions on April 16 for future considerations.

That ended one dreadful year in Vancouver for Alexander, who left the Saskatchewan Roughriders in February of 1998 to sign as a free agent with the Lions.

"I wasn't really surprised (by the trade)," says Alexander, who played just four games with the Lions due to some nagging injuries -- particularly an abdominal strain which he suffered in B.C.'s first game last season.

"When I came out here, they were expecting a lot of me and I was expecting a lot of them. For whatever reason, things didn't turn out the way I'd hoped.

"For the purposes of the salary cap and for personal purposes, they traded me -- and it'll be a good thing."

Asked about the "personal purposes," Alexander just says he didn't mesh with the Lions.

Alexander left the Roughriders after three seasons, the last of which was a breakthrough year for the 6-foot-0, 245-pound product of Edmonton. He had 10 sacks in the regular season and two more in Saskatchewan's drive to the Grey Cup game.

Saying he needed a change in his life, Alexander signed with the Lions -- and now claims he doesn't feel any remorse about the move.

"I don't have any regrets because I take this as a learning experience," Alexander says. "I learned quite a bit in the last year.

"I learned that although you may have a physical deficiency like an injury, you should always be a capable player. I learned how mental this game is. I learned how to be tougher. And I learned how to be a player by myself.

"I had a very strong support system in Regina. I learned a lot from Bobby (Jurasin) and L.B. (Lybrant Robinson) -- guys who brought me along. It was my first time away from them and their influences. In a lot of ways, I wasn't as successful away from them as I'd hoped."

Alexander managed just three tackles for the Lions. He was hampered by a hamstring injury in training camp and then tore an abdominal muscle and a groin muscle in the opening game.

He came back for three other contests, but was never a factor.

"I don't really consider them games," Alexander says of his stints on the active roster. "I don't really feel that I played. I wasn't at my best when I was on the field."

Alexander says he's now healthy and is looking forward to playing in Montreal -- and not just because he can practise his French.

"My expectations are to dominate," he says.

"I don't say that to be facetious or arrogant. I expect myself to be a top player, the player I believe I can be and the player I believe I am.

"Expecting anything less would be selling myself short and giving the Montreal Alouettes less of a player than they're hoping for."

* * *

The trade of Rogers may cost the Lions the services of another defensive back. Dale Joseph is a close friend of Rogers -- they were roommates at the training camp of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1991 and have remained close ever since -- and Joseph may retire rather than return to Vancouver . . . Rogers, by the way, has been asked to take a pay cut by the Als. If he balks, he too may be done in the CFL . . . The Lions have released running back Al Shipman, just four months after the potential free agent re-signed with B.C. Shipman has reportedly joined the Orlando Predators of the Arena Football League . . . Jurasin must be enjoying his time with the AFL's Iowa Barnstormers. The ex-Roughriders' rush end scored on a touchdown run in Iowa's 69-36 victory Friday over the Houston Thunderbears -- his first TD since he played for Saskatchewan in the 1994 season . . . The CFL Players' Association and the league's player relations committee met last week in Edmonton -- the sides' first meeting since October. The CFL wants to simply extend the current collective bargaining agreement when it expires in June, but the players want to tie the salary cap into league revenues. As a result, it isn't expected a new deal will be signed before the start of the season. "We still have a long way to go," CFLPA president Dan Ferrone told The Toronto Sun . . . Speaking of not having a contract, the Toronto Argonauts and free-agent running back Mike (Pinball) Clemons still haven't signed a new pact. The two sides met Friday and are to continue negotiating . . . The City of Ottawa and the region of Ottawa-Carleton finally have reached agreement on a deal which will guarantee the continued existence of Lansdowne Park and Frank Clair Stadium. The region is to buy the park, which the city wanted to demolish and replace with condominiums . . . Kicker Roman Anderson, who starred with the Sacramento Gold Miners and San Antonio Texans before the demise of the CFL's American franchises, continues to ponder an offer from the Edmonton Eskimos. In the meantime, he's working with a Houston company which provides orthopedic implants to hospitals. He actually goes into the operating room where the surgery is being performed -- and so far has managed to stay upright. "It's not one of those things that takes a while to get used to," Anderson told The Edmonton Journal. "People walk in and either fall over and it's lights out or they go, 'Hey, this is pretty good.' " . . . Former Calgary Stampeders quarterback Jeff Garcia thinks he did pretty well at the mini-camp staged by the NFL's San Francisco 49ers on the weekend. His chances of becoming the 49ers' backup QB may have received a boost last week when Jim Druckenmiller was charged with rape. "It's unfortunate what he's going through," Garcia told The Calgary Sun. "But I'm going in with the attitude that Druckenmiller will be there and is the one I have to beat out for the backup job. I can only control certain things and whatever happens outside of me that may create an opportunity, so be it." . . . Linebacker Darryl Hall, who spoke of retirement after becoming a free agent from the Stampeders on Feb. 15, now wants to play another year. However, Hall may want a job in the NFL -- where he played three seasons before signing with Calgary in '96 . . . The last word this week goes to Mike McCarthy, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats' consultant to football operations and player personnel. When asked how North American middleweight boxing champion Syd Vanderpool did at a Tiger-Cats' tryout camp on the weekend, McCarthy said: "He's a nice kid, but he's not a football player. As a defensive back, he makes a good boxer."

(Around the CFL appears Wednesdays.)