Craig Roh is the kind to look you straight in the eye and call you by your name. He is respectful, polite and – the early reviews now pouring in – a spectacular fit with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Oh, and he’s also a devout Christian who has spent a lifetime volunteering and giving back, and a man who has developed a ‘Death Roh’ on-field persona that is all about devouring opposition quarterbacks.
We brought that up in a conversation during training camp – the notion of playing this violent game juxtaposed against the idea of ‘turning the other cheek’ – and Roh smiled before offering this as an explanation.
“The verse ‘Turn the other cheek’ is to still befriend that person,” he began, “it’s not. ‘Come and wail on me.’ God has given all the guys on this team talent and physical ability. I’m 6-4 and ¾ and I glorify him by being really good at my sport.”
Bomber fans have already seen evidence of that, even in his limited reps in last week’s pre-season win over the Edmonton Eskimos. Roh, who had 20 sacks in 45 games over three years as a member of the B.C. Lions, registered a sack in his Bomber debut, only to have it wiped out by a roughing-the-passer call.
Roh comes from a religious and an athletic family. He is the son of Cynthia and Fred, who became devout after they were married, and grew up regularly taking family trips from their home in Paradise Valley, Az., to Mexico to build houses for the needy. During his days at the University of Michigan, he would take part in ‘alternative spring breaks’ that included heading to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to help rebuild and to Orlando to work in the downtown with youth.
“We’re very devout Christians and it’s always played a huge part in any community service that we’ve done,” said Roh. “It just added to the redemptive work around the world and we’re just trying to help out and play a part in that.
“Honestly, the best work that can probably be done is in the community that you’re in. That’s what my wife and I hope to do here in Winnipeg. We’ll try to get involved in whatever we can get involved in.”
Roh’s brother Jake, a tight end, played his college football at Boise State and just this week was released by the Atlanta Falcons. His other brother Luke played college basketball at Colgate, while his sister Madalyn is a member of the Pepperdine Waves beach volleyball team. His father, by the way, played college basketball at Grand Valley State and later in the Continental Basketball Association.
It was Roh’s skillset that had the Bombers calling when free agency opened in February. But it’s his personality, again, that has made him such a good fit inside a tight locker room.
“Coming in… this is one of the most accepting teams I’ve ever been around,” Roh said. “I came right into the fold and it felt like I was one of the guys. These guys here are off-the-charts amazing.”
“And then just from a talent perspective you’ve got guys at every position who can do amazing things. I’m just thinking defence, but you’ve got Drake (Nevis) and CJ (Cory Johnson) in the middle bottling things up. You’ve got Coat (Jackson Jeffcoat) and Tristan (Okpalaugo) rushing off the edge. We’ve got (Adam) Bighill back there now and a fantastic secondary.
“I’m really excited. I thought the first pre-season game showed that this could be a pretty fun year.”
And for those Bomber fans wondering about his sack celebration – he was told last year by the league to dump his routine of mimicking a sword slaying a dragon – Roh and his teammates have been working on some things.
“We’ve got a lot of different stuff planned. We’ve got a lot of celebrations,” said Roh with a grin. “I had been doing the sword thing myself, but (the league) said that is illegal – which I would like to contest, because fencing is a sport and I’m not slicing anyone in particular. I’ve switched it up to a double-fist sort of thing, but we’re going to experiment a little bit more.”
There’s also a celebration he and Jeffcoat debuted last week, that comes from the Japanese anime TV series Dragon Ball Z.
“It was a cartoon show when I was growing up and there was this move where two people morph into one super powerful person,” Roh explained. “Me and Jeffcoat said if we’re both in on a sack we’re going to do the fusion and it happened. It worked out awesome.
“I hope we can do that a lot more this year.”
BOMBERS TRAINING CAMP REPORT | DAY 17
THUMBS UP:
The Bombers have had three members of the Winnipeg Rifles of the Canadian Junior Football League in camp – receiver Riley Naujoks, safety Andrew Ricard and defensive tackle Hayden Nellis – and the trio has more than held their own over the past two weeks.
“Easily the first thing you see is how much they love football,” said Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea. “These guys are coming out and competing and they’re taking instruction. What I like is their attitude, their belief that they are going to be here. They want to be in the CFL, they’re going to work hard to get there and they very quickly believed they belonged in the drills, they belong in the team periods. I believe we’ve treated them fairly and put them in positions, but not treated them like they didn’t belong.
“For a bunch of these guys here, they wouldn’t know – except the Rifles stood up and told them – they wouldn’t know what that is. They think they’re their teammates. They’re putting in all the same work and showing their teammates they care, they love football and they’re running around trying to make plays.”
The Bombers and Rifles have developed a solid relationship with players from the program now regulars during training camp. The hope is that one day a Rifles player ends up pulling on a Bomber jersey for a regular season game.
“I’m just trying to soak up every single inch of information that I can,” said Nellis. “We have good coaches with the Rifles, but these are pro coaches so hopefully this makes our practices better, our team better. I just hope it correlates to that. (Andrew) Ricard and Xander (Tachinksi) and Naujoks last year (who spent last year’s camp with the Bombers), once they came back it was like men against boys. It was a really big thing and that’s something I’d like to experience this year.”
SCARY MOMENT:
Bombers SB Nic Demski went down in a heap in Tuesday’s practice after a collision with Derek Jones and was limping noticeably for a spell. But after getting taped up by Athletic Therapist Al Couture he returned to post another solid practice session.
WALKING WOUNDED:
Not practicing Tuesday were LB Maurice Leggett, LB Ian Wild, SB Adarius Bowman, OL Manese Foketi, OL Jermarcus Hardrick, DB Marcus Sayles, DB Brendan Morgan, WR Tyrone Pierre and LB Adam Bighill.
O’Shea was asked about Sayles, who had shown well in practice before being injured but did not play last week and might not be available for Friday’s final preseason game in Vancouver.
“He put a lot on tape before he got a little nicked up,” said O’Shea. “There were several practices in a row and several times in practices where he attacked the ball and made big plays. So, it’s tough if they’re not going to get the chance to play a game, but certainly he’s shown a lot through camp.”
