Sunday, Jun. 29, 2008

Former Kamiakin standout Hall living out dream in CFL

Rene Ferran, Herald staff writer

Cam Hall's lifelong dream was to play football for a living. Like any red-blooded American, he envisioned himself playing in the NFL.

The Canadian Football League? What's that?

Well, that is where Hall, a 2001 Kamiakin graduate, ended up last summer, playing linebacker for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and helping them reach the Grey Cup championship game for the first time since 2001.

"It's not the Super Bowl," Hall said from his apartment in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

"But it's an experience you can only appreciate if you're a part of it. The history, the heritage of the CFL is something a lot of Americans don't realize. I'm looking forward to going and winning a Grey Cup this year."

Hall started all 18 games for the Blue Bombers last season and was second on the team in tackles with 77. He played both strong-side and weak-side linebacker, and added two sacks, four pass breakups and two fumble recoveries.

He added nine tackles in three playoff games, and came into camp last month as one of the leaders of the Winnipeg defense.

"He's had a great training camp, and we're looking forward to him having a big season for us," said Blue Bombers defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Greg Marshall.

Hall rewarded that faith with a strong game against the Toronto Argonauts in Winnipeg's season opener Friday, with four tackles, a sack and a forced fumble that led to a field goal in an eventual 23-16 loss.

It's a long and winding road Hall has traveled from Kennewick to Winnipeg, including a night in May 2005 along State Highway 55 in Idaho that derailed his football dreams for the better part of two seasons.

Hall had just completed his junior season at Boise State University, helping the Broncos reach the Liberty Bowl despite playing half the year with a leg injury.

He was driving into work when he tried to pass a truck driven by Mark Lazinka. Lazinka wouldn't let Hall get by easily, and the two reached speeds close to 100 mph on the two-lane highway in the foothills east of Boise before Hall finally got around him.

Hall then made it through an intersection. Behind him in the intersection, Lazinka crashed into a car driven by Tony Perfect, 23, with his wife and 5-week-old daughter as passengers. Lazinka and his passenger suffered only minor injuries; all three members of the Perfect family died.

Lazinka, who had a .17 blood alcohol level, pled guilty to three counts of vehicular manslaughter and is serving a 30-year prison sentence.

Hall was initially charged with involuntary manslaughter and reckless driving, but he eventually pled guilty in April 2006 to a single charge of leaving the scene of an accident, receiving a six-month jail sentence and five years probation.

Hall said that he stopped and called his then-fiancee, Mackenzie, and waited for emergency vehicles to arrive. When they did, he resumed his commute. It wasn't until a couple hours later, and several more phone calls to family and his football coach, that he contacted law enforcement officials.

"I've told this to a million different people, but as much as I run through my mind what happened that night, I don't know what I could have done differently," Hall said. "Yeah, I left the scene, but I felt I wasn't part of the accident. I saw it, but I wasn't aware I needed to stick around to tell what I saw."

Hall served 31 days in jail and attended Active Behavior Change class. If he completes his probation with no further incidents, the felony charge will be expunged from his record.

"I don't make a lot of bad decisions," Hall said. "(The plea) was a no-brainer for me. I could have fought it, but I felt it was the right decision. I could put this to bed and let everybody heal with time."

Meantime, Hall's college career was derailed. He left the team in June 2005 to tend to his legal matters, then was reinstated two games into his senior season but saw his playing time reduced. He got into nine games but made only 23 tackles, half his 2005 total.

After completing his jail sentence, he finished off his course work at Boise State and received his psychology degree. He married Mackenzie (whom he met while both took a tennis class at BSU) in October 2006, then got about the business of finding a job in pro football.

He'd had several workouts with NFL teams before the 2006 draft, but his legal troubles made him radioactive and he went undrafted.

His agents persuaded him to send film up north, and five CFL teams showed interest. He chose Winnipeg because "I felt they'd give me the benefit of the doubt and I'd get a fair look there."

After the judge in his case signed off on his leaving the country -- he still has to check in with his probation officer twice a month -- Hall signed a two-year contract with the Blue Bombers in April 2007 and headed to Canada.

The transition was both easy and difficult, Hall said. Easy, in that he was playing football again, even if the CFL has some different rules -- 12 players per side, a longer (110 yards vs. 100) and wider (65 yards vs. 53.3) field, receivers coming in forward motion at the snap.

Difficult, in that he hadn't seen extensive playing time in two seasons, and he was adjusting from playing free safety -- his position since Grid Kids -- to outside linebacker.

"It wasn't like it was instantaneous," Hall said. "My first six games were quite interesting. You watch film from those games and then watch film of my final few games, and it's like night and day."

Marshall attributes some of that to Hall moving from the strong side to the weak side with the return of Ike Charlton to the Blue Bombers after trying out with the Detroit Lions.

"That's when he played his best football," Marshall said. "He's a natural fit on the weak side. We could use his versatility in a lot of ways over there. And he's a very smart football player. One of his strengths is his understanding of our defense. You don't have to tell him more than once what his responsibilities are. He digests things pretty well and understands the nuances of the game."

One thing Hall understands is that while he'd be considered a tweener in the NFL -- at 6-foot-1 and 227 pounds, he's too big to play free safety, but not big enough to take the pounding a run-stuffing linebacker would see -- his size is an attribute up north.

"He's tailor-made for our league," Marshall said. "He can play a number of different positions, and we move him around a lot and ask him to do a lot of different things.

"He's not what most people would think of a linebacker as, plugging a hole in the running game, say. Up here, it's a little different mentality. If we stop a run for 3 or 4 yards, that's great. We're not looking to stuff the run. Cam can play the run good enough, but he's better playing in space and covering guys."

For right now, Hall is living the good life. The money is decent -- his base salary is $75,000 Canadian, and with incentives he can make close to $100,000, enough for him and Mackenzie to buy a house in the Boise area. He's still young (only 25) and he's playing football for a living.

"Right now, I'm trying to finish up my degree (communications, with an emphasis in journalism), and the way it's going, it's taking a year and a day," said Mackenzie, 23. "And at some point, we want to have a family, and shuttling back and forth wouldn't work.

"But this is his dream, what he's wanted to do his whole life. Not many people get the chance to do that, so I support him all the way."

And it's not as if Hall has given up completely his dream of playing in the NFL one day. His contract is up after this season, and he's drawing interest from NFL scouts who look at his film, watch him in games and then contact his agents.

But if it doesn't come to pass that he plays in the NFL one day, Hall said he could be happy being a CFL lifer.

"Things are shaping up for me to get another chance (in the NFL)," he said. "But if it doesn't work out, I have no problem being a veteran of the CFL. I love the game. I'm happy to be a part of it. Things will work out for me no matter what happens."