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If Jamall Lee was the first Canadian you met, and you based your opinion of the country solely on him, you would conclude that Canadians run fast, jump high and are very nice.
“We tease him just how polite he is,” says Carolina Panthers fullback Brad Hoover. “He goes around calling all the veterans ‘sir,' all the coaches ‘sir.' And you just don't get that in this league.”
You mind?
“No,” says Hoover. “But we tell him to relax. He's just a good guy and he's working hard.”
Lee, 22, was the best college running back in Canada the past two seasons. He played for the Bishop's University Gaiters and set Quebec University Football League records.
At the Canadian Football League combine, Lee also set a record with a vertical jump of 44 inches, and he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.39 seconds. That's fast on turf, grass or snow.
Lee is from British Columbia, and the B.C. Lions wanted him so badly they traded the sixth and 13th picks in the draft so they could move up to No.3 and take Lee. They did this even though Lee had signed a free-agent contract with the Panthers and was on Carolina's practice field participating in minicamp.
“It was a hard decision,” Lee says. “The CFL is a great league. But I wanted to go south. If it doesn't work out, I can go back.”
Had Lee stayed in Canada, everybody who follows football would know his name. In Charlotte, nobody did. Some Panthers call him “Canada.”
Lee has a ready retort: “Good one, sir.”
Teammates try to mimic his accent, ask him how Canadians act and talk, and want to know about cultural differences such as bacon vs. Canadian bacon.
They also kid him about his upright running style, telling him that's Canadian running right there. But the style is no joke. Unless Lee lowers his body, and thus his pads, to take advantage of his size (6-foot-1, 225 pounds), he'll present too large a target for defenders. If he returns to Canada, nobody wants it to be with a limp.
Lee says he's learning to get lower. What he doesn't have to work on is his first step. Although he's big, his acceleration appears instant.
“As he's learned our system I'm seeing more of that speed,” coach John Fox says after Wednesday's summer camp practice. “The more comfortable he's gotten, the better he's looked.”
In Canada, Lee played on a field so wide you have to use binoculars to see across it. Teams use 12 players and not 11, have three downs and not four and occasionally spell offense “offence.”
What he is encountering on the practice field is almost a new sport. But how do you not try?
“This is the NFL,” Lee says, smiling.
Hoover is pulling for him.
“I know what type of step it was for me (coming from Western Carolina), so I can't imagine what he's going through,” Hoover says. “It comes down to opportunities. You have to work hard and make good decisions and put yourself in position to have a chance. And he's fast.”
For an NFL back or a Canadian?
“Both,” Hoover says.
