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Once the season begins, they'll be teammates. For now, they're competing against each other for roster spots with the Edmonton Eskimos.
When training camp kicks off today, potential recruits and veterans will meet face-to-face on the field for the first time this year and see who they're up against. But it's not likely to be much of a surprise.
"They know beforehand. These players, they do their homework," said head coach Richie Hall, whose coaching staff has the task of whittling down the off-season's acquisitions and returning veterans into a game-day roster of 46 active players. They also must keep in mind there can only be a maximum of 19 import players outside of the quarterback position.
WHO'S WHO?
When they're fighting for a roster spot, it's a full-time job keeping tabs on who's who and who will be showing up to camp.
"And with the way modern technology is now, they're very rehearsed as far as what their competition and the experience that those guys have," said Hall "For a lot of them, they're names that they're aware of anyways - whether they've played with them or against them, or they might have been in a training camp with them before."
Training camp rosters are set at 68 plus draft picks and area juniors, which means the competition was already underway before the start of training camp.
'BIGGEST THING'
"Because everyone has a set number of guys that you can bring in, whether it's the NFL or the CFL, and being that the arena league is no longer here, I think the biggest thing for these players is just trying to get into a camp because the competition is so stiff," said Hall "It's not like you can bring a hundred guys to training camp. I think that makes a big difference."
