Filling the shoes of a professional

Former Concordia Stingers’ football coach Pat Sheehan used to tell Brad Collinson that long snapping was the way to go in order to get a foot in the Canadian Football League’s door.

It appears as though Collinson took that advice to heart.

Collinson, who has played on the offensive line throughout most of his football career, signed on with the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes as a long snapper, and hasn’t regretted his decision since.

The 24-year-old’s football career began at the age of ten. Seven years later, Collinson became serious about playing football as he played three years with the Vanier Cheetahs.

“Vanier has always been pretty intense when it comes to football,” Collinson said. “So I was pretty serious about the game when I got there [Vanier] and it just progressed from there.”

Collinson progressed at lightening speed, since he was offered a scholarship at the University of Tennessee Martin. Unlike other freshmen, Collinson actually dressed and started in a few of U of T’s football games.

Following his freshman year, Collinson decided to return to Montreal and attend Concordia University for academic reasons, and was immediately recruited by the Stingers.

“I knew that coming back to Montreal was going to make it harder to get into the CFL, because they usually draft a lot of players who have played in the United States,” he said. “But I was willing to take that chance and work hard to make the dream happen.”

And did he ever. Collinson spent three years within the Stinger organization not only as a player, but as a team captain.

“Brad was a hard worker, consistently improving from year to year. He got better all the time throughout his years at Concordia,” Stingers’ Coach Gerry McGrath said.

“Not only was he a good player but was a leader, he’s missed in the locker room and difficult to replace.”

Collinson became eligible for the CFL draft last April but was not signed by a team.

However, Coach McGrath saw the talent and potential of his prot

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