Class of '07 May Have Draft Pick

If you're not paying attention when speaking to senior football player Tad Crawford, it's easy to miss the slight Canadian inflection in his speech. The signature accent comes out only on select words, but the 6-foot 3-inch, 194-pound free safety is 100 percent Canadian where it counts-on the extra-long turf over which the Canadian Football League reigns supreme.

Crawford is one of several senior football players making plans to continue playing at the professional level, but after signing with an agent from the Canadian Football League in January, Crawford is poised to turn his college sport into a career. On March 10 and 11, he will compete against other CFL-hopefuls in the annual CFL Combine, held at the University of Toronto, where he expects to impress enough coaches to earn a high pick in the upcoming draft.

"The combine is really important for me because they haven't seen me live before," Crawford said. "So my draft status will really depend a lot on how I do next weekend."

While NFL teams send scouts to college games throughout the season to assess players' talent, agents do the CFL's scouting in the States, and at least six agents made contact with Crawford over the course of his senior season.

"He definitely found me," Crawford said of his agent. "They get in touch with you-I wouldn't know how to go about finding an agent."

Coming from a collegiate league outside of Canada, Crawford's agent is the key to his exposure and promotion among CFL teams, so he made his choice carefully, and that choice has already started to pay dividends.

"Through my agent and him talking to teams there's a pretty good interest in me," Crawford said. "Calgary, who just traded for the number-three pick in the draft, is interested in me. Hamilton is interested in me-they have the first and fifth pick in the draft. He says there's a possibility I could go first round. That would be pretty amazing."

Unlike the NFL, for which draft talk seems to begin on opening day, CFL coaches wait to see what happens in the combine before making any draft predictions. Since Crawford played his college ball in the NCAA and not the CIS, Canada's intercollegiate sports association, he did not get the exposure that the Canadian players he is up against have enjoyed for the past four years, so he will travel to next weekend's combine at a significant disadvantage.

Still, despite having played south of the border, Crawford's Ivy League credentials have made him something of a scouting magnet.

Named second-team All-League as a junior, when he led the league in tackles with 111, Crawford notched a similar performance as a senior, even though he played a distinct role in Norries Wilson's 3-3-5 defense. He finished the 2006 season with First-Team All-League honors, two recovered fumbles, an interception and 101 tackles to his name, making him the first Lion to record back-to-back 100-tackle seasons since 1997.

Although the combine is just one week away, the draft will not take place until mid-April, so Crawford's fate will hang in the balance for another month. But unlike the NFL, even after signing with a team, his future is far from secure.

"The CFL is interesting because there are players who will get drafted who will end up getting cut from teams in camp," Crawford said. "It's not like you're secured a spot as a draft pick. Once I get selected by a team, I'm going to have to go make the team in camp."

Assuming all goes according to plan, Crawford will go directly from graduation to the gridiron, as CFL training camps begin at the end of May.

"I kind of have all my eggs in this one basket now," Crawford said. "I tried not to focus on pro sports as a career option, especially in athletics, where something as simple as a little injury can end your career. That's why I chose Columbia in the first place-for the education."

But with a career in professional football knocking on the door, Crawford would be crazy to say no.

Although an Ivy League education generally gives candidates a positive advantage, Crawford's Columbia degree may actually hinder his path to the CFL.

"A drawback that teams talk about in the CFL about Ivy League kids is that since the pay isn't so great in the CFL, a lot of Ivy League players choose to go into the working world instead of playing pro football," Crawford said. "A lot of teams, when they're interviewing me, I'm sure I'm going to get asked that a lot-'How committed are you to playing pro football?' It's good that I can honestly tell them that I'm committed to it and I don't really have any other options. I'm really set on pro football. The Ivy League isn't normally something that the CFL recruits heavily or taps into as a resource."

In fact, there are just two Ivy League graduates currently listed on the rosters of the eight CFL teams-former Harvard defensive end Tim Fleiszer plays for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and former Dartmouth defensive tackle Derham Cato is a Toronto Argonaut. Still, Crawford feels confident that the caliber of play in the Ancient Eight has prepared him for success at the professional level.

"The level of football that I've played at, it is doable to make the jump to Canadian football," Crawford said. "The level of football isn't too far advanced."

If all goes well, the class of 2007 may soon boast a first-round draft pick.