Toronto Argonauts running back Cory Boyd, left, celebrates his touchdown against the Montreal Alouettes with teammate Adrian Davis. Boyd leads the league in rushing with 711 yards. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)
Cory Boyd is stripping off his sweat-heavy shirts at the request of a visitor to reveal a tattooed chest, back and arms.
It’s the end of a Thursday practice on a hot day at the University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus, where the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts are based.
Each of Boyd’s dozen or so art pieces, it turns out, are evocative of some moment in a hard life that started in Orange, N.J., 25 years ago.
That upbringing includes the tale of a mother who sold drugs on the street and would eventually die in jail, a father he never met until his mom’s funeral, and both a girlfriend and cousin who were shot and killed.
There was the escape to the University of South Carolina Gamecocks, a small stint in the NFL with the Denver Broncos (one game, mostly practice roster), a couple of years inactivity, and then a chance to try again, this time north of the border.
Of all of the art, the one that says the most about the CFL’s newest star is also one of the newest — noticeable for its simplicity and length and sitting over the right side of his chest because the left side over his heart had already been occupied.
It is the Gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 16, and in the King James Version, it says:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
That will be the last tattoo on this body, Boyd says, as there are other ways to tell the tale.
This is a man who gives no quarter on the football field and expects none for himself. Through the first seven games of his coming out season, he has amassed a league-leading 711 yards on 117 carries for an average of 6.1 yards a pop.
That’s 99 yards better than his next closest challenger, Arkee Whitlock of the Edmonton Eskimos.
All of the running back’s experiences have left him with a considered, thoughtful answer when you wonder what he might say if questioned: “Who is Cory Boyd?”
“I would tell them that Cory Boyd is a living testimony,” he says, watching his teammates head for the locker-rooms and meetings. “I would tell them I am a rose that grew from concrete.
“You don’t see too many roses growing from concrete. It’s a tough place, the foundation is not fertile, and that’s also dealing with football, with me, and my life because my life has always been about how beauty has come out of it.”
We tend, in the media, to be uncomfortable about discussing faith and religion, and this is right with athletes as the separation of church and state also holds with church and sport. Professional athletes, brought up to believe they are special … chosen … the elite, often find solace in a spiritual expression.
Boyd is one. He sees his faith in everything around him, including the grass, the air, and the way football and basketball relate somehow to the Coliseum of ancient Rome and the attempt to bring glory to his God by using the athletic skills he believes were granted to him.
Those skills have produced some remarkable games this season, including 109 yards against Winnipeg, 142 in an upset against Calgary, 148 to squeeze past B.C. and 164 in a close victory over Edmonton.
Each time the approach is the same … hit and spin, hit and spin … ferocious and driven. After getting to know Boyd a bit, but, you start to know what the rhythm is really about — bam (glory to God), bam (glory to his teammates), bam (gain yards and win the game).
He beats people up. They beat him up. Where does the courage to stick your head into the thick of the fight come from?
“Honestly, that just comes from God, really,” he says. “Giving me that strength every play. It’s like I’m saying to myself, my team needs me, God help me. Even though it looks like I’m out there having fun and punishing the other guys, you have to know I’m flesh and blood the same way.”
And for the resurgent 5-2 Argonauts, Boyd has been a revelation, one that leaves you wondering why no one saw this in the runner before he got to the CFL.
“Until you have a player, there’s no way to know [his heart],” says Jim Barker, the Argonauts head coach. “It’s hard to show that stuff, for example, in an NFL camp, because they never hit. You get a couple of snaps in a pre-season game, and if you are in with a terrible offensive line, it’s hard for a running back.”
Barker suspected there was something there, but really didn’t know what he was getting when Boyd arrived.
“A lot of [what Boyd does] comes from his heart,” Barker says. “It’s very vital to him. He’s got the physical size that it takes, and that’s just the way he plays.”
And the way he is.
Fans have jumped on board
Earlier, in a small stand on the sidelines at this Argo practice, a small knot of fans sits in the stands and watches the proceedings.
It’s here you can find out what supporters really reckon of the men who fill out the Double Blue. They’ll tell you straight if any of them are jerks. They like Cory Boyd.
“I reckon he’s a real team player,” says Cindy LeRoy, who grew up in a football household where her father was a huge Argo fan. “I found that in talking with him.
“I said ‘I didn’t see you celebrate when you scored all those touchdowns,’ and he said those touchdowns weren’t about me, they were about the team, and we play together as a team.”
There’s more than football that attracts the LeRoys (including husband Jim and son Thomas) to the young running back.
“[It's] the way he talks to people,” she says. “The way he comes and talks to the kids — and he talks to them about different things — he’s a very down-to-earth person.”
The LeRoys point out they have, in hanging around their favourite team over the years, seen more than one player who doesn’t fit that mould.
“Yeah, I can reckon of a few that got into the selfish mode,” Jim says.
Out on the field, Boyd is playing defence while teammate Chad Owens’s young son runs pass patterns against him. The huge man is laughing his head off, having a fantastic time.
Whatever it takes
About 48 hours later, it’s game time, Toronto vs. the first-place Montreal Alouettes, a team that blasted the Argos 41-10 just over two weeks ago.
Boyd is all anyone was talking about in media scrums — how the Als might approach stopping him as they did in Montreal when the Argos runner had 53 yards on nine carries.
At practice, Boyd had quietly pointed out that if the East’s beasts wanted to key on him all night that would be fine with him, because the rest of the offence would be left wide open.
Just 19 plays into the game, Boyd had carried four times for 15 yards and seemed to be in check.
Until the league’s newest star unveiled a small versatility of his own, taking the ball from quarterback Cleo Lemon, heading right and then stopping and throwing his own return pass across the field to the pivot who was waiting on the other sideline.
Thirteen yards. First down.
Four plays later, Boyd pounded over from one yard out, and the Argos were up 14-0 on the way to an upset 37-22 win and a share of first place.
He would end with 63 yards on 17 carries as Chad Owens, released by the Als’ intense focus on Boyd, emerged as the game’s star and ultimately the CFL’s offensive player of the week.
In the boisterous dressing room afterwards, the object of so much Montreal attention was pleased as could be, even if he didn’t get his 100 yards.
“Like I said earlier, it’s all about the components,” Boyd said, as the media thronged around Owens and Lemon. “I did my job. My receivers went out and did their job. My quarterback did an brilliant job, my offensive line blocked, and like I said, if you scheme on one man that’s ignorance on your part.
“It takes a team effort, and that’s something we are trying to focus on and help ourselves get through.”
My receivers. My quarterback. It seems simple and natural to substitute “my brothers” in there, and get to the heart of what Cory Boyd is all about.
Cliff Pennington, left, of the Oakland Athletics is congratulated by Dallas Braden, right, after Pennington hit a game-winning single in the bottom of the ninth against Toronto. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
General Motors world headquarters in Detroit. The automaker says it will list its shares in Toronto. (Paul Sancya/Associated Press)