Four Sask. players named to Canada world junior hockey championship team
22h ago
Berkly Catton, Brayden Yager, Caden Price and Tanner Howe were all named.
Nick Cross is an exceptional young football player. He starred in high school and transitioned easily to the university ranks winning the Canada West rookie of the year as well as the U-Sports national rookie of the year.
Cross, a linebacker at the University of Regina, was also named to the all-star team.
Then news came out Wednesday that the awards and honours are being bestowed on other players because Cross was found with cannabis in his system way back in October.
In fact, Cross was suspended for two months from team activities that went unannounced from Canada West or the University.
But I guarantee you this. Nick Cross is not a better football player because of marijuana.
We lived this in 1998 when Ross Rebagliati had his gold medal stripped and then returned after a positive marijuana test at the Nagano Olympics.
Sure, give him a slap on the wrist suspension, but stripping him of awards when he used nothing to give himself a competitive edge is a little heavy-handed.
But I add, remember the name Nick Cross. We’ll be talking about him for far different reasons than this hiccup in his career. Cross has the skill to develop into a top pick in the CFL Draft someday soon.