Followers and fans of Canadian university sports are still trying to wrap their heads around the implications of nine Waterloo Warriors football players testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. While the fans are worried about the future of the sport, some local writers are using this as an opportunity to make a name for themselves. Take Bill Montague, for example. Bill is the sports editor for the Sault Star, the hometown daily newspaper of Waterloo star Jordan Verdone. Montague has been trying and failing to get a hold of Verdone for an interview for the last week. Now the pair have spoken and Bill still isn’t happy with the answers (or the wait). So let’s take a look at Montague’s column on Verdone’s involvement in the CIS’s biggest steroid scandal in its history in FJM style.

The burning question that everyone in the football community in Sault Ste. Marie has been dying to have answered, was finally posed Friday and Jordan Verdone did not hesitate. 

Actually, very few people cared. Everyone in the football community knew him well enough or thought well enough of him to not have any doubts about him. It’s only you, Bill. 

“Are you one of the nine players that tested positive for steroids?” I asked the University of Waterloo linebacker, who two years ago was named CIS rookie of the year. 

Actually, knowing some of Bill’s history, I’d say he was more likely to say, very quickly, “A player that took steroids says what.” 

After a week of stonewalling and refusing to return phone calls and e-mails, Verdone made his first public statements locally on the steroid scandal that has rocked Waterloo and prompted school officials to suspend the program next season. 

Because statements to credible national media means nothing in Sault Ste. Marie. More on that in a second. 

And his answer was emphatic. 

“I can tell you I’ve been contacted by CCES (Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport) and I’m not one of the nine guys,” said the 21-year-old Verdone. 

So, there you have it. 

My God! My sarcasm detector is off the charts right now. 

After a week of ignoring calls and e-mails by The Sault Star, the five-foot-11, 220-pound linebacker finally set the record straight. He also said he didn’t return calls because they were told “not to talk to the media,” a decision that made him look more guilty than innocent. 

Actually, Bill, if you bothered to pull your head out of your ass, you’d know that he talked to the National Post, Globe and Mail, and TSN/CTV. He’s talked to the media, just not you. 

Not only is he not one of the nine, but Verdone insisted he has never taken steroids and he believes strongly in competing clean. 

“For me, when it comes to steroids, obviously I think it should be a clean league,” he said. “I think all teams should be subjected to the same treatment we were.” 

Probably but not all teams have players dumb enough to get arrested on steroids charges. And there already is random testing in the CIS. Maybe it should have some teeth but it’s there. 

Like most of his teammates, Verdone was caught off guard when news came that the entire team be tested. In the world of sports, those are drastic measures and it had never been done before in the CIS. 

“I thought for them to test the entire team and to put up all that money, well, that kind of shocked me,” he said. “They don’t even do that in the American sports and we were a 3-5 football team.” 

A 3-5 football team that had the talent to compete with York. 

He said he has personally been tested before, that coming in his rookie season two men approached him after a game against the University of Ottawa, took him aside and asked him to pee in a cup. 

“I was clean then and I’m clean now,” he said. 

I think we’d have to say the same for Bill. After all, smugness and sanctimoniousness aren’t detected in your standard pee test.

In any event, it’s great to hear that this kid from Sault Ste. Marie is not one of the disgraced nine. 

That’s what we’ve been waiting all week to hear. 

After spending the last week practically accusing the kid of being on the juice, you’re finally ready to take him at his word at the end of your column? But there is good news coming from that last line. It means he’s done writing for now. That’s what we’ve been waiting all column to hear.