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Bilukidi done with football?

SPuDS
in Blue Bomber Discussion

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comment_259527
3 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Mulamba is still pursuing his NFL dream from what I understand. Pretty sad when a player can make more money being on a practice roster than starting on a CFL team. Then to have GMs like Jim Popp grinding his players to take pay cuts or else.

didnt he finish the year on the PR of the cheifs or sign a futures deal or some thing for camp this year?

comment_259536

I think this will be his last crack at the NFL. He spent all of last year not on a roster, only to sign a futures contract at the end of the regular season. Not only is he out of PR eligibility, but as a vet I think his minimum salary is more than a rookie. At some point the CFL will be a more attractive option. 

 

I think Bilukidi is selling/owner of a suit compay in Ottawa.

    comment_259546
    3 hours ago, IC Khari said:

    Glad we drafted him ...

    I'm fine with the decision to draft him as opposed to another depth player/special teams guy.  We used the second-last pick in the third round on him.  He was drafted after we took Giovanni Aprile and right before Rene Stephan.  Bilukidi was a first round talent who had fallen almost into the 4th round.  That is a low risk/high reward selection that we didn't reap the rewards of.  Those are great home-run swings to take in the later rounds.

    comment_259548

    It was a wasted pick as he may never play for us. At the time & even today with a much improved Canadian roster we needed guys then & still need them now to come in & play. He never came here. He may be talented but I think it was a mistake Mack drafted him. This would have been fine if it was the Stamps as they're probably one of the only teams in the league who could afford to take a chance on a player like this because of their depth. Not the Bombers, though.

    Edited by SpeedFlex27

    comment_259555

    This article appeared in the Ottawa Citizen today, good timing.

    http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/why-nfl-player-christo-bilukidi-left-the-big-show-to-come-home-to-ottawa

    The following quotes are pretty definitive.

     

    It wasn’t tough for Ottawa’s Christo Bilukidi to walk away from a $760,000 NFL contract. Not at all.

    When the 6-5, 300-plus-pound defensive lineman left in the middle of the New York Jets training camp last August — after earning about $2 million in four seasons in the National Football League — Bilukidi just wanted to come back home, where he knew he could find happiness both in his heart and in his head.

    “I fell out of love with the game,” the 27-year-old said. “Going to practice wasn’t fun. Going to meetings wasn’t fun. I was going through the motions instead of having the drive to play.

    “I remember talking to Richard Seymour my first year in Oakland — I was his backup. We were having breakfast and he told me, ‘Whether you play two years or 10 years in this league, there will be a point where it isn’t fun and that’s when you have to walk away. You can’t be 99.99 per cent in, you have to be 100 per cent in.’

    “When I was with the Jets in training camp, I was in a meeting thinking, ‘I don’t want to be here.’ I told my agent. He said to take a couple of days before making a decision. So then I pulled the trigger, I told my agent to let the Jets know I was leaving. I got a call from the defensive-line coach. He told me I had an opportunity. I told him I appreciated that, but football just wasn’t for me anymore.”

    Edited by Throw Long Bannatyne

    comment_259559
    1 hour ago, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

    This article appeared in the Ottawa Citizen today, good timing.

    http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/why-nfl-player-christo-bilukidi-left-the-big-show-to-come-home-to-ottawa

    The following quotes are pretty definitive.

     

    It wasn’t tough for Ottawa’s Christo Bilukidi to walk away from a $760,000 NFL contract. Not at all.

    When the 6-5, 300-plus-pound defensive lineman left in the middle of the New York Jets training camp last August — after earning about $2 million in four seasons in the National Football League — Bilukidi just wanted to come back home, where he knew he could find happiness both in his heart and in his head.

    “I fell out of love with the game,” the 27-year-old said. “Going to practice wasn’t fun. Going to meetings wasn’t fun. I was going through the motions instead of having the drive to play.

    “I remember talking to Richard Seymour my first year in Oakland — I was his backup. We were having breakfast and he told me, ‘Whether you play two years or 10 years in this league, there will be a point where it isn’t fun and that’s when you have to walk away. You can’t be 99.99 per cent in, you have to be 100 per cent in.’

    “When I was with the Jets in training camp, I was in a meeting thinking, ‘I don’t want to be here.’ I told my agent. He said to take a couple of days before making a decision. So then I pulled the trigger, I told my agent to let the Jets know I was leaving. I got a call from the defensive-line coach. He told me I had an opportunity. I told him I appreciated that, but football just wasn’t for me anymore.”

    im glad he retired rather then ending up here. And good for him he leveraged those 4 years into money to set up his life. 

    I feel like this draft more then most is littered with land mines like this. If we end up with one gamble guy in the top 3 of our draft then we've done pretty good. (so long as we havent gone crazy far off the board again.) 

    comment_259571
    1 hour ago, wbbfan said:

    im glad he retired rather then ending up here. And good for him he leveraged those 4 years into money to set up his life. 

    I feel like this draft more then most is littered with land mines like this. If we end up with one gamble guy in the top 3 of our draft then we've done pretty good. (so long as we havent gone crazy far off the board again.) 

    When you think of it, hard to criticize him for choosing retirement.  Made $2 million in 4 years and preserves his health for the remainder of his life.

    comment_259629
    5 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

    He's not wrong to feel the way he does as going to practice & meetings then not playing is a drag. However, he won't find another job that pays like that to not perform. I think had he played for us & started he may still have his passion for the game which he lost over time.

    This thought may have weight to it. The NFL is a tremendous organization but it is predicated on a relentless treadmill of grinding players and rigid discipline  and even superstars are ground up and spit out when they are deemed to be no longer useful. One of the comments that many American players have made repeatedly is that playing here was more about fun (and God knows that most are not going to get rich from it), and not about business.

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