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[be6ce00b]The Man Behind the Mask[/be6ce00b]
[ie6ce00b]by Klemu Hakkinen[/ie6ce00b]
If you were to see him on the streets of his home town of Gaithersburg, Maryland, you'd hardly recognize him. He may seem to be the athletic type, but at 6'1" and 230 pounds, he is neither towering nor massive. With his short blond hair and his unassuming demeanor, he is a hard man to recognize. But, low and behold, when he puts on #59 for the Shreveport Pride on Sunday, everybody knows who he is. He is Joshua Mask, Middle Linebacker for the defending Eastern Conference Champions.
His "John Everyman" style is apparent, however, even in the hallowed halls of the Continental Football League. Despite holding and adding to the league record in tackles, Mask has never been voted to an all-pro team, neither first nor second team. Every year, he has competed against the likes of a Louis Kratzer, Adrian Queen, or Nickolas Snodgrass, but has always come up short. How does he feel about continually being looked past for league awards? You might be surprised.
"Obviously," states Mask, "it hurts. It hurts when I put my ass on the line every day of the week and I don't get recognition for it. It hurts when James (Gregor) gets an award and I don't. Yeah, we're teammates, but we are also super competitive. James and I have had a standing bet each year on who's going to get the most tackles on our team. He's only beaten me once in seven years."
Until recently, Mask was even feeling unappreciated by the Pride's front office, as he was making considerably less than a player of his stature should have been making. But over the last two seasons, Mask has gotten his due, signing two lucrative renegotiations on his contract and walking away from the table with over $21 million of guaranteed money in just two years. Mask's agent Britt Samuels left the Pride wondering "Who was that Masked Man?" that just robbed their money train.
When questioned about the decision to throw so much guaranteed money at Mask, Shreveport's General Manager, Raven Hawk stated, "We believe that Josh is an integral part of any success that we've had as a team on the field and as an organization off the field. He was worth the money that we spent on him, and we're not ashamed of having spent it. We want Josh to be with us for as long as he wants to be here."
Above all, Mask wants to win a CFL Bowl. "Last year just left a bad taste in our mouths," he says, "losing to Denver in such a low scoring game really sucked. We played the type of game we wanted to play on defense, but we just couldn't pull it off in the end . . . When Ray (Weldon Rayburn) dropped that ball on the one, our whole defense almost charged the field to hop on the loose ball. But there was nothing we could do at that point."
The Pride will have a hard uphill battle to get back to the Eastern Conference Championship and the CFL Bowl this year having lost key players on their defense including Erwin Koch, Derrick Javier and Andrew Robey. Additionally, a team that they managed to avoid in the playoffs, Hartford, is off to a smoking start and burned the Pride 42-6 in week 3 this year and there are others in the Conference that will severely test the Pride's resilience in getting back to the Bowl.
If there is one thing that we know for certain, it's that Joshua Mask will be out on the field week in and week out, making tackles, intercepting passes and doing whatever it is he can to get another shot at the Bowl. However, if you're living outside of Shreveport, you may not notice it . . . that is unless your favorite team happens to be playing the Pride that day.
So what do I think of Joshua Mask? He was a hard nut to crack, but once you got past his defense, he was a very open and talkative man. The hours I spent with him on a Tuesday afternoon were at times uncomfortable and quiet, and at times boisterous nearing rowdy. He tends to keep to himself and only lets a select few into his world. His focus is downright scary, kind of like a lion's focus as it lies in wait of prey. In fact, I instinctively gave him my steak at dinner fearing that failure to do so would result badly for me. On that note, I'll give one final thought, nay a warning, to all the Offensive Coordinators in the league: when the Masked Man comes to town, your quarterback better know where he is at ALL times.
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Klemu Hakkinen
-Starting RW for the Semi-Pro Mooseport Mousse Hockey Club
-Beat Writer for the CFL
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