Jessie Newman

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Jesse Newman was so close he could smell the sweat, feel the impact. With any luck, the injured Calgary Stampeders rookie offensive lineman soon will be able to do a little grunting and groaning of his own, but just inching closer to the real thing Tuesday felt real good. "Just being able to put my helmet on today felt great," the 25-year-old, 2008 third overall draft choice said with a grin. "I haven't been in pads for two weeks now, so it feels good to be back out there, and to do anything on the field is awesome." On this day, however, it was mostly doing what he's been doing since he underwent arthroscopic surgery to deal with a unruly lateral meniscus in one of his knees -- except he was taking part in some of the drills and watching from a few steps away instead of from the whirlpool. The rest of the story John Down, Calgary Herald

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Newman's knee healed enough for game duty With one of those big mitts, Jesse Newman points to a sunny spot in McMahon Stadium's south end zone. "I did it over there." That's where, on the second day of Calgary Stampeders' training camp, Newman wrenched his left knee during an innocent one-on-one drill. Font:****It was a mess. Did the joint pop or snap or grind or what? "Probably all of the above, man," says Newman. "It just felt, uh, unnatural. I knew something was wrong. I bent it the wrong way, the way it wasn't supposed to be bent. "The doc said my knee wasn't in great condition to begin with. O-linemen, in general, don't have perfect knees." To repair the damage, Newman underwent arthroscopic surgery last month. All of which put the rookie in an unenviable position -- having to launch a comeback before he had a chance to get anywhere. The rest of the story Scott Cruickshank, Calgary Herald

[SaraSota]

Any news on big Jess? We need him to do well so we can get more Canadian huskies.

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  MONTREAL -- Oh, the audacity; the outright gall.

How dare the Calgary Stampeders put their $350,000-a-year quarterback at risk by making him perform behind an offensive line with not one but two rookie starters? What was the organization thinking? That Henry Burris could save his own skin by running for his life? That baby-face blockers Dimitri Tsoumpas and Jesse Newman would suddenly transform from greener-than-artificial-turf freshmen into seasoned pros, and in just five months?

It turns out that's exactly what the Stampeders were thinking. Not only did head coach John Hufnagel remake the bulk of his offensive line, he did so by giving two 300-pound greenhorns every chance to establish themselves and succeed, and lo and behold they did.

This sort of thing hardly ever happens in football. Usually, starting two rookie linemen is the same as building an off-ramp leading directly to your quarterback. Burris joked yesterday that when he first heard the team had drafted two young pass blockers and planned to start them, he headed straight to the gym to lift weights - so he'd be better able to withstand the collisions he was going to take from unchecked defenders.

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ALLAN MAKI
amaki@globeandmail.com

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Offensive lineman Jesse Newman informed Stampeders head coach and general manager John Hufnagel Friday afternoon he was retiring due to personal reasons, and offered no further explanation.

Jesse Newman was selected third overall out of Louisiana by the Stampeders in the 2008 Canadian Football League draft, and took over the starting left guard position early in the year after being hurt in training camp.

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