Every game, don’t miss Barney Shynkaruk’s Behind the Face Mask, taking a closer look at your favourite Saskatchewan Roughriders.
This week, Tommy Stevens.
Barney Shynkaruk:
There we go, there we go. All right, Behind the Face Mask. Beautiful day here. Tommy Stevens.
Now, Tommy, you’ve been on the show — not this year, but a few years ago. We’ve got to know each other.
Tommy Stevens:
In the spring.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Yeah, yeah, true, true.
Okay, but the whole nickname thing — I haven’t had a chance to ask you. Did they ever decide on one? Did you ever decide on one?
Tommy Stevens:
I don’t think it was my call. I feel like picking your own nickname is a no-no, so I don’t know if they ever decided.
I think the Stone Cold thing caught on a little bit. I signed a couple of Stone Cold jerseys, so maybe that’s what stuck. I don’t know. I like that one the best, I think.
Barney Shynkaruk:
My 15-year-old son said he’s a unit, and I said, “Well, I’m not just a unit,” but okay.
Here’s the first question out of the gate: best sports nickname for a player of all time?
Tommy Stevens:
Wow. I think Iso Joe was sweet. Iso Joe — that one was a really good one, which is ironic, too, because that’s what we call Robustelli, and we’re playing him this week.
So that one’s an all-timer. I’ll go old-school and say the Fridge was pretty good.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Yeah, that’s a good one.
Tommy Stevens:
Nigerian Nightmare — that one was good.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Okay, you got any good ones?
Tommy Stevens:
No, like the best sports nickname ever?
Mr. October for Jeter is good. Peanut Punch — yeah, he’s got a signature move.
Yeah, those are good. There’s a favourite one, but those are kind of the ones that come to mind, at least.
Barney Shynkaruk:
What other sports did Tommy Stevens play as a kid?
Tommy Stevens:
Oh, I played everything. The first sport I played was baseball, and then that led me to either soccer or football tryouts.
We pulled up to a T-intersection, and my dad and I were in this Camaro. He was like, “Hey, man, you want to go to soccer tryouts or you want to go to football tryouts?”
I went to football.
Barney Shynkaruk:
He pushed that a bit.
Tommy Stevens:
Yeah, just a little bit.
So I played those three. I ran track one year in high school, but yeah, I played all those pretty much throughout high school.
Barney Shynkaruk:
What year Camaro? What colour?
Tommy Stevens:
It was a black Camaro, I think an ’01, if I remember right. Somewhere around there.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Beauty.
When’s the last time you weighed yourself?
Tommy Stevens:
Sometime last week. 247.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Fastest 40-yard time ever for you?
Tommy Stevens:
4.49, coming out of my pro day.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Favourite football player growing up?
Tommy Stevens:
Peyton Manning.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Favourite non-quarterback football player of all time?
Tommy Stevens:
I was a big Marcus Mariota guy in high school. I loved Mariota.
I got to meet him before my junior year of high school at the Manning Passing Academy. He walked up and introduced himself after I’d looked for him all weekend, and that meant a lot to me in that moment.
So I really liked him in high school, I’d say.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Fantasy time now. You could throw one touchdown pass to one player, dead or alive. Who would it be?
Tommy Stevens:
The first guy that comes to mind is Trevor Harris. He’s never had a receiving touchdown in the CFL.
It would have been really cool. Growing up, I was a huge Colts fan. Obviously, they were really good, and I watched Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, Brandon Stokley. There are a lot of those guys.
So when I was a kid, I would have said one of those guys, but I’ll go with Trevor Harris for now.
Barney Shynkaruk:
One football game from the past that you could teleport yourself into and watch live — which one would it be?
Tommy Stevens:
Any football game, or one I played in?
Barney Shynkaruk:
Nope, any football game.
Tommy Stevens:
I’d love to go back. Am I part of it, or am I watching?
Barney Shynkaruk:
Watching.
Tommy Stevens:
Watching? I want to go back and watch that Rams-Chiefs game. It was either in 2020 — I think it was 2018, if I remember right — when they scored like 100 points.
Yeah, I’d like to go back and watch that again for the first time. That was a good one.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Mom’s home cooking. When you go back, what’s the one thing she’s making you?
Tommy Stevens:
Oh, man. I’m just trying to think of my favourite one. There are a lot of good ones.
Okay, a few of them. I’ll go with the beef and noodles. The beef and noodles are an all-time classic in our house.
Mashed potatoes are good. Corn makes a really good steak, too. We have a lot of good pasta, too. We do spaghetti.
As you can imagine, food is a priority in the Stevens household, so you can’t really go wrong with any home cooking from my mom.
Barney Shynkaruk:
What’s your guilty pleasure for food, even to this day? What’s one thing, one snack that you kind of snack on — maybe you shouldn’t, but you do?
Tommy Stevens:
I’d say the most consistent snack — I wouldn’t say it’s a bad one — is sunflower seeds.
I crush sunflower seeds. I mean, I’ll go through one of those big Costco bags. I’ll go through at least one of those a week.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Be careful, because when you get older, that’s one thing that triggers my gout.
Tommy Stevens:
A lot of salt. A lot of salt.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Gotta stay hydrated.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Are you better at ping-pong or Madden?
Tommy Stevens:
Madden, for sure. Madden, for sure.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Where do you rank with all these guys?
Tommy Stevens:
I don’t know. I haven’t really played many guys on the team. I feel like I’ve played Trevor’s son the most, so he’s the one who’s always challenging people to play Madden.
I’d say it’s Madden because I wasn't a very good ping-pong player.
Barney Shynkaruk:
One Olympic sport — if you could compete in one Olympic sport, what would it be?
Tommy Stevens:
I would love to say track and field. I couldn’t compete in it. I’m not nearly fast enough.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Which part of track and field?
Tommy Stevens:
Just the 100 metres. I feel like winning the 100 would be an all-timer, right? That’s the one that gets the most attention.
The 4×100 relay was also sick. I ran both in high school, but I wasn’t nearly good enough to compete at the Olympic level.
I think bobsledding is pretty cool, too.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Yeah, I was going to say a winter one.
Okay, that’s good. Can you play any instruments?
Tommy Stevens:
Not very well, at least. I can play them, just not very well. I’d say the drums would be my favourite.
Tommy Stevens:
You know what I want to learn? The piano. I need to talk to Daniel Wiebe, because he can play the piano, and he can play a lot of instruments, actually.
Barney Shynkaruk:
There are some apps out there. My daughter uses one that teaches you. It’s pretty dummy-proof.
Tommy Stevens:
Yeah, I think I just got a new liking for it on my own. Playing the piano would be sweet.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Favourite concert you’ve ever been to?
Tommy Stevens:
I’ve only been to a couple, and my first concert was when I was a junior in high school. It was Drake versus Lil Wayne, and the pre-show — or whatever they’d call it — was Wiz Khalifa.
That was a really good one. The people I was with were like, “Hey, man, sorry, that’s the best concert you’ve ever been to. It’s probably the best one you’ll ever go to.”
Barney Shynkaruk:
If you do karaoke, what’s your go-to?
Tommy Stevens:
If they don’t sing “Livin’ on a Prayer,” that’s just wrong. That’s probably the easiest one.
“West Virginia” would be a good one. I don’t know if that’s what it’s called, but you know what song I’m talking about.
“Sweet Caroline,” because I’m from Penn State — that was another good one. All of them are pretty easy.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Do you have a celebrity crush?
Tommy Stevens:
You’re going to get me in trouble. I’ll go with one that won’t get me in trouble: Sabrina Carpenter, because my fiancée loves her.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Who’s your fiancée’s celebrity crush?
Tommy Stevens:
Sabrina Carpenter.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Okay, and then how much of the Canadian national anthem can you sing?
Tommy Stevens:
I don’t feel comfortable saying I’d get it all, because I don’t want to be like, “Okay, go ahead.”
But I’ve been here for five years. I feel like I’d be able to at least hum along. I feel like I know most of the words.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Tommy Stevens, Behind the Face Mask. Always a pleasure, man.
