Cody Fajardo | Start from scratch

(Saint-Jérôme) Cody Fajardo probably doesn’t know Joe Bocan, but he will try, in his own way, to imagine the next season as a Garden of Eden, where everything has to be redone.

The praise was plentiful and the festivities were long-lasting after the Montreal Alouettes quarterback was named Gray Cup MVP after his first season with the team.

An unexpected trajectory, given that his arrival in the Quebec metropolis represented his final and last chance to obtain a starting position in the Canadian Football League. He took the opportunity to make a name for himself. A name that is today associated with unpredictable success and a team that has become his own.

“If you want to be one of the greats, if you want to become a legend in this league, you have to be consistent. I don’t want it to be a flash in the pan,” revealed Fajardo at the end of the first day of the team’s training camp last Sunday in Saint-Jérôme.

The 32-year-old pivot therefore begins the new season with this mentality. If he wants to win, it is certainly to make history, such is the wish and mission of the majority of professional athletes. But he also wants it simply because the taste of the elixir called victory has addictive properties. And Fajardo wants to take another sip as quickly as possible.

“Now that we’ve had a taste of winning the last game of the season, we want to do it again. We want to feel that feeling again. »

A new team

More than half of the players present at the Alouettes training camp are newcomers. This is why Fajardo refuses to draw too many parallels with the epic experienced in 2023.

Former Alouettes head coach Marc Trestman once told him: “Every time there is a new player on the team, we have a different team. » So, with 55 new players in the current roster, it’s impossible for him and the rest of the team to build too confidently on last year’s championship.

Head coach Jason Maas has also been giving a similar speech since the start of the week. Moreover, Fajardo praised the way in which Maas welcomed the new elements and promoted their integration.

In the locker room, no player is seated next to a player playing in the same position. Veterans have assigned places near rookies. At each meal, the coach requires the players to eat at different tables each time.

It’s a kind of positive reinforcement. And that really pleases the organization’s starting quarterback: “To talk to other players, learn where they come from. You have to learn everyone’s story, what they’ve been through and why they’re here. It’s great to hear all kinds of different stories. »

In French please

Fajardo, like many sports stars before him, had promised to learn French as soon as his plane landed at Dorval airport. Asked about their learning, a quarter believes that “it’s going a little better”. “I was hoping it wouldn’t be this difficult.” »

In fact, he believes he is more comfortable understanding it than speaking it. “From what I understand, this is the normal process. It’s just so hard to speak it. You have to be really confident to go ahead and try it, knowing that it’s going to come out wrong. »

Since last year, coach Maas requires his players to at least know how to pronounce their number in Vigneault’s language. This is their way of going through security to enter the team locker room at the Olympic Stadium. Like a password.

This is why your journalist asked him if he really understood “number 7”, launched in French.

” What ? “, Fajardo replied.

“ Number seven ? ”, to restart it.

” Oh yes ! Number seven,” the quarter finally adds with a laugh.

“My God, you said it so quickly!” That’s the problem, it’s going too fast. You have to speak to me slowly. »

So you have to wonder which is better, his French or the season of the Los Angeles Angels, his favorite baseball team.

“The Angels…it’s so bad. So it’s tight! »