By Murray McCormick
REGINA — Demetrius Crawford took full advantage of the power of social media to land a contract with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Crawford was one of the three running backs whose signings were announced by the Roughriders on Friday. The CFL team added him to its 75-player roster after studying some well-produced videos posted by Crawford on YouTube. The 25-year-old knew posting the videos wasn’t enough to attract the attention of a professional football team.
Crawford first studied the rosters of CFL teams to determine which ones could use an import running back. He then used the power of Twitter to set up contacts in the CFL. Crawford’s initial Twitter contact in October was Calgary’s Angela Iuvale, who helped him get in touch with the Riders’ football operations staff and representatives of the Regina media.
“I did my best to try to connect him with the Saskatchewan Roughriders,” said Iuvale, who uses the
Twitter handle @doublecoverage and is a passionate supporter of the Riders. “Demetrius is obviously very resourceful on his own.”
Crawford’s resourcefulness extended to Rod Pedersen, the voice of the Riders and moderator of rodpedersen.com.
“I sent him a message on Twitter and luckily he replied back,” Crawford said. “When he did, he told (general manager) Brendan Taman that he had a message from this kid and a video from YouTube. It was big that he even took the time to mention me during their podcast.”
Crawford followed up by emailing the Riders with hopes of drawing more attention to his videos, but he didn’t stop there. Crawford found Riders quarterback Darian Durant on Twitter and forwarded him a link to the videos. Crawford also told Durant that he would be taking hand-offs from the quarterback in 2012.
Crawford also reached out to Sheri Trapp, the Riders’ director of communications. Head coach Corey Chamblin watched the videos and suggested to Taman that the Riders should sign Crawford.
“I’m waiting to see who takes credit for this, because it’s definitely not me,” Taman said with a laugh. “It could be Rod or Sheri . . . I don’t know anyone who didn’t get his video, but it eventually it got to our head coach’s desk. He liked it and he told me to give him a look.”
Crawford was signed without even working out for the Riders. Crawford will be expected to take part in a future mini-camp to prove to the Riders that he’s worthy of earning an invitation to training camp.
“It doesn’t matter where or how you get them. The bottom line is how they play when you get a chance to see them,” Taman said.
Crawford played with the Montana State Bobcats in 2008 and 2009. He was all Big Sky Conference in his senior year after recording 251 carries for 1,314 yards and five touchdowns. He wasn’t drafted by an NFL team and spent some time with the Tri-Cities Thunder of the Indoor Football League.
“When I first came out of college, I had the stats and the numbers, but I just didn’t feel my first agent worked as hard as he could,” said Crawford, who is five-foot-eight and 195 pounds. “That was a learning tool for me because if you want something as badly as I did, you have to cut out the middleman. I went out on my own to get where I wanted to be.”
Crawford is familiar with the CFL through his ties to former Riders defensive back Larry Hogue. Hogue was Crawford’s high school football coach in Fairfield, Calif.
“He was a major help,” Crawford said.
Crawford worked out for the Calgary Stampeders in December, but wasn’t signed. He signed with the Riders, with a big boost from Twitter. Crawford appreciates the opportunity that the Riders have given him and is preparing for his next step.
“Nothing changes for me,” said Crawford, whose Twitter handle is (at)K1ngCrawford. “I’m still doing speed work and I’m working out every day. I know that I have to be on top of my game coming into training camp.”
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