Darian Durant: Roughriders' loss, Alouettes' gain
Star QB transitions to life in Montreal after leading Saskatchewan to 3 Grey Cups
For Darian Durant, getting his daily errands done is a lot easier than it used to be.
For more than a decade as the quarterback for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, he couldn't step out of his home without instantly becoming the centre of everyone's attention.
From the grocery store to the shopping mall to buying gas, there was always a selfie to pose for or an autograph to sign.
Now, as the quarterback for the Montreal Alouettes, things are different.
Durant says he can just toss on his headphones, head down to the dépanneur and buy a carton of milk without attracting a glance.
"I got here and I could just walk around and be myself," he says.
"I enjoyed every bit of being in Saskatchewan, but to be free and to be able to do whatever it is you want to do whenever you want to do it — it's great."
No fear of the spotlight
Like a star hockey player for the Montreal Canadiens who gets traded to Florida, Durant's life away from the field may be a lot more private now than it was in the past.
But it's not as if Durant is the kind of person who cowers from the spotlight.
He grew up in Florence, S.C., where he was the star quarterback at his high school in a football-first town with a population of roughly 37,000.
He went to college in Chapel Hill, a town that wasn't much bigger, breaking school records playing for the Tar Heels at the University of North Carolina.
"Going to Saskatchewan [in 2006], it was kind of like home," Durant says.
"I was in a place where the microscope was on you, and all the fans were everywhere, and they were always around."
In Montreal, the anonymity of being a football player in a big city where hockey is the first, second and third most popular sport is a new challenge.
"I'm growing to like it. All I've ever been used to is that country feel. That's all I know," Durant says.
'Against all odds I'm going to shine'
Durant is nothing short of a hero to football fans in Saskatchewan.
He led the Roughriders to the Grey Cup three times and lifted the trophy as champion on their home field in 2013.
But the honeymoon came to an end after Durant suffered an injury at the start of the 2015 season. The team fell on hard times and made wholesale changes to the front office.
Chris Jones was hired to turn things around, and he and Durant did not see eye to eye.
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"When people doubt you, and they don't think that you're good enough to run their organization or lead their organization or you're not good enough to be a champion, I mean, I use that as fuel."
This wasn't the first time someone doubted Durant's ability.
"It definitely goes back to my high school days. I have a tattoo on my arm that reads, 'Against all odds I'm going to shine,'" he says.
Being a quarterback from a young'un, you always had to lead. The guys look up to you. So it's something that I enjoy.— Alouettes quarterback Darian Durant
"I just wanted to prove the recruiters, the scouts and everyone who thought they knew football, just prove them wrong. Prove to them that a guy under six feet tall can play quarterback at a high level and that, to this day, still fuels me."
Durant says the heckling from detractors on social media only helps motivate him.
While some professional athletes use the tactic of ignoring the critics, Durant does the opposite. He reads what doubters say to him and takes their comments as a personal challenge.
"It takes, in my mind, a crazy person to do that, so I want to prove that crazy person wrong," he says.
Leading Alouettes back to glory
Durant faces a big challenge in Montreal.
The Alouettes haven't been Grey Cup contenders since Anthony Calvillo played his last game in 2013.
Since then, the team has wandered without direction, at risk of losing its relevance in the Montreal sports market.
To bring the team back, leadership is paramount, and Durant says that comes naturally to him.
"It's a trait that I feel like I was born with but I definitely learned from my father," Durant says.
Watching his father take care of his family laid the building blocks, but it was stepping on the football field that snapped everything into place.
"Being a quarterback from a young'un, you always had to lead. The guys look up to you. So it's something that I enjoy."
Being sandwiched between two talented athlete brothers who also played football helped Durant, too.
His older brother Keyshawn served as a cautionary tale: He was a star player in high school and earned a scholarship to play in college — only to lose it.
"As sad as it is for him to go through what he did, I learned from those mistakes and learned what not to do."
Meanwhile, his younger brother Justin benefited from his tutelage and reached an even higher level in the sport, playing linebacker last year with the Dallas Cowboys.
"I'm sure he took those teachings, and that's the reason why he's been in the NFL for ten years."
Calvillo — from foe to friend
Anthony Calvillo, the man who beat Durant twice to lift the Grey Cup in 2009 and 2010, is now his coach and a source of inspiration.
"Every day I'm learning how to become a different type of leader, now that I'm here," he says. "Not so much vocal as I was in Saskatchewan but just how to lead by example more."
Durant says Cavillo is teaching him not just how to refine his leadership skills on the field but also to become a leader in the classroom when the team studies video of their opponents.
It's an unlikely pairing, given their history as opponents on the field, but for Durant it's all part of the formula to become a champion and prove the doubters wrong.
And while a Grey Cup or two might make take the anonymity out of his trips to the dépanneur, that's a trade-off Durant would gladly make.