Van Zeyl retires after 15-year career
There weren’t a lot of details offered last year when Hamilton Tiger-Cats offensive lineman Chris Van Zeyl started the season on the injured list. Just that he’d had hip surgery. Which kind of made it sound like not that big a deal. Not exactly.
Doctors cut into the front of his hips — entering the joint that way reduced the amount of muscle that had to be cut — and resurfaced the heads of both femurs. They then drilled a hole through the bones and put a spike with a cap on top of each. Then cleaned up the inside of his pelvis and placed a metal socket in each side.
And they did both at the same time.
“It was a little bit of a grind,” he says.
You don’t have to have gone through it to suggest that’s a wild understatement. A bit of a grind is a hard week at work. Not being taken apart and put back together.
Yet not long into the season — just weeks before turning 40 — he was playing again. Giving and taking more pounding on the offensive line.
“I loved it,” he says. “If you’re doing something you love, what would you sacrifice to continue doing (it)?”
Yes, loved, past tense. The Fonthill native announced his retirement on the weekend after a 15-year Canadian Football League career that included two Grey Cup championships, three league all-star nods and seven East all-star teams.
What makes his story remarkable is how unlikely the whole thing was.
At McMaster, the six-foot-six, 312pound giant played on the defensive line. Yet, after being drafted by Montreal and being stuck on the Alouettes’ practice roster for a couple of years, he signed with Toronto and switched to the offensive line. It’s not an easy transition. He did it well. Yet, even after winning the Grey Cup, the team brought in guys to challenge him for his spot every spring.
Again and again, he won out. Until spring 2019 when the Argos cut him for salary cap reasons and the Ticats snatched him up, giving him four years of playing at home in front of his family and friends. Even seeing jerseys with his number — 54 — in the stands.
“It was a really special experience,” he says.
That’s not to say the path he chose — or that was chosen for him — wasn’t a battle. Pro football isn’t for the faint-hearted. Sword swallowers with hiccups require a lower pain tolerance than the massive dudes in the trenches.
Over the decade and a half he spent in the league, he broke toes, fingers and his forearm, dislocated fingers and a shoulder, sprained his ankles and knees, tore a labrum, had a couple of concussions and a variety of other knocks. Along with bruises on top of his bruises. It’s all part of being well-calloused, as he calls it.
“I don’t think there’s a joint or bone that went without some form of injury,” he says.
It’s such a tough job that some pain doesn’t even register because other things are just hurting more.
One year, he went for some imaging after the season just to see what all those games and practices did to his body. He was told he had a clean break in his arm.
“I played with that without knowing it was broken,” he says.
But time always wins. By last year, he realized even love and sacrifice aren’t enough. Things were breaking down. This was going to be his final season.
He says he still loves the game. He
loved his teammates and being in a locker room with the guys. He loved winning those two championships with the Argos.
He loved knowing he could contribute to a team and a common cause. He loved being a leader and sharing his knowledge with younger players. He loved having a platform to work in the community with numerous different charities, organizations and programs.
“Chris’s career in the CFL has been nothing short of extraordinary,” Ticats president of football operations Orlondo Steinauer said in a statement released by the team. “He has achieved incredible feats both on and off of the field, making him the epitome of professionalism.”
Though one doctor told him he’d never play again after the surgeries, the veteran put in hours and hours to rehab his hips. Then found a way to write the near perfect ending.
The final game of last year kicked off with Van Zeyl as a backup. But, when an injury hit the offensive line, he was on the field for the second half. Giving him a chance to finish it the right way.
“Can’t ask for much more than that,” he says.
“It was magnificent.”