Yonus Davis' once-promising career is following in the path of another former CFL star.
Yonus Davis meet Mack Herron - figuratively speaking, that is.
The Canadian Football League careers of the two are similar in terms of what might have been were it not for some problems off the field.
Earlier this week, the B.C. Lions parted company with Davis, who last season was the West Division nominee as special teams player of the year. Standing only 5-foot-7 and weighing 190 pounds, Davis electrified his team and CFL fans with his multi-purpose talents, capable of making plays returning punts, kickoffs and missed field goals and also rushing and receiving out of the backfield. He was activated in the fifth game of the season off the practice roster and thereafter became an impact player. He had 34 rushes for 213 yards - a solid 6.3-yard per carry average - and three touchdowns. He also had seven catches for 42 yards and one touchdown. He had 64 punts returns for 761 yards and one touchdown, and 32 kickoff returns for 815 yards and one touchdown. Overall, he produced 1,831 yards and six touchdowns, not bad for playing only two-thirds of the season.
He had a certain swagger, one might even say cockiness, which suggested he could be something special in the CFL, the prototypical little guy whom fans adore. He was young with a bright future.
But only a year into his CFL career, it appears he may never play football again.
Davis, 26, is facing a possible prison sentence of 20 years and a $1 million fine after he was caught recently in California with more than 27 kilograms (some 67 pounds) of ecstasy. He has been charged with one felony count of attempting to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute.
Davis, who came from a troubled family background and whose father and uncle were murdered, played for a paltry $43,000 Canadian in his first season. Had he followed up on his rookie season with similar performances, he would have easily doubled his salary. But the likelihood is he will never play again anywhere.
His rise and fall are reminiscent of Herron, who was all of 5-foot-5 and weighed 175 pounds. He came to the CFL in 1971 at a relatively same age and became an immediate star. He was voted a West Division All-Star in his first season and took the league by storm the next year, voted the West Division's Most Valuable Player. He rushed for a league-leading 1,527 yards, which at the time was a franchise record, on only 256 attempts, averaging 5.9 yards per carry. He also had 451 receiving yards and 1,019 kickoff return yards, including a record 120-yarder for a touchdown. Overall, he had a combined 2,530 yards. The year before he had a combined 2,347 yards.
He was nicknamed Mini.
Mack Herron appeared to have it all.
And then it was over when he was nailed carrying marijuana by the Winnipeg police following the '72 season. Nothing as serious as possessing ecstasy, mind you, but enough that the Bombers rid themselves of him and he was waived out of the CFL. Crudely, some people referred to him as Smack.
He was lucky, however. Because after being out of football for one year - he was selling jeans in Chicago, so goes the story - the New England Patriots found him. Herron became one of the league's best all-around players. He played two and a half seasons with the Patriots and rushed for 1,298 yards of 354 carries and had nine touchdowns. He also had 61 receptions for 789 yards and recorded six touchdowns. It was Herron's ability as a returner that set him part. The diminutive wideout led the NFL in kickoff returns and kickoff return yardage in 1973. In 1974, Herron set the then-NFL record for all-purpose yards with 2,444.
"He's not just the best of the little men, but the best all-around player of the game," writer Tony Jimenez wrote in the St. Petersburg Times in 1974. "In a same of giants, Mack Herron has held his ground."
Midway through his third season, he was cut and picked up by Atlanta, but played only four games with the Falcons, employed principally as a returner, and was then cut amid more issues of drug problems.
He would later serve time in jail.
"It says something, that when his name comes up now the first two questions are: 'Is he still in jail? Is he still alive?'" former teammate Paul Robson was quoted as saying in a Vancouver Province article in 2008.
Mack Herron made a lasting impression on the field, as did Yonus Davis, but their CFL careers did not last long because of drug-related issues. In a league famous for second chances, these two pint-sized players with big hearts were given only one chance.
Herron was lucky to resuscitate his career in the U.S., if only for a little while.
They were the prototypical little guys whom the fans routinely love, but sadly their careers will be remembered as much for what happened off the field more than for what happened on the field.
