One different letter in the acronym. Two different worlds. Take it from Pat Woodcock.

‘CFL is wacky, dude.’

And he’s (ITALICS) from (ITALICS) Canada. Consider the following.

Three downs. Twelve players to a side. Forty to a roster, 19 of whom must be non-imports. No fair catches but a 5-yard halo on punts. A 110-yard field. End zones 20 yards deep, so run any pattern you fancy from the 1. A single point called a ‘rouge’ for a missed field goal provided that it’s not returnable. Seriously.

The score at the end of the first quarter of the 2002 Grey Cup, Canada’s answer to the Super Bowl played in late November? Montreal 1, Edmonton 0. (Maurice Richard from Toe Blake and Elmer Lach, presumably.)

Yet a Grey Cup record 99-yard touchdown (from the 11-yard line) could be enough to buy Woodcock — a Syracuse football alum and the Most Outstanding Canadian for victorious Montreal in the title game — an “N.”

The Washington Redskins are in need of a punt and kick returner. The team’s defensive cornerstone, Champ Bailey, handled punts for Steve Spurrier last season, but no coach wants his best player out on an island with someone called a gunner bulleting at him each Sunday.

So, on Dec. 30, a day before CFL players in the option year of their contracts could negotiate with NFL teams, Washington called Ken Sarnoff, Woodcock’s Chicago-based agent who graduated Syracuse in ’94. The 25-year-old Woodcock agreed to a one-year deal for the NFL league minimum of $225,000, none of which is guaranteed.

Conditioning runs from March until June. Woodcock will make $90 per day to cover expenses. Training camp and winning Spurrier over begins in July. Woodcock will earn $900 per week during that period. If he makes the team, he will be paid for each week he sticks on the roster. In 2001, he signed a three-year contract with the Giants for the minimum but was cut Sept. 14. According to Mark Levin of the NFL Players’ Association, Woodcock received one week’s pay of his $209,000 salary, or just under $12,294 before taxes.

All of this might be chump change to his old teammate, Donovan McNabb (12 years, $115 million), but for Woodcock it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. And perhaps his last. If he’s cut, his rights revert back to the Montreal Alouettes, and he’s looking for another apartment on Nuns Island, Quebec.

‘Put it this way,’ Sarnoff explained. ‘You could be Michael Vick in the CFL, and you will only make in a season what the last guy on the Buffalo Bills will in five weeks.’

Still, Woodcock is probably more likely to secure a loan from a Kanata, Ont., banker than his neighbor, the bankrupt Ottawa Senators, who play minutes from Woodcock’s home. He bought a house in his hometown last February. In June, he married Melanie Reid, his high school sweetheart.

Woodcock is neither a Senator, Maple Leaf nor Canadien, but he will feel a bit like one on Feb. 15, when he brings the Grey Cup to Ottawa’s Bayshore Shopping Centre to take pictures and sign autographs.

‘It’s kind of like the Stanley Cup,’ he said. ‘Everyone gets one day with it. For a lot of my teammates, they’re just playing for what’s in front of them. It means a little more to me and the other Canadian guys. I have a sense for the history, for the guys who came before me.’

That sense began to develop the summer after Woodcock completed sixth grade. He started to play football, and he landed a summer job as a waterboy for the Ottawa Rough Riders.

At Syracuse, Woodcock began on special teams as a redshirt freshman and by his senior season was not only a starting receiver but a team captain. Roommate/quarterback Troy Nunes relentlessly hammered him for the Canadian flag that hung in his room, but on the field, they were all business. Woodcock caught 29 passes for 453 yards and two touchdowns his final season.

Woodcock’s size (5 feet, 10 inches, 175 pounds) and willingness to go across the middle of the field earned him many of his 62 receptions and 1,047 career receiving yards at SU.

But it was his name — right up there in Syracuse football history for uniqueness with Wilky Bazile, Kirby Dar Dar, Clarence ‘Biggie’ Munn, Antwaune Ponds and Stanley Stanislay — that greatly enhanced his popularity.

‘A woodcock is a bird,’ he clarified. ‘I don’t know exactly what kind of bird. A small bird that is hunted I believe. The name is Scottish in origin.’

Asked if he minded that many students regarded him more highly for his name than his abilities, he replied: ‘People are going to do what they want to do. But, I thought it was fun.’

The son of a high school runner and grandson of a provincial champion in the 100 meters, Woodcock graduated in December 2000 with a degree in marketing, a minor in economics and a 4.31 in the 40-yard dash. He signed with the Giants and climbed halfway up their receiving depth chart from dead last before that dreaded September meeting with head coach Jim Fassel.

‘Coach basically said, ‘We need a roster spot, you had a great camp, but there’s not a spot,’ ‘ Woodcock said. ‘Despite what happened it was a great experience. I’ve worked on my ability to get away from defenders, to know how to work defenders and how to make a play with the ball. The Giants gave me a lot of confidence.’

He shuttled off to Montreal, crashed with old friend and ex-Florida quarterback Jesse Palmer and played three games in the 2001 CFL season. This season, he snagged 35 passes for 838 yards as a wide receiver and slotback — the CFL term for the inside receiver. His 23.9 yards per catch led the league, and the Toronto Globe and Mail ranked him the third most likely CFL player to get a shot in the NFL.

The day before the Grey Cup, he even penned a column for The Ottawa Citizen chronicling his experience. A sample:

(ITALICS) I had a camera crew in my hotel room one morning, just to see what I was doing before practice. As it happened, my roommate, defensive tackle Adriano Belli, and I were watching ‘A Makeover Story’ on The Learning Channel. (She turned out terrific!) I think that’s what Grey Cup week is all about; it’s the yearly Makeover Story for the CFL. (ITALICS)

No lie. He wrote that. Word for word.

‘We really were watching ‘A Makeover Story,’ ‘ he claimed. ‘I just wrote a few things down, submitted it, and they didn’t change too much. It was fun, something different.’

Perhaps Woodcock should consider scripting his next performance. His close to that pre-championship column read:

(ITALICS) I’m going to enjoy every minute of this week and this game and hopefully create my own little piece of Grey Cup history. (ITALICS)

One day and 99 yards later he did. The next challenge, the N-FL.

Published on January 22, 2003 at 12:00 pm