Chris Rwabukamba doesn’t say ‘eh’ at the end of every sentence. He doesn’t pronounce the word ‘sorry’ any differently than one might expect. And, most surprisingly, he isn’t up to date on all the latest news from the world of hockey.
But make no mistake about it—Rwabukamba is Canadian, and proud of it. Even if he chose to stay in the States this year rather than play in the Canadian Football League.
This summer, the redshirt-senior cornerback was selected in the fourth round of the CFL draft by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and could have forgone his senior season to play football professionally in his home country.
But Rwabukamba never truly contemplated skipping his last year at Duke.
“When I got drafted I was actually doing some econ homework, so it wasn’t like I was in the green room waiting for the call,” he said. “I’m definitely fortunate to get the opportunity to play in the CFL, but I knew I was coming back for my senior year.”
Rwabukamba, who has started all four games at cornerback for Duke this year, took a rather unusual path to becoming a Blue Devil. Hailing from Windsor, Ontario, a Canadian city just across the Detroit River from the Motor City, it might have made sense for Rwabukamba to look to stay in the north, closer to home, to play his college ball.
But Rwabukamba’s mother, Jeanne Uwera, told her son that academics would have to be his first priority. So when both Duke and Stanford offered a scholarship, the future Academic All-ACC cornerback’s choice became much easier.
“My mother was a huge influence on me, and she told me that it was between Duke and Stanford, because academically you can’t beat those two schools,” Rwabukamba said.
He saw the opportunity to blaze a new trail at Duke.
“One of the guys I played against in high school had already committed to Stanford, and OJ Atogwe [now a safety for the St. Louis Rams] went to my high school and had played [at Stanford],” Rwabukamba said. “I wanted to do my own thing, so when I got the Duke offer… I thought I had a chance to come in and play early, play against elite competition and kind of make my own path.”
The transition to Division I football, though, was more difficult for Rwabukamba than it was for the typical American. Along with dealing with the usual challenges of collegiate football, Rwabukamba also had to adapt to a new set of rules on the gridiron.
Canadian football differs from the American version of the game in many crucial ways. The Canadian game features 12 players on the field instead of 11, a change that leads to many unique formations and all but eliminates the tight end as a position. What’s more, Canadian teams only have three downs to advance 10 yards, instead of the typical four, and there is no limit to how many offensive backfield players can be in motion at the snap.
Even the field of play is different for our neighbors to the north: Canadians play the game on a 110-yard field with 20-yard deep end zones, and the field goal posts are placed on the goal line.
But for Rwabukamba, the core of the game remained the same, albeit at a faster pace.
“There were different rules, but at the same time football is football,” he said. “The fundamentals are the same: tackling, catching the ball, covering. But with the bigger field you have more time to react…. That was the biggest adjustment, adjusting to the speed of the game.”
Rwabukamba will now get to use the skills he has learned and, in his final year at Duke, attempt to catch the attention of NFL scouts—the cornerback definitively said he’d “rather play in the NFL, play against the best.” But beyond hopes of improving his draft stock, he also knew that coming back would allow him to be the leader of a young and inexperienced group of cornerbacks.
That’s a job Rwabukamba takes seriously, even if the results on defense haven’t been up to his standards thus far this season.
“I take it upon myself to teach the corners the ropes and how to play the aggressive style that we play,” Rwabukamba said. “We have a lot of young guys playing, but that’s not an excuse.”
The most die-hard Canadians might consider it almost treasonous to see Rwabukamba dream of playing a professional sport besides hockey in America. But while Rwabukamba hopes his future includes playing football in the United States, he made it quite clear where his heart lies.
“I definitely consider Canada my home,” he said.
Even if he doesn’t say ‘eh.’
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