For football players, the NFL is often like a passing train: there are those who are on board, and those who stay away, on the platform.
Posted at 7:28 p.m.
Matthew Bergeron was hoping not to stay on the dock, and now he is well and truly on board.
In his first season, at the age of 23, the offensive lineman is preparing to play his first game in this world of greats, when he and his teammates from the Falcons will host the Carolina Panthers , Sunday in Atlanta.
Sometimes in life, like in the NFL, you need a little luck, and that’s what the Victoriaville native got when left guard Matt Hennessy fell in action in August to a a knee injury that will sideline him for the rest of the season.
Certainly not the perfect scenario for getting a job, but the train door opened, and Bergeron took advantage of it.
“I arrived here with the idea of working every day, explained the Quebec player in a video conference Thursday. Matt got injured and he’s a friend, a teammate, and you can never be happy about something like that. I find it boring for him. But I was asked to fill a role, and my goal was to fill that role and to do it every day. »
It’s a role he’s done so well, in fact, that he’s now aboard the Falcons’ regular roster. For a player who left Quebec to get there, in this unreal world, it’s downright the dream.
But Matthew Bergeron doesn’t really have time to stop at that for the moment.
“I would say that I am excited like every year since I played football, since I was young in Victoriaville or then with Syracuse [dans la NCAA], he took care to add. Playing football is always exciting for me, no matter the league…
“But I don’t put pressure on myself, because I’m so focused on what I’m doing… So for me, it’s just football. It’s a bigger league, yes, but it’s just football. When you’re here as a rookie, you have to have some self-confidence, confidence in your abilities. […] The offensive line is a job that is done in the shadows, and that’s the beauty of this position: my goal is to do my job to the best of my abilities, and to see the receiver catch a pass or see the running backs escaping for long runs. That’s really what brings me joy. »
It is undoubtedly this joy and this great confidence that allowed him to land with the Falcons, he who had been a second round choice of the club, the 38th overall, during the last NFL Draft. This status later earned him a four-season deal, for US$8.97 million.
Between that and Victoriaville or football at Cégep de Thetford Mines, where he grew up, there is a whole world.
But it’s a world he likes.
“Guys like Benjamin St-Juste and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif had an impact on me, and I’m happy to be in that position now, and to show young people in Quebec that it’s possible…
“When I was little, I never would have thought it was possible, and year after year, it’s a goal that was getting closer in my eyes. There, I’m here… And even the simple fact of being here and being fished out, I didn’t think about it! It happened, and I’m really blessed. But I’m so focused on the job at hand that I don’t even realize it. I think I’m only going to realize it when the season is over…”
2023-09-07 23:28:12
#NFL #Matthew #Bergeron #board #train
