Miami Dolphins' linebacker Cameron Wake went on ESPN 760 in West Pam Beach on Wednesday, speaking with Evan Cohen. During the interview, several topics were touched upon, including the CFL, Jason Taylor, and Channing Crowder.
When asked about Crowder's retirement, Wake said, "I'm shocked. Now if you ask me how serious or how much I believe it, that's a whole [other] question. So yeah, I was shocked to hear about it but I know that guy is a football player, so I think it will be kind of hard for him to stay away from the game."
He then added, "I think he will [play another NFL game]. I mean, I think this is one of those situations where maybe he's weighing his options or maybe things didn't necessarily go his way. But at the end of the day I know him, and being around him for three years, he's a football player, and he's definitely got some more games in him."
The conversation then turned to the CFL. When Cohen asked about the difficulty of the CFL, and if it's harder to play defense up north of the border, Wake responded, "I think on paper it definitely is. I mean, the players are different. I mean obviously with a larger field, and wider, you have a different set of players. I was a '4-3 D-end' up there because you know what, you're not going to have those 290 pound guys that can run sixty yards across the field, you know it's a little different, or get off the ball the way maybe a smaller guy can. So you get smaller, more agile types of players so I think at the end of the day it ends up evening out. But for me, you line me up a yard away from the pack, it's definitely going to make it harder for me to get to the quarterback."
Cohen asked Wake if he can do anything better than teammate Jason Taylor could do back in his prime. Wake answered, "I wasn't around when he was in his prime. I've seen videos, I've heard stories. So it's a lot of things that guy can do, I mean he did it all. His get-off was amazing, he obviously got to the quarterback. Maybe keeping weight on him. We've got a couple of stories, he said he's a lot lighter than he was telling everybody he was. So I'm a little bigger than he was when he was in his hay day, so he was obviously an amazing player and there's not much more to that."
Cohen's final question to Wake centered on performance enhancing drugs. When Cohen asked if Wake knew of anyone that had failed a PED test, Wake replied, "I can't tell you that I've ever witnessed anything like that, but if you would've asked me, 'Do I think if you tested everybody in the game, would people fail?'...I would say yes. I'm one of those guys that like to take pride in following the rules and doing things the right way, and I don't really have anything to hide. At some point, there's a line where you don't want your privacy issues and so-on and so-forth, but at the end of the day if you want everybody to be on a level plain and you want everybody to do it the same way, I mean, how do you remedy those things? I'm sure that at some point there will be a lot of issues with people getting caught and things they shouldn't be doing, but everybody is a professional. You're a grown man. You should know what you're putting in your body and that's on you."
It was a good interview with the Dolphins' sack specialist. If you would like to see the rest of the interview, head over to the ESPN 760 website.