Kadie Smith
Alex Bazzie is down in position, his hands off the ground, fingers twitching, waiting for the snap. He knows that extra yard off the ball like the back of his hand now. He knows he has to be half a second faster. Give him the room, and he’s gone.
Hamilton’s Mike Filer snaps the ball to Dan LeFevour, and Bazzie is off, in the blink of an eye he slips up and under, past his man, shedding each attempt at blocking him. He’s in the backfield and before LeFevour even has a chance to step in any direction, the quick-footed defender has him around the waist. He’s down. Sack number 6 for the rookie defensive end in only the seventh game of the season.
It’s August, and he’s already surpassed his college sack total of four, and yeah, he’s a rookie.
Flash ahead to October and Bazzie sits fifth in the league with 10 sacks and another 41 tackles. He’s asserted himself around the Lions’ dressing room, and the league, as a player you don’t want to take your eyes off of. He can get past an O-Line with lightning speed. 
“I have no idea how that came to be my thing,” says Bazzie, laughing. He’s sitting outside the Lions’ locker room after practice on a rainy day. “I was a linebacker throughout high school and early college. As athletic as I was then I didn’t understand how to rush the passer. I had speed to run downfield but just not the sense of where the quarterback would be. The last two games of our season I really started to get around the quarterback easily. I think it was a sense of this is where I can make an impact.”
In his first season in the league, the Marshall University alum has solidified himself as a starter on an already-solid Lions defensive line that includes elites the likes of Khreem Smith and Eric Taylor. He continues to impress his team mates and his coaching staff every day while earning himself accolades in the media as well for his full-speed play. He’s slippery on the field, darting and ducking. You’re not sure how, but he gets to his man faster than anyone is prepared for.
“I just want to go,” says Bazzie. “I’ve always been that guy that just wanted to get out there and play hard. That’s all I’ve ever wanted people to say about me.”
There’s plenty of motivation on the Lions defence for a young rookie trying to make a name for himself with key veterans and some of the best shutdown players in the league. “Everyone here is the same,” Bazzie quips. “We all just want to run around and make plays; we’re all hungry. It’s friendly competition and you always want to be equal or better than the other guy.”
One of those motivators is fellow lineman Taylor, whom Bazzie says has been a constant confidence booster and influence on his success. “He’ll look at me in a game and just say ‘go. I’ve got you. I’ll cover you up.’ That just allows me to feel comfortable because I know he’s a veteran guy, someone that has respect around the league, from the coaches, and he’s taking time out and telling me to play my game.”
A product of a storied football program at Marshall, Bazzie came to BC with an already-strong following, a solid fan base. A quick search of his name on twitter brings up countless Herd fans and fans from his home town. When the Lions website posted post-game coverage with a picture of a celebratory Bazzie after another sack, most of the feedback came from the Herd crowd.
When you win and you’re good, it follows. Bazzie finished his three-year college career with 62 tackles, winning the Military Bowl in his last year. “A lot of people appreciated what we did for the program,” says Bazzie. “The Marshall fan base is literally people everywhere so when they start popping up out of the woodwork you can’t believe how many there are. Those people are all following me and that support is just amazing. When I come out here and play the game every week I know that these fans are following me so now I’m not only doing it for the BC fans, I’m playing for Marshall as well, still showing the guys that they can do it too and have the great opportunity that I’ve had.”
Everything is coming into place for the Maryland native, but it wasn’t always that way for him. Despite a wealth of talent and dedication to the game, the former linebacker had serious blocks along the way to his pro career, blocks that he readily admits were his own doing.
A self-proclaimed problem child in his younger years, Bazzie was always getting into trouble . There’s a thick scar on his chest and one across his upper left bicep, the results of a fight outside a party. “I got stabbed,” Bazzie says matter-of-factly, lifting up his shirt to reveal a raised, purple line about two inches long across the left of his chest. You get the sense that his is a story of wrong place, wrong time. He’s soft spoken and easy going. Someone always wanting to please everyone else. The apparent ease of the game for Bazzie may have contributed to his troubles.
After emigrating to the US from Liberia, Africa when he was five, Bazzie’s family settled in Silver Springs, MD and the impressionable youth immediately starting hanging around with what people would tell him was the wrong crowd. “Even to this day though, those are my boys,” Bazzie admits. “I grew up with them; they know me. I believe that you have to be responsible for your own choices but I was always a kid that wanted to be cool with people so I went along with things.”
Football was his one escape, his one happiness, but even that came with a price. After initial interest from his home-town college Maryland in his sophomore year of high school, Bazzie admits he became complacent, certain that he was going to get into his dream school regardless. He began slacking off and getting into trouble in his neighbourhood instead of studying. When signing day came, his phone was silent.
His coaches gave him two options then: junior college, where he would have to start his eligibility right away and get busy reestablishing himself, or prep school. The rough kid chose prep school, Fork Union Military Academy. A rude awakening, to say the least. There was no scholarship in the works, and when he watched his mom foot the bill for his mistakes, Bazzie knew he had to tighten up. “It killed me,” he admits. “My mom doesn’t like to talk money or how much things cost. If we needed something, we just told her and when she could, she got it for us. Even now she’s still paying my tuition off.”
Chalk it up to a hard year at military school, up at 6am to pledge allegiance, shining shoes and scrubbing floors before bed, but something changed in him. When he finally managed to get his grades back up and the calls started coming in, Maryland was still not on the other end. Rather than give up, Bazzie forced his way into a walk-on position with Marshall. Still not a recruit; still no scholarship; still going the hard way. After being cut from the Cleveland Browns after rookie camp, he chose the CFL as an alternate path to professional football.
But the rest is history, or rather history in the making.
“I always felt like things never came easily to me,” says Bazzie. “I play with a chip on my shoulder because of it.” A chip about Maryland; a chip about the missed scholarship opportunities; a chip about the NFL. As is the story with so many players, that edge, that little bit of anger can bring out the fire. Bazzie is one of those guys, and he’s growing everyday into his new role.
“I honestly believe things work out for a reason,” he says, with a far-off look. “For the first time I’m starting to find myself and understand what I want. This is my team. I couldn’t be luckier.”