Jackson Free Press

In late January, Grant Worsley of the Worsley Group organized a football tryout and brought scouts from the Canadian Football League's Winnipeg Blue Bombers to Smith-Wills Stadium. At the tryout, players ran the 40-yard dash and did the broad jump and shuttle run. Scouts timed players and measured them twice in each drill.

You could see their disappointment each time a player slipped, fell or had a bad take-off. The Blue Bombers' scouts, led by the team's Assistant General Manager and Director of United States Scouting Danny McManus, did their best to get every player a good time or measurement.

Players from colleges around the country including Auburn University, University of Minnesota Duluth, Louisiana State University and the University of Missouri hoped to impress the scouts. Some of the big names at the event included former LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson, former Missouri quarterback James Franklin and former Mississippi State University running back Nick Griffin.

Jefferson signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2012 as an undrafted free agent, but the team waived his contract four days later to replace Da'Quan Bowers, who had been injured. "Now, it is about finding the right spot ... (and) getting an opportunity," Jefferson said in an interview with Jackson Free Press.

It will be a long shot as McManus said that of the 70 to 80 guys the scouts saw, they will watch film on only five to 10 of them. A lucky one or two will get an invite to the Blue Bombers' organized team activities in April.

After the drills, the players broke into individual workouts and one-on-one drills. Jefferson looked like he did at LSU, throwing a pass that made your jaw drop on one throw and throwing a bad pass the next time.

Jefferson knows that at 24 years old, his window for catching on a team is starting to close. He has received some opportunities to coach, but he said he still wants to play football. If he is lucky, he will be in the one or two who will go to Canada for a chance to make the 44-man roster.

If the players don't get a chance to play for the Blue Bombers, the scouts said they would pass the films along to other leagues, such as the arena league.

McManus said he really wanted to see each player succeed, and he and other scouts spent time after the workout talking to them. They gave encouragement and admitted they had been wrong about players who went on to play in other leagues including the NFL. But it is still a long shot for most of the guys who were on the field that day.