Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ offensive lineman Jermarcus Hardrick found himself in a difficult situation on Thursday night but made it out unscathed thanks to the kindness of his CFL opponents.
“Got stuck in a tornado and power outage last night, no gas anywhere, and even AAA couldn’t help me,” Hardrick shared in a tweet Friday morning. “I googled CFL players from here and Jake Wieneke & Vernon Adams Jr. saved me. Gotta love that brotherhood.”
A complex storm system known as a derecho battered much of the upper midwestern United States on Thursday, with wind gusts of over 100 mph resulting in more than 350 reports of damage to the National Weather Service. The brunt of the storm hit a corridor from eastern Nebraska to southwest Minnesota, including eastern South Dakota and northwestern Iowa, leaving 70,000 people without power.
A resident of Lincoln, Nebraska, Hardrick found himself in the eye of that storm with no one to turn to. The CFL community stepped up to support him, with Minnesota resident and Alouettes’ receiver Jake Wieneke driving to his aid. Montreal starting quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. was also in tow, likely stopping at his star receiver’s home before making their way across the border together for training camp on Sunday.
Hardrick, a 2021 CFL all-star and two-time Grey Cup champion, is getting ready for his eighth CFL season. Wieneke, a fellow all-star, is preparing for his third camp, while Adams is entering year six. While the latter are teammates with the Alouettes, neither has played with Hardrick before.
3DownNation has reached out to Hardrick for further details on the story, but the actions of Wieneke and Adams highlight the camaraderie felt by all CFL players, regardless of team. That is especially relevant now as the Canadian Football League Players’ Association sits less than 48 hours away from potential strike action, but has far more human ramifications as well.
