Courtesy Edmonton Journal:

After two seasons in the non-playoff wilderness, Edmonton Eskimos head football man Danny Maciocia flipped a possible piece of the future and grabbed a firm hold of the here-and-now in his manouevres on Canadian college draft day in the CFL.

Maciocia swapped the No. 2 overall pick, who wound up being a talented local boy named Dimitri Tsoumpas, to the Calgary Stampeders — which was a “welcome-to-pro-football” wake-up call for the six-foot-four, 315-pounder.

At the same time, the Eskimos said hello to 27-year-old offensive centre/guard John Comiskey, a man famous for two things: being the younger brother of Eskimos veteran offensive lineman Dan Comiskey; and being the nasty boy who gave now-retired Eskimos linebacker A.J. Gass what Austin Powers would call the old “how’s your father” during the an Eskimos-Stampeders game last August.

An enraged Gass ripped off Comiskey’s helmet and hurled it upfield like a discus at the time. But Maciocia said Gass spoke admiringly of the younger Comiskey’s mean streak when Maciocia picked the assistant coach’s brain this week.

Maciocia didn’t seek input from his quarterback, Ricky Ray, on the matter, but providing a comfort zone for the franchise player is crucial if the Eskimos are going to reverse their stumbling fortunes this season.

“I think Ricky is probably feeling a little bit better today, knowing that we’ve got another tough S.O.B. on our offensive line that’s going to watch his back,” Maciocia said, of the quarterback, who suffered a season-ending shoulder injury against the Toronto Argonauts last Sept. 28.

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