Courtesy Hamilton Spectator:

The day in late February he walked into the Hamilton Tiger-Cat dressing room to announce his return to the club with which he started, Tony Miles was as excited as Hillary Clinton in a pantsuit shop.

He was optimistic about his new team. He was upbeat about his future. Most of all, he was sure the wonky hamstrings that had caused him so much grief over the past two years in Toronto were finally better.

He really, really believed that.

So when the diminutive slotback made a sharp cut, took three steps and felt a familiar tug behind his right leg in the last series of a blowout loss to Calgary in Week 4, he immediately grabbed top spot on the list of Hamilton’s Most Despondent.

“Right when it happened I said, ‘here we go again,’” he says. “I put so much into it in the off-season. You’re so ready and it starts off and there’s a nice buzz around here and then you get taken out of it.”

The pain was one thing. But recognizing the symptoms of another pulled hamstring made him cringe. In both previous seasons he missed substantial time as a member of the Argos because his gams had the elasticity of Joan Rivers’ face.

Maybe it was the stretching he admittedly doesn’t do much of. Maybe it was bad luck. Whatever, he couldn’t keep his legs healthy. And from experience, he knew what a twinge meant. Missed time, and lots of it. He is, after all, an expert in these things now.

For a guy whose success starts and ends with speed, that’s a problem. He’s not big enough to be a plodding across-the-middle possession receiver. To do what he does, he’s got to be fast. Not being able to run puts a small crimp into that specialized skill set.

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