Canadas smartest person knows better than to rush back from injury. wholesale nfl jerseys . Peter Dyakowski is easily handling stairs and weighted squats five months after suffering a serious knee injury in the 2013 Grey Cup. Despite his progress following surgery for a torn patellar tendon, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats offensive lineman doesnt expect to be ready for the start of training camp June 1. "Ill be there and active but Im not going to be close to contact," Dyakowski said in an interview. "Im working on jogging the rest of this month and in May Ill be running and getting into football drills. "But with this injury, caution is very important to keep in mind. I want to be back playing better than I did before, thats my goal and motivation here." The six-foot-five, 325-pound Dyakowski has been a solid performer for the Ticats. He was their 2011 nominee for the CFLs top lineman award and the following season claimed East Division and CFLPA all-star honours. And last year, Dyakowski played in his first Grey Cup. But it wasnt necessarily a positive experience as Hamilton not only lost 45-23 to the hometown Saskatchewan Roughriders but Dyakowski left the game on a stretcher before halftime due to his injury. "When I woke up that morning, I was about to be a Grey Cup champion," he said. "Just before halftime Im loaded up on my right leg pushing on (Riders defensive tackle) Keith Shologan with everything Ive got and I get hit right in the back of the knee. "Youre supposed to get hurt, it happens to everyone but being carted off the field an unable to walk off was probably one of the most embarrassing, shameful moments of my life. I felt awful." Four days later Dyakowski has surgery. Then the real fun began. "The first couple of months were brutal, I was horizontal for the most part," he said. "Now Im doing several days a week at the Ticats headquarters and a couple days at McMaster because they have an underwater treadmill and its really coming along. "Ive got a bit more time ahead of me than behind but I feel like Im closer to the finish than the start." When Dyakowski returns to Hamiltons lineup, he wont have teammate Marwan Hage to lean on. The 10-year veteran centre retired this week, four months after being selected by Ottawa in the CFL expansion draft. "Its going to be different because aside from a couple times where one of us was injured, Ive played my entire seven years here next to Marwan," Dyakowski said. "Over the years I learned a lot from him so Ill be a better player for it even though hes gone." But the fun-loving 29-year-old Vancouver native is more than just muscle and brawn. In 2012, Dyakowski won CBCs "Canadas Smartest Person" show, beating out contestants in six categories of intelligence: musical, physical, social, logical, visual and linguistic. "Canadas Smartest Person" returns this year as a weekly series and Dyakowski says hes living proof anyone can win. "In some ways I personified that whole idea," said Dyakowski, who wont be defending his title on the show. "It was vindication, of sorts, that we football players arent all that dumb." Then again, Dyakowski isnt a typical jock. He attended LSU, a traditional NCAA football powerhouse, on an athletic scholarship while majoring in mechanical engineering. In his third year Dyakowski had to switch to history and geography because football commitments prevented him from booking engineering labs, which were required for third- and fourth-year classes. "I started out with high aspirations, I was going to build bridges and machines," he said. "But football, especially in the SEC, is a year-round, full-time job and we didnt really have any time after noon to book classes and the engineering labs are only given in the afternoon. "So I was either looking at puttering around for my five years there taking courses I didnt need or biting the bullet and changing my major so I changed to history and geography. I shouldve stayed in hard science in hindsight but I love history and figured I might as well pick something I love." Dyakowskis success on "Canadas Smartest Person," is further proof in football circles that offensive linemen are the most cerebral players. "I went just for fun," he said. "I had a friend say, You should try out for this show, Canadas Smartest Person, and I thought, Its going to be embarrassing but why not? "When I won it, it was a total surprise." Dyakowski isnt done testing his wits on television. He was recently a contestant on "Jeopardy." "(Host Alex Trebek) is a Ticats fan so it was kind of cool," Dyakowski said. "One of the really neat things was at the start when they say, This is Jeopardy, actually seeing the guy (announcer Johnny Gilbert) doing it live because I always thought it was a recording. "Its very reassuring, very comforting to hear this familiar voice and see this kind, grandfatherly type figure saying it." So how did Dyakowski fare? "Im contractually obligated to maintain strict silence officially," said Dyakowski, who will appear on the show in June. "However, I will say it was a lot of fun and Ill have many stories when the time is right. "Unfortunately, there were no categories about Tim Hortons pastries. I think the other contestants wouldve cried foul if those had come up." Possessing a superior intellect has allowed Dyakowski to take a unique approach to dealing with trash talk on the football field. "I try to maintain a certain level of composure and have fun with that," he said. "I try to be very creative and target deep-seeded psychological anxieties that my opponents may have and exploit it. "Comments about their weight, for example, and theyre self-conscious for the rest of the game and worried if the cameras are picking up them in an unflattering light. Before they know it, theyre messing with their jersey and not thinking about sacking the quarterback. I also try to think up good nicknames and a few good comments. I go for humour and its usually appreciated by the opposition. Occasionally, though, youll meet a guy without a sense of humour." cheap jerseys . Bilodeau, from Montreal, won his third straight World Cup moguls event over the weekend, edging out teammate and rival Mikael Kingsbury of Deux-Montagnes, Que. Kingsbury and Marc-Antoine Gagnon of Terrebonne, Que. wholesale jerseys . 1 overall pick likes best about football. "Big hits," he said. "Im all about hitting. I dont care who it is." Thats what the Houston Texans are counting on from the South Carolina defensive end after skipping a chance to take a quarterback -- their top need -- with the top pick Thursday night.TORONTO -- A reflective J.P. Arencibia says he has been his own worst enemy in the past. "A lot of my struggles were from doubts and trying to do too many things," the former Blue Jay told reporters Friday upon his return to Rogers Centre with the Texas Rangers. The 28-year-old Arencibia also admitted he had heaped pressure on himself by worrying about all the permutations of what might happen when he stepped into the batting box. Now he has come to the realization that simple is best, it seems. "God gave me abilities to do something special on the field. What are those?" he said. "So I can say All right, I need to work on those things. And not worry about everything else. And when I get into the plate, think of one pitch at the time. Not hey, if I take this pitch, is it going to affect this pitch?" Arencibia endured a horror show of a 2013 season with Toronto, hitting .194 with 148 strikeouts in 474 at-bats. He did hit 21 homers and 54 RBIs. He said it was a year of pressure, his mind going a mile a minute. "Fortunately I was able to put the ball in play at times but I wasnt good," he said. "I was fighting myself," he added. "I was in my own way. That was the biggest thing. I had to go down (to the minors) and kind of get out of my own way." It seems to be working. He slammed a three-run homer off R.A. Dickey in the seventh inning Friday. Arencibia signed with Texas as a free agent, hitting .133 with a .182 on-base percentage in 20 games before being sent to the triple-A Round Rock Express in mid-May. He was recalled Thursday. With three other catchers (Robinson Chirinos, Chris Giminez and Geovany Soto) on the Rangers active roster, Arencibia has been getting a crash course in playing first base. He hit .279 with 14 home runs and 41 RBIs in triple-A. He got the start Friday at first base, becoming the eighth Ranger this season to start there. Asked if he was a first baseman or catcher now, he said that wasnt his decision. "Obviously they know I can catch and they have a lot of catchers on the roster. So right now if playing first is best for the team, thats what Im doing. Ill work hard to be the best first baseman I can be." The stint in the minors helped slow the game down, he said. "I 100 per cent needed it," Areencibia said. nfl jerseys china. . "It was something that was necessary. I went back and had to iron something out and be who I can be. "That was really the main thing -- changing my mentality and really understanding myself ... Obviously you dont want to be down there, and at the beginning it was tougher but more and more as I was down there, I realized there was good purpose behind it. And I was proud of myself to get past that and bounce back." Arencibia said his struggle was to be himself. "A lot of times I tried to be somebody I wasnt. I tried to be maybe what baseball or whatever I thought needed to do statistically to be a better player. And by doing that, by not being myself, I went backwards. "Im the player I can be (now). I went back to triple-A and really tried to be that." That mindset included being aggressive at the plate "and looking to do damage as opposed to worrying about swinging at a pitch in the first or making this mistake or that mistake." Arencibia was warmly received by some of the Rogers Centre staff before the game, with hugs and handshakes. He said he was not worried about how the crowd might react. "I know the people that cared about me and the people I impacted," he said. "Whatever may be the reaction, good or bad, I wish everybody well. Obviously I cant control that stuff." He received a smattering of boos when the Rangers starting lineup was announced. The fans were far more vocal at his first at-bat -- a strikeout that turned the boos to cheers. Arencibia was far more cutting in Texas in May when quizzed by the Toronto Star about his time in Toronto. "I learned the media controls a lot of things and the only question that you guys were writing in the off-season was what they were going to do behind the plate, when obviously the pitching was something that needed to be addressed," he told the newspaper. "But I was the only question because I was the villain of the team." Asked Friday whether he regretted such comments, he said: "Im not really here to talk about any of that stuff. We all said what we needed to say. Im excited to be back in the major leagues." Arencibias life has also changed off the baseball field. In June, he married Band Perry singer Kimberly Perry in Greeneville, Tenn. cheap jerseys ' ' '
