Cahoon proving quite a catch

If the FBI wanted to hide someone in the witness protection program, the Canadian Football League would be a good place to start.

Look at Ben Cahoon. He's been a star receiver in the CFL for more than five years, played in two championship games, won one, played in two all-star games and led his team in receiving the last four seasons, but it's all a secret in the States. When he returns home to Utah in the offseason people ask him what he does for a living.

"I come back and no one knows," he says. "I have to answer all the questions about what it's all about. It's good football. Fox (TV) shows NFL Europe games, but the football is better here."

Cahoon, who plays for the Montreal Alouettes, isn't getting famous in the CFL, nor is he getting rich, "but I'm playing football for a living and paying my bills and having fun," he says.

Cahoon, who had to walk on at Ricks College and BYU and later "beg" for a tryout" with the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has always been judged too small and too slow. At 5-foot-9, 180 pounds, he runs the 40-yard dash in the low 4.5 range.

"That's fast enough if you're 6-1," Cahoon says, "but if you're short you've got to be blazing. Everybody's looking for these freaks of nature like Randy Moss or Terrell Owens — tall big guys who can outmuscle guys and run."

Cahoon's calling card has always been his Velcro-like hands. At BYU he earned a reputation for spectacular catches, which usually fell in one of three categories — one-handed, leaping, diving. When he reported to his first training camp with the Alouettes, his teammates, coaches and management types were so impressed by his hands that they actually started a countdown to see when Cahoon would finally drop a pass.

"You expect a guy from BYU to have caught a lot of passes, but the things this guy does every day in practice amaze me," Coach Tracy Ham told the Toronto Globe and Mail during Cahoon's rookie training camp. "If he's anywhere near the ball, he'll get to it."

Cahoon developed his hands in high school by catching 500 passes a day each

summer. Standing 10 yards apart, he and his practice partner would fire passes at each other — high, low, fast, slow — for hours.