TORONTO – On the eve of the 104th Grey Cup Playoffs, the Canadian Football League (CFL) unveiled the nine players nominated for the distinguished Jake Gaudaur Veterans’ Award. The honour has been awarded every year since 2010 to a Canadian CFL player who best demonstrates the attributes of Canada’s veterans: strength, perseverance, courage, comradeship and contribution to Canadian communities. The award recognizes Jake Gaudaur as he embodied these attributes as the CFL’s longest-standing Commissioner and distinguished Second World War Veteran.
The nominees are chosen by their respective clubs and the recipient is chosen by a committee and honoured during the Shaw CFL Awards at Grey Cup Weekend. This year’s awards gathering will take place at the beautiful Art Gallery of Ontario in downtown Toronto.
Luc Brodeur-Jourdain, Montreal Alouettes
Brodeur-Jourdain is incredibly team-focused and showed a tremendous amount of sacrifice and perseverance on behalf of the Alouettes. He also demonstrated his courage by finishing a game with a torn ACL and MCL and vowed to come back stronger, which he did, in a shorter amount oftime than doctors had predicted. He once raced across town for a game after his son was born prematurely. He works with the Together at School Alouettes program to visit with thousands of kids and deliver the message of staying in school. He is also involved with the Mira Foundation, which partners disabled individuals with trained dogs. Brodeur-Jourdain also purchases his game jerseys and donates them to various local Montreal charities.
Previous winners include Jeff Perrett (MTL, 2015), James Yurichuk (TOR, 2014), Shea Emry (MTL, 2013), Graeme Bell (SSK, 2012), Andre Durie (TOR, 2011) and Mike McCullogh (SSK, 2010).
This year’s Jake Gaudaur Veterans’ Award will be honoured during the Shaw CFL Awards on Thursday November 24th at Grey Cup Weekend in Toronto.
