Rocket’s Critics Quickly Run Out of Fuel

Hundreds of feet above the ground in his penthouse condominium, this is where The Rocket can rest. He can sleep in peace. He can eat in peace. He can watch his brand-new Sony television -- that has a slightly fuzzy picture -- in peace.

Up here he is Raghib Ismail, the guy with that genuine smile who can’t wait until his mom visits. Down there he is The Rocket, a football player as fast as a breeze, and a young man who has been force-fed the responsibilities of saving the Canadian Football League and energizing an entire city.

Ismail didn’t exactly receive the warmest of welcomes from the media and a few of his teammates since he ran for the border after signing a four-year deal with the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts. About $18.2 million of the money is guaranteed, and with incentives Ismail, a former star at Notre Dame who was expected to be the NFL’s top draft pick last April, could earn up to $26 million.

Some people here looked at all that money and expected Ismail to arrive at training camp with an “S” on his jersey. Superfootballman. As brilliant as he can be, Ismail is not made of some indestructible Terminator-like alloy, with a severe thigh injury he sustained on the fifth day of training camp as proof -- forcing the wide receiver-kick returner to miss practice, the team’s two exhibition games, and the season opener (a 35-18 win over Ottawa).

Critics, using Rocket’s money as fuel, had a field day. Two of Toronto’s newspapers attacked: He wasn’t The Rocket, wrote one, he was The Scud. A small number of players, anonymously, questioned his heart.

“When you look back at all of that,” said defensive back Carl Brazley, “a lot of it was motivated by jealousy. Plain and simple.”

But all of that, at least for the moment, is down below. The condo (as large as a small house) is bare luxury, since Ismail was waiting to go furniture shopping with his mother, Fatma Ismail. There are three bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms. In the living room is his black $20,000 couch.

Looking out past the 1,815-foot CN Tower, it is easy to see that Ismail is within walking distance of the SkyDome, home of the Argonauts, the Blue Jays, and the largest McDonald’s in North America.

“I’m not going to let the money, the fame or anything change me,” he said. “I know that as fast as it comes it can go even faster. And despite all that has happened I am very happy here.”

Ismail pointed toward Lake Ontario. “Buffalo is right over there,” he said. “From here you really see just how close America is. I’m not all that far from home after all.”

Three days later in his first game as a professional, many that saw or heard or read about The Rocket would simply be amazed.

Because that’s what he does best.

Amaze.

“It’s weird because I still haven’t read anything in the paper about all of the controversy,” he said. “I don’t want to because a lot of it isn’t true. But people tell me the media said my teammates felt I was being treated special, that I was being treated like a prima donna, and that I had lost interest in football.

“When I first heard about this I said to myself, ‘What? All of this because I hurt my leg?’ This is crazy.”

Ismail had been roasted -- seemingly quite unfairly at times -- from a number of different directions. Because of the injury (later in camp he also had four wisdom teeth removed), his practice sessions were reduced during training camp.

Some said Ismail had been late for strategy sessions, missed team meals, fallen asleep at meetings, and had not made a general effort at being part of the club. Newspapers gave the impression that a number of Argonauts, who make an average of 56,000 Canadian dollars a year (or about $49,000 in American currency, depending on the exchange rate) were unhappy with Ismail.

“Now is the time for him to come to the forefront,” Argonauts slotback Darrell Smith told reporters several weeks ago. “We’ve all been very patient and everything. No one is saying he’s dogging it or milking his injury, we’re just saying it’s time for him to step up now. ... “

It is easy to believe Mike McCarthy, Toronto’s vice president of football and general manager, who said last week the media had exaggerated when they said there was a great deal of resentment from the team toward Ismail. Much of the team -- about 18 players -- made a point to stop by Ismail’s locker and talk to him.

Said McCarthy: “I am sure there are some players that resent the fact Rocket is making so much money. There is always going to be resentment. There is closet resentment, but only from a very, very small number of players.”

“You can’t help but like the guy,” said kick returner Michael “Pinball” Clemons. “He’s such a good guy and in terms of football he’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen on two feet.”

The Toronto Sun, a screaming tabloid in the tradition of the National Enquirer, and the Toronto Star, the largest newspaper in Canada, were having a field day with Ismail’s injury. One paper had a picture of Ismail dropping a pass in practice with a caption reading “A 26M fumble.” Another had a cartoon, showing two pinball machines. The one on the left had the name Michael Clemons on it, and was working fine. The other, with Ismail’s name on it, was draped with an out-of-order sign. Ismail also has been dubbed the “Rickety Rocket.”

But the criticism peaked when Ismail missed several days of practice when he left the team’s training camp to fly to Los Angeles for a baseball collectibles show to sign autographs. While out there, Ismail saw a specialist for his injury, and stopped by to join the audience of “The Arsenio Hall Show.”

Back in Toronto, Ismail’s trip caused the media to have some sort of allergic reaction. What people didn’t know at the time was that Ismail’s appearance at the collectibles show had been arranged six weeks in advance to promote the team and the CFL, both of which are stipulations in Ismail’s contract. Also, McCarthy said that earlier in training camp two players who own their own businesses (he would not identify them) had each missed two days of practice to seal deals and film television commercials. Nothing, he said, was written about those players.

“It was like people were looking for every little thing to jump on me about,” Ismail said. “Some people wanted to see me fail.”

About appearing with Arsenio Hall, Ismail said, “I was just sitting there, chillin’, and then Arsenio called me out of the audience. I sat down and talked with him for about five seconds. That five seconds blew up in Toronto like dynamite.

“A lot of what the media wrote and said up here was exaggerated. While the whole thing was blowing up, teammates were coming up to me and saying that it wasn’t true, that they weren’t talking about me like the papers were saying they were. So I don’t put a lot of credibility in those anonymous quotes unless someone comes up and says those things to my face.

“But I can feel when some people look at me and think, ‘Look at this 21-year-old kid, he has all that darn money.’ ... “

Heads turned and attitudes changed on the night of July 18.

Ismail, who had never watched a CFL game and hadn’t played in a game since January, opened the night against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats by returning a kickoff 17 yards, bouncing off two would-be tacklers and getting facemasked in the process. His first CFL catch was 38 yards down the right sideline against Corris Ervin, and, by the second quarter, every time the ball went anywhere near Ismail, you could hear thousands of people take a collective deep breath.

Then came the punt return, and the sound of thousands screaming. Ismail took a reverse from Clemons, dashing across the field at an angle from left to right, got up to full speed and outran everyone except Ervin who caught him at the three-yard line by grabbing his foot. The run was 73 yards and Ismail’s overall performance -- 213 all-purpose yards while touching the ball only seven times -- played a major part in Toronto’s 39-18 win.

Afterward, everyone was happy. Comedian John Candy, part owner of the Argonauts, jiggled and laughed, then suggested Ismail be given the ball on every play.

“Now everybody can rest easy,” Brazley said. “The guy is legitimate. He’s a ballplayer.”

On the field there was a party, and in the west end zone, Fatma Ismail danced.

Ismail has yet to buy himself a car; he wanted to buy his mom one first. He did. A spanking-new Mercedes Benz convertible. There was a new house for Fatma as well.

Rocket rents a convertible Chrysler Le Baron. After seeing his own name in lights on a billboard the size of a truck -- “Come Watch the Rocket Blast Off ... “ -- he is back in his condo.

There’s that smile again: “I know I’ve done the right thing,” Ismail said. “I can’t tell you how much I like this city. But you know what’s funny? People were telling me that as soon as I crossed the border, everyone in America would forget about me. I don’t think that has happened.”