Saturday’s B.C. Lions’ free-agent camp in Seattle was a last chance at professional football for some players, but for others, it represented their first attempt to dip their toes in the pro waters. That was the case for Peter Nguyen, a receiver/running back hopeful, who just graduated from the University of Montana. Near the start of Saturday’s camp, he said he was excited to get the chance to try and compete for a professional job.

“It’s great, I really enjoy it, just kind of getting this opportunity to see if I can play at the next level,” Nguyen said.

He said his experience is mostly as a running back and returner, but he’s open to being versatile professionally.

“I played at the University of Montana, I played running back and punt returner,” Nguyen said. “Running back or slot receiver or punt returner or kickoff returner would be great, but anything’s okay.”

Here's a video of Nguyen catching a pass during a corner-route receiving drill Saturday (his run starts at 1:35):

For Nguyen, it was a quick turnaround from finishing college to attempting to make the pro ranks.

“I am fresh out of college, I just graduated this week,” he said. “I just got back from Montana and came out here to try out for this.”

Eric Taylor (centre) sets up to run a 40-yard dash at Saturday's camp.For the majority of the players, Saturday’s B.C. Lions’ free agent camp in Seattle presented a chance to try and earn a spot with an unfamiliar team in an unfamiliar league. That wasn’t the case for receiver Eric Taylor, though. After a Division II NCAA career at Concordia University in Selma, Alabama, Taylor was with the Lions in 2008 and briefly in 2009. He spent the last three years playing in smaller professional indoor leagues, and saw Saturday’s camp as a chance to maybe prove he deserves another CFL chance.

“I believe I can play up there, that’s the main reason I’m here,” Taylor said. “If I had no confidence I could play, I’d just hang it up, coach and give back, but right now I think I can still play at a high level.”

He said his previous time with the Lions was enjoyable, but it was far from easy for him to get settled with the team.

“It was pretty good,” Taylor said. “It was kind of like a roller-coaster ride for me because they released me after training camp, then they signed me back two weeks into the season, then they released me like the week before training camp again. It was like a roller coaster ride for me, but hey, it is what it is. It’s professional football.”

Players gather on the Rainier Beach High School field for a CFL tryout Saturday.The process of building a CFL roster is a tricky one. Teams can pull in Canadians through the draft and Americans through negotiation lists and free agency deals, but the NFL's shadow means a lot of CFL scouting involves finding guys that league passed over. That matters on a couple of levels. CFL rosters are still built by going out and targeting players based on their film and accomplishments, but teams also realize that some top talents may slip through the traditional CFL scouting system as well. That's the idea behind open tryouts or free-agent camps like the one the B.C. Lions held in Seattle Saturday: for a $100 registration fee, any player can try and impress team coaches and executives, attempt to earn an invite to a CFL training camp and try to keep their football dreams alive. I was on hand for the camp, which provided a great look at both how players are drawn to the CFL and how the Lions build their roster.

Saturday's camp took place at Rainier Beach High School in southern Seattle, and it made for a fascinating scene. About 75 athletes clustered around a high school football field at 9 in the morning, along with some friends and family members who were there to cheer them on, some agents and plenty of Lions coaches and executives. It was a typically grey Seattle morning, but right from the start, there was a sense of anticipation in the air. Players largely wore gear from the NCAA schools they played at, and plenty of those were represented Saturday, from Stanford to Brown and San Jose State to Alabama A&M. They came from different races, backgrounds, and levels of football experience, but they all carried one goal; finding a way to pursue or continue a professional football career.

This fake Toronto Star cover details some of Tim Tebow's alternate-universe exploits.The idea of Tim Tebow starring in the CFL may not make much sense from a variety of perspectives (amazingly, that's something Warren Moon, Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith can all agree on), but that hasn't quelled the story. Tebow still hasn't found an NFL landing spot following his release by the New York Jets at the end of April, and that's increased the talk that he might find his way up north. Given that Tebow to the CFL discussion has been going on for years, though, there isn't much new for most to say on the subject. That's where SB Nation's Jon Bois comes in.

Bois has created some pretty funny fictional narratives over the years through his involvement with Progressive Boink, The Dugout and other sites, and his first two installments of "The Tim Tebow CFL Chronicles" follow in that vein; he's generated an alternate universe where Tebow is, in fact, a CFL star (but it's a very different league, involving passes from the tops of buildings and drives that end at seas). Don't take these pieces as containing any actual CFL information, as Bois has just randomly inserted former NFL players like Garrison Hearst, Freddie Mitchell and Bam Morris, and he isn't attempting to describe the CFL's real rules (or what Canada's actually like, for that matter), but these pieces can definitely provide a few laughs. Here's an excerpt from the first one:

David Beckham had an impact on Canadian clubs like TFC, on the pitch and off it.

David Beckham's announcement Thursday that he'll be retiring from soccer at the end of Paris Saint-Germain's season has prompted plenty of thoughtful pieces looking back at his legacy, but an underrated part of his career might be the impact he had on Major League Soccer in Canada. Beckham came to MLS in 2007, the same year that Toronto FC joined the league, and he left for good at the end of the 2012 campaign, by which time the league had three Canadian franchises that were all pulling in massive numbers of fans. He left an undeniable imprint on MLS as a whole, but his effect on MLS in Canada was also noteworthy—and for several different reasons.

Beckham's impact on ticket sales is most frequently cited when it comes to discussions of his MLS legacy, but in Canada, that was arguably less of a factor than it was in some weaker American markets. Toronto FC, the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Montreal Impact have all had strong game-by-game attendance with or without Becks. However, Beckham's drawing power did still matter to the Canadian franchises. There was often much more attention from non-soccer-specific media ahead of games involving him and the L.A. Galaxy, and he undoubtedly brought people through the turnstiles who weren't previously soccer fans or MLS fans. Many of those people probably didn't wind up coming for game after game without Beckham, but some did, and Beckham was crucial to building awareness of the MLS brand and of the improving quality of North American soccer.

[Photos: David Beckham's career in pictures]

Don't underestimate Beckham's drawing power, either. Not all of the 47,658 who packed the Rogers Centre for a 2012 CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal match between TFC and the Galaxy came to see Beckham, but some of them certainly did. Games involving Beckham in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal also often saw much higher prices for tickets on secondary markets. The Canadian teams didn't need Beckham as a draw as much as some American markets did, but his presence still helped.

Don't discount what Beckham did for MLS in Canada beyond individual games, either. The Whitecaps (2011) and Impact (2012) both joined MLS after Beckham, and his elevation of the league's profile was an important part in why it was able to expand and why both clubs were so interested in moving up from the second tier. Moreover, both the

Buck Pierce will likely be leading the Blue Bombers again this season.

Continuing our CFL Camp Countdown series of season previews, here's a look at the Winnipeg Blue Bombers based on last week's conference call with president and CEO Garth Buchko, general manager Joe Mack, head coach Tim Burke and quarterback Buck Pierce. The Bombers finished tied for last in 2012 with a 6-12 record and are looking for improvement this year. However, they still have many of the same faces involved. Will it work out better this year?

One of the biggest stories with the Bombers over the last few years has been their quarterback position. Pierce has played reasonably well when healthy, and he was a key part of the team's run to the Grey Cup game in 2011. He's suffered plenty of injuries, though, including concussions, and many around the league have wondered if he can or should keep playing. However, the team's offseason decision to release veterans Joey Elliott and Alex Brink and bring in CFL rookies Max Hall and Chase Clement to join Justin Goltz seems like an endorsement of Pierce for at least the immediate future. Adapting to the 12-a-side, three-down, bigger-field CFL game usually takes quite a while for quarterbacks, as the Bombers should know well by now. Pierce himself said it wasn't easy for him to adjust to football in Canada.

"You can't be thrown in the fire right away," he said. "You have to be able to rise to the challenge. It's a big learning curve for a young guy."

Linden Gaydosh may have gone south, but Hamilton fans shouldn't panic yet.

Sunday's news from Drew Edwards that first-overall CFL draft pick Linden Gaydosh has signed with the Carolina Panthers following an impressive performance at a tryout camp probably has some Hamilton Tiger-Cats' fans worrying if their team's selection of Gaydosh will turn out to be a blown pick. After all, NFL interest is a key factor in determining players' CFL draft stock, and the rising NFL interest in CIS players has made that even more difficult. Players like Matt Sewell and Ben D'Aguilar went lower than expected in the CFL draft likely at least partly thanks to their NFL opportunities. One of the reasons Gaydosh was both widely predicted to go first, then taken in that slot, was because it didn't look like there was much NFL interest in him at that time. Now that he's landed a NFL contract, that pick doesn't look quite as foolproof. However, Hamilton fans should pick up their copies of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and take heart from the message inscribed on the cover in large, friendly letters: Don't Panic.

Khalif Mitchell will be notable by his absence in the B.C. lineup this year.

We’re bringing back the CFL Camp Countdown series, going team-by-team and relaying some of the most interesting comments made by coaches, executives and players on the CFL’s season-preview conference calls. First up, the B.C. Lions, who had a dominant 13-5 regular season but fell to Calgary in the West Final. President Dennis Skulsky, GM Wally Buono, head coach Mike Benevides and quarterback Travis Lulay spoke to the media on a conference call Wednesday. Here are the highlights from that discussion.

One of the most interesting offseason stories around the Lions revolves around a player who’s no longer with the club. That would be defensive tackle Khalif Mitchell, who was a huge force on the Grey Cup-winning defensive line in 2011, but ran into controversies both on and off the field in 2012 and was eventually traded to Toronto. Even that didn’t go particularly smoothly, as Mitchell initially said he wouldn’t report to the Argonauts before later changing his tune. The challenge Mitchell presents is one of evaluation: is the superb physical skill he showed at times in B.C. enough to make putting up with his controversial behaviour worthwhile? For the Lions, the answer appears to be “not any more.” When I asked Buono about why he made the deal, he said he has plenty of respect for Mitchell, but the team wanted to go in a different direction.

“Khalif is a great player, most of the time he’s a great guy, but sometimes he’s unpredictable,” Buono said. “We wanted a guy that was more predictable and over the long term, more dependable.”