Rookie TE Dante Daniels Reports to Bombers Camp

WINNIPEG - Rookie tight end Dante Daniels reported to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers' rookie camp at Princess Auto Stadium on Wednesday, channeling a childhood marked by hardship into his pursuit of a professional football career in the Canadian Football League.

The 24-year-old, standing 6-foot-5 and weighing 272 pounds, grew up in Windsor, Ontario, as the third oldest of six children. His mother, Dianne, battled severe drug addiction, and his father, Edward, left the family when Daniels was seven. After his older brothers moved out, Daniels shouldered responsibility for his three younger siblings, at times collecting cans to buy food. When his mother relocated to Detroit, he faced homelessness and couch-surfing until Jen and Joel Fillion, parents of two children including a son who played football with him, took him in and became his legal guardians at age 16.

Football became Daniels' outlet. "Realizing in this sport that you could hit someone legally and not get arrested for it, I take my aggression out from my childhood or from just getting screwed over at different times," he said after the first day of camp. "I'm someone who is hard-nosed and not afraid to put my head in stuff....