July 22, 2013 , By Lowell Ullrich, The Province

The Provine (Vancouver)- It would behoove most people to wait until a noteworthy life-altering event before authoring a book, but that didn't stop an Edmonton Eskimos linebacker from writing about himself, even if he hasn't yet played a CFL game.

Rennie Curran has a story to tell which relates to not only teammates and rivals, but affects everyone, he said.

His wisdom as a 24-year-old came as a result of being released by two NFL teams in as many years.

The book is aptly entitled Free Agent : The Perspectives of a young African-American athlete.

Curran said he was inspired to do something with his free time once he was cut by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and signed this spring by Edmonton, because he was at a crossroads. Every import player in the CFL has walked the same path, and just about every one of them who learns of his literary work has the same reaction.

"You're 24 and you wrote a book?" Curran said, smiling.

"One of the biggest reasons I wrote it is that when people think a professional athlete they think of the guy on ESPN who got the big contract.

"They don't think about the free agent who bounces around from year to year, who has to face so many obstacles just to remain on the team."

That was Curran's story after he was a third-round pick in the 2010 NFL draft by the Tennessee Titans. He might have sold a book or two even without football, as the child of Liberian refugees who became an all-America selection at the University of Georgia while learning to play the piano, drums and viola at church.

A chapter or two could perhaps eventually be written about life in Edmonton for a rookie who, until training camp, had never previously been further away from his home in Snellville, Ga., than Tennessee.

Curran, ideally suited for the CFL as a 5-foot-11, 230-pounder, is a backup on the defensive depth chart of the Eskimos behind another success story, undersized linebacker J.C. Sherritt, whose record-setting 130 tackles earned him the league's top defensive player award last year.

So there's potentially more material for a sequel. But, unlike the oldest player in the league, B.C. Lions kicker Paul McCallum, who is looking to write a book, Curran had already seen enough he wanted to relate.

That includes a view of the NFL which is ignored by import players who come to the CFL still thinking they have a chance to return.

"You're the CEO of your own company; you have to learn that it's a business quickly, or you're going to get spit out," Curran said.

"There's so many people who come into your life, the vultures, agents and groupies."

For the moment though, the only thing he'd like to come into his life is a game uniform in his locker Saturday so he can play against the Lions.

lullrich@theprovince.com Twitter.com/fthqtr

© Copyright (c) The Province