While Dimitri Sinodinos, BEng’21, eyes a career in the AI field, he is making history as the first Canadian to play professional football in Japan.
After completing his McGill undergraduate degree with a 4.0 grade-point average, he was fast-tracked into doctoral studies at the University. His work focuses on computer vision, and he is affiliated with Mila, Quebec’s world-renowned AI research institute.
So, what is he doing playing football in Japan? Chalk it up to a love of the sport.
As a quarterback for the McGill Redbirds, Sinodinos was a two-time Academic All-Canadian and a co-captain of the team. In 2020, he was selected to play in the East-West Bowl, an all-star game for Canadian university football players (the game ended up being cancelled that year due to Covid).
His play attracted the attention of the Montreal Alouettes and resulted in an invitation to attend the CFL team’s training camp. It is notoriously difficult for Canadians to earn quarterback spots in the CFL and Sinodinos was asked if he would consider playing other positions.
Sinodinos stood his ground as a quarterback. As a result, he wasn’t selected in the CFL draft and spent a year off the field. While the academic side of his life was on track, he wasn’t ready to say goodbye to football just yet.
The rejection from CFL teams “lit a fire in my stomach,” says Sinodinos. He remembers thinking, “I need to use these [football] tools; I invested so much in them. I’m in the best shape of my life.”
After receiving approval from McGill to continue work on his PhD remotely, he investigated football opportunities in Europe.
Coach Daniel Stanzel of the Finnish Maple League met with Sinodinos at a Tim Hortons while vacationing in Montreal, and a deal was struck for Sinodinos join the Helsinki Roosters as quarterback.
The subsequent culture shock was eased by Stanzel’s PowerPoint presentation on Finnish norms. For instance, it can be easy to misinterpret Finns’ blunt, to-the-point style of speaking as cold. The friendliness of his new teammates was quickly established after Sinodinos received invitations to their lakeside cottage saunas.
After a challenging start to the season – Sinodinos had to adjust to the American-style football rules used by the Finnish league – he ended the year with 42 touchdowns and a league-leading 3,308 passing yards.
“Japanese football is very hard to get into. It’s very selective; they bring you here not just for performance purposes, but also for cultural-fit purposes.”
IBM Big Blue quarterback Dimitri Sinodinos
Through his Finnish teammates, he learnt about American football in Japan, referred to as Amefuto.
Amefuto was introduced in the 1930s by Paul Rusch, an American missionary and educator, and popularized from the ʾ70s to ʾ90s when the NFL made a big push to bring its sport to international audiences.
Today, there are 421 teams registered with the Japan American Football Association, 52 belonging to the X-League, the country’s top league.
“Japanese football is very hard to get into because you need to know someone,” Sinodinos says. “It’s very selective; they bring you here not just for performance purposes, but also for cultural-fit purposes.”
As it turned out, Sinodinos did know someone with contacts in Japan. He had met Patrick Bourgon, BA’12, a former CFL assistant coach, at a McGill function. Bourgon presented Sinodinos with an opportunity to play in Japan with the IBM Big Blue, an X-League team located in Tsukuba and led by Mike Phair, a coach with NFL and CFL experience.
“Spending my two years over there in Canada, I realized that there’s a lot of really good players that don’t get opportunities to go play unless they go to a U.S. college,” says Phair. “A lot of times they’re overlooked.”
Each Japanese team has only three spots available on their rosters for global athletes. Sinodinos secured one of those spots for IBM Big Blue and became the first Canadian to play in Japan.
“Sinodinos stood out not only for his talent as a quarterback but for his leadership, positive attitude, and work ethic,” says Shinzo Yamada, IBM Big Blue’s football director.
“Dimitri has been unbelievable at what he’s brought to our team,” adds Phair. “The players love him, he has a great vibe to him and is very welcoming; everybody gravitates towards him.”
Sinodinos faced challenges adjusting to life in Japan, including a language barrier and a more reserved, career-intensive culture.
“One of my teammates said, ‘you have to be alone without being lonely’,” says Sinodinos.
Sinodinos and the other IBM Big Blue players have bonded over their shared passion for football. He has been impressed by the talent level of his teammates and by their knowledge of the sport.
The league’s short six-game season (plus playoffs) has made it easier for Sinodinos to balance his studies with his football career.
He hopes his experiences abroad will help to create more opportunities for other Canadian football players. “I just want to lay down one more brick for the next generation.”
Sinodinos credits McGill for preparing him to excel academically.
“McGill gave me the tools to put in that hard work,” he says. “They gave us everything that we needed to be great.”
And when it is finally time for him to hang up his cleats, Sinodinos says McGill has equipped him for what’s next.
“McGill and Mila both have great programs in place to join startups or even build one from scratch. I’d say the end goal is to be an entrepreneur in the AI field.”
