(We'd like to introduce our new intern, Michael Jennings. Mike brings his considerable skills and talents to the team as demonstrated here with his coverage of the CFL. Stay tuned for more as Mike covers the CFL, NFL, and other professional football leagues...and whatever else we throw at him. Please show him some love!)
This weekend was a reminder of what being a CFL fan into the
young decade means. Seeing Anthony Calvillo continue to put up video game-esque
numbers, and a reminder that the defending Grey Cup champs BC are still in the
building were on the menu last weekend. Also the Rough Riders beat a West team
and, with defense like that of a gang green sort to boot. But most of all week
2 of the 2012 season will be remembered as one of salutations and honors for
Geroy Simon, the CFL's newly crowned receiving yards king.
Geroy and the Lions have been like bread and butter, a
player and his team so entwined together in both individual and collective
success that the thought of one begets the other. The 36 year old receiver has passed up legend
Allen Pitts in his quest to be called Canada's G.O.A.T., that's Greatest Of All
Time, and he has done it fabulously. Congrats G-Man on your success as well as your
son's recent commitment to play football for the Army Black Knights.
Now back to Anthony Calvillo, NKA (now known as) Mr.
Ridiculous. The 3-time Grey Cup Champion threw for over 400 yards adding to an
already spectacular resume that has him named PRO football's all-time leading
passer, the all-time CFL TD pass champ and CFL completions leader. Eat your
heart out Brett Favre. Calvillo threw
for over 400 yards, with 2 touchdowns through the air to add to his first place
status, along with a completion percentage of almost 80%!! Sick. All that's to be said about that performance
is WTF,OMG, SMH and all the rest of our three letter acronyms for WOW used in
the future; the future which is now.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the league is
potentially on the precipice of something huge. The sudden influx of
"non-traditional" QBs into the American football scene is a potential
windfall for the CFL. Quarterbacks that in the past were frequently turned into
DBs and receivers as soon as their feet hit college soil, are now being taken
more seriously as true QBs and given a shot at running the offense-even guys
less than 6 feet tall. In short, this means more quarterbacks=less places to
put them=more talent in the CFL.
The league has for years utilized smaller signal callers,
and successfully so. The Fluties and Calvillos of the world will only multiply
in number as the spread offense and America's need for a mobile quarterback to
run it continues to grow. Not that those
guys were spread quarterbacks, because they weren’t, but they were and are non-prototypical
passers. So take heed Northerners and
get back to the future.
Copyright (c) 2012 Michael Anthony Jennings ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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