Anthony Calvillo, Montreal Legend

If you have had uttered those words to anyone affiliated with the Canadian Football League 17 years ago, you would have drawn an incredulous laugh from whoever was listening. Calvillo was coming off a poor statistical season with the Los Vegas Posse in 1994, and ended up with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to begin his CFL career the following season. He was released three years later, landing in Montreal, where he was partnered up with veteran Hall of Fame quarterback Tracy Ham, widely considered the beginning of Calvillo’s now well-scripted legacy; Ham tutored a young Calvillo and the Alouettes eventually eased him into the starting role in 2000.

The rest is history.

Nine-time East Division All-Star. Four-time CFL All-Star. Four-time Canadian Football League Players’ Association Pro Player All-Star team. Seven-time Terry Evanshen Trophy as the East Division’s Most Outstanding Player. Three-time CFL Most Outstanding Player. 

Three Grey Cups. Most career pass completions. Most touchdown passes in CFL history. 

Most passing yards in FOOTBALL history. That’s right—the most prolific passer in the history of the sport played in the CFL. What more can the man do?

Maybe he could have played better in some big games. Maybe he could have won a few more Grey Cups. It’s a team sport, when it comes down to it, but the quarterback is far and away the most important position on the field. He is the field general who can carry his team on his shoulders to victory, or he can be the one who shoulders all the blame and finger-pointing after a tough loss. 

Over the past twelve years, Calvillo has often been the one under the microscope, fielding criticism from distraught Alouettes fans who couldn’t understand how this man could throw for 6,000 yards in a regular season, but couldn’t make the big plays in championship games, when they counted the most. 

But if there’s one thing no one can fault Calvillo for, it’s his resilience and his determination. He has been knocked down, but he has never stayed down. The tough streets of Los Angeles hardened him growing up, eloquently illustrated in “The Kid from La Puente”, one of the eight documentaries made in the CFL’s “Engraved on a Nation” series in honor of this Sunday’s 100^th Grey Cup in Toronto. He fought through the early criticisms of his game. He fought through the doubts after numerous Grey Cup losses. He fought through the cancer that his wife, Alexia, was burdened with, and he fought through his own fleeting encounter with the disease after the 2010 Grey Cup win. He’s gotten up and come back through plenty of bumps and bruises, even at his “advanced” football age.

People have been clamouring for Calvillo to ride off into the sunset for years, and only minutes after the loss to Toronto in the East Final this weekend, the question had already popped up. 

For now, Calvillo will unwind and reflect; not only on this season, but on his storied career. He may wonder to himself if there is really anything left for him to do in the CFL. He can further cement his records in the annals of football history, but at what expense? The toll football takes on a young man’s body is immense; imagine what it does to a 40-year old, no matter how good of shape Calvillo keeps himself in. 

He might find the motivation and the drive to take one last shot at the Grey Cup, with the hopes of evening his championship-game record to 4-4 (event though the Alouettes should never have won against Saskatchewan in 2009: see “13^th Man Game”…and avoid mentioning it in front of a Roughriders fan, if you value your well-being). 

At the end of the day, though, it comes down to what is best for the Montreal Alouettes. Do general manager Jim Popp and head coach Marc Trestman feel comfortable going into battle for another season with a 40-year old pivot, who despite all he has achieved, has lost consecutive non-Grey Cup playoff games in back-to-back years, and has an added year of mileage on an already well-taxed body. 

The Alouettes have also spent several years grooming Adrian McPherson behind Calvillo, with the hopes that McPherson and make the transition seamless as the Alouettes hope to continue their dominance of the CFL’s East Division. McPherson has waited patientily, getting spot starts here and there while coming in for short-yardage plays. At a certain point, though, he’s going to want to the guy. McPherson will get his shot someday – sooner rather than later – be it here in Montreal, or with another CFL team. The Ottawa franchise will be back in 2013, and with McPherson not only becoming a free-agent, but also being eligible for the CFL Expansion Draft, either this winter or next, McPherson will have a chance to find a starting job elsewhere if the Alouettes decide to stick with Calvillo. 

I’ve always had a tendency to send my support the way of the younger, higher-upside players; but in a league with eight teams, with every team having a shot at a championship every year, why would you potentially take your team down a notch, even for a few years, by going with the risk of putting in an unproven player with no track record to fall back on should he fail? Calvillo has shown no signs of slowing down, despite his latest playoff shortcomings, and is still one of, if not the best, quarterback in the CFL. While McPherson has had few chances to show his worth, he hasn’t “wowed” anyone. 

There’s also the Josh Neiswainder element of the story. Neiswander was the Alouettes third-string quarterback this season, his second with the club, and is considered by some to be the true quarterback of the future, over McPherson, despite McPherson’s “seniority” over Neiswander. So if McPherson does leave this offseason, it’s not like the Alouettes have no one to fall back on. 

There’s also the reality that with only eight starting spots available in the league, there is an abundance of talent available at the quarterback position. There are several backups around the league, such as Kevin Glenn, Matt Nichols, and McPherson, among others, who could arguably be starters in this league. It’s not inconceivable to think that the Alouettes will wring whatever they can muster out of Calvillo until he calls it quits, and deal with the impeding quarterback dilemma when it eventually happens, perhaps by trading for a big-name, as the Toronto Argonauts did this past offseason when they acquired Ricky Ray (for peanuts, mind you). 

The debate will rage on for days, weeks, and months, depending on how long Calvillo takes to decide his future. 

One thing is for certain, though: Anthony Calvillo’s legacy will forever be cemented in this city, no matter what happens from here on out. He may not be from here, but he is Montreal’s adopted football son, a man embraced by a fanbase that has been desperately waiting for the next living legend to stroll into the dressing room of the Montreal Canadiens and pull on the bleu, blanc, et rouge since the days of Roy and Lafleur. 

Instead, they found a hero in a man who laced up cleats, not skates; who scored touchdowns, not goals; and who brought this city three memorable championships that will be engraved in the minds of Montrealers forever – something no Montreal Canadiens player has been able to say in the last 19 years.  

Andrew Maggio Hosts The Game Misconduct on Sundays from 12:00pm to 1