Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
Inside Jason Maas’ office hangs a dart board where Edmonton’s head coach and franchise quarterback, Mike Reilly, enter into very competitive games to 501.
The Eskimos new bench boss had the boards installed after he was hired in December. The former quarterback felt it would be an activity that his entire staff could participate in while they were there in the off-season.
“Not all of us can run, not all of us can workout every day, but one of the things we can do together is play a little darts,” Maas says. “It doesn’t take much energy and it is fun to have a beer and play darts at the end of your day.”
All of the coaches know card games like cribbage, rummy or poker, Maas points out, but he believes there is something special about a skill, which requires some athletic ability. That’s how playing darts at the Eskimos facility came about. And Maas even has a board at his home.
“It’s actually outside so I can open up my backdoor and shoot a little bit. I bought an old one from a garage sale and put it up outside,” Maas says. “As an athlete you want to get better at something and see the fruits of you labour. It’s something you can do that’s competitive and that’s what I enjoy about it.”
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And that thirst for competition is how the darts rivalry with Reilly got going.
“When I came in before training camp, I already had gotten information from everybody about the games of darts and from just being around him how competitive that he is,” Reilly says.
The first time the 2015 Grey Cup MVP saw the dart boards hanging in Maas’ office he said, “Do you want to play?”
Maas responded, “Hell yeah I want to play, and I’m going to beat you.”
And the coach did just that, which made Reilly feel like he needed to step his game up. That led to Reilly getting a dart board for his condo before the regular season started.
“I made sure I got a big four-foot by four-foot [piece of wood] for any errant throws and I got the dart board mounted up there. I took the tape measure and made sure it’s sitting at the professional height,” Reilly says “I try to make sure I get a few throws in every night.”
Now the day before each game – home or away – Maas and Reilly play a game of darts as a pre-game ritual.
“Usually we come in and talk before the end of Day 4, we have our call sheets ready and we’re usually going over that one last time. The first game we decided we might as well play some darts after the day was done. We’ll continue that for the rest of the year.” Maas says.
“It’s now become a tradition for him and me and on Day 4, the day before the game, the last thing that we do before we leave the stadium is we play one final game,” Reilly says. “We have a good time and it’s a way to put a bookend to the week of practice and say, alright, we’ve literally done everything we can do on a preparation side, and now we’ll finish it up with this game of darts.”
Those games are fiercely contested.
“He’s a quarterback and I’m a quarterback, so a competition where we’re trying to throw something really accurately is right up our alley,” Reilly says.
If Maas misses one he felt like he should’ve hit he gets fired up. And Reilly is the same way. Each man wants to win more than anything else, even though in the grand scheme it doesn’t matter to anybody else, but the office door gets closed and all that matters at that point in time is who earns the victory.
Reilly believes skills can be translated from throwing darts to footballs.
“You figure out real quick what your technique is going to be to make you accurate [in darts]. I’ve heard [Jordan] Spieth on the golf course say, ‘Aim small, miss small.’”
“You figure out real quick what your technique is going to be . . . I’ve heard [Jordan] Spieth on the golf course say, ‘Aim small, miss small’.”
Mike Reilly
Mike Reilly and the Esks’ offence have been on point so far in 2016 (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
If you’re just looking at the broad spectrum of the football field and trying to throw it somewhere in the area of a receiver, Reilly explains, you’re going to be all over the place. But if you’re picking out the corner of a letter on your target’s jersey, you’re going to be much more accurate.
“I’ve certainly found that to be the same way in darts,” Reilly says. “If you want to hit 20 and you’re looking at the whole pizza slice, you’re hitting it one out of every five times. But if you zero in and you’re aiming for a small portion like the triple 20, then more often than not you’re going to be much closer.”
Maas has a streak of three straight wins to begin the season for a 3-0 record.
“Based on how we’ve done so far offensively, I feel like I need to keep losing in the darts,” Reilly says with a laugh. “I’m not a really superstitious guy, but I would be lying if I said there wasn’t a little bit in there. I’m not going to throw the game – I’m too competitive. I’ll beat him if I get the opportunity, but for right now I’m fine with losing on Day 4 as long we win on game day.”
No. 13 knows Maas is a marksman with the darts, but the first-year head coach doesn’t believe that Reilly would ever let him win.
“Knowing Mike, I know he’s more competitive than anything,” Maas says, “and he probably believes, win or lose on that dart game, that he’s going to go out and play well, so I don’t think he’s giving me anything.”
