Cauz: Why Kevin Glenn is a Canadian Football League icon
It’s fitting that on the day of the biggest trade of the season, Kevin Glenn was not the main headline. Hasn’t that always been the case during his 17 year career?
The big story in all of Winnipeg’s wheeling and dealing was Drew Willy being sent to a Toronto franchise that must seriously consider what life will be like without Ricky Ray. The most noteworthy part of all the deals was the fact that T.J. Heath was traded on his birthday after his two interception performance was so critical for Toronto snapping its four-game losing streak to Hamilton.
As we digested all the moves from Monday we all felt bad for Heath; we all wondered just how far can Matt Nichols take Winnipeg; and we all were left with the big “what if” questions concerning Toronto and the fact that Trevor Harris is no longer part of the Argonauts’ roster. The one aspect that got overlooked was Kevin Glenn returning to Winnipeg, the franchise where he experienced his greatest highs.
MORE ON THE TRADES:
» Bombers ship Willy to Argos; acquire Glenn
» Argos eye the present and future in Willy
» Walters on QB trades: ‘This is a big deal’
Kevin Glenn and Drew Willy each have new teams after a busy Week 12 (The Canadian Press)
Before all the trades, I couldn’t help but think that one day very soon Kevin Glenn would no longer be in our football lives and it will feel kind of weird. Jim Popp made it clear that he was not keen on seeing Glenn play another down for Montreal. Popp was giving the reigns to Rakeem Cato with Vernon Adams Jr. waiting in the wings if Cato was to falter. I don’t blame the Alouettes’ coaching staff for going this way: why not see what you have in the younger quarterbacks? You already know what you’ve got in Glenn.
That is another consistent theme that has followed Glenn: coaches have always been looking for a younger alternative to Glenn while opposing coaches always wanted him on their team as a viable back-up, because he has always been such a well known commodity. He’s played for, been traded too or signed with every team in this league with Edmonton being the lone exception. He’s the most productive player to ever bounce around so much in the CFL. I read a great tweet from @FenderGuy69: “Little known fact: According to #CFL By-Laws, team with Kevin Glenn on roster at year-end has to pick up bar tab at GM meetings next year!” I mean it kind of feels that way about Glenn doesn’t it?
With Glenn’s career winding down, I wanted to shine a light on a man who is seventh all-time in career passing yards, has 250 career games under his belt and has led two teams to the Grey Cup. Too often we wait until a player’s career is over to give them the attention they deserve. So here are a bunch of fun facts about the most well travelled man in the CFL
1. The word “trade” can be found 16 times in his Wikipedia page.
In 2004, Kevin was traded from Saskatchewan to Toronto to Winnipeg — all within a 24 hour period! This is a man who knows his way around an airport.
2. Glenn is incredibly self-aware of his place in the league.
In 2014 as a member of the BC Lions he was quoted as saying: “I’m an insurance policy. That’s why people buy insurance.” He perfectly understood at that time that his role was protection for the inevitable Travis Lulay injury. He would throw for nearly 4,000 yards that season.
3. Yes, the interceptions have always nagged his career, and maybe his ceiling was never at the true elite level, but the guy was also a part of so many winning campaigns.
He went 20-8 in his two years in Calgary, leading the Stampeders to an appearance in the 2012 Grey Cup. There’s no shame in being shipped out when the other two options are Drew Tate and perennial MOP candidate Bo Levi Mitchell.
The best single-season winning percentage the Blue Bombers have had over the past 12 years was their 10-7-1 season with Glenn. They may have won the Grey Cup if not for Glenn breaking his arm in the ’07 Eastern Final in Toronto.
In the four seasons before Glenn joined the Tiger-Cats, the team won a total of just 15 games with zero playoff appearances. In comes Glenn and the team makes the playoffs three years in a row with the high water mark being that crazy 52-44 OT win over a Montreal Alouettes squad that had won the previous two Grey Cups. Go back and watch Glenn’s beautiful touchdown strike to Bakari Grant early in the game, and then later in OT the two of them connecting again to set up the eventual game-winning touchdown.
4. He is heavily invested with several Tim Hortons franchises in his hometown of Detroit.
So not only has he starred in a uniquely Canadian sport but he’s also doing his best to export as much “Canadianity” (Term stolen from the ‘Taggart and Torrens’ podcast) to America as he can. It also means Glenn must be the richest CFL player ever because those places are always packed. Unless it’s 3:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve you can pretty much expect to be lining up.
5. The man also owns a great deal of stock in ‘hard luck’.
As mentioned before, Glenn broke his arm one game before his first ever Grey Cup during his greatest season of his career. A year later, Winnipeg cut ties with the 2007 East Division Most Outstanding Player nominee because it felt the team was in better hands with a combination of Michael Bishop, Stefan Lefors and Bryan Randall! It should be noted that Winnipeg has had just one winning season (10-8 in 2011) since making that decision.
Finally, Glenn went from being “jubilant” after being selected by Ottawa in the expansion draft to demanding a trade from Ottawa in the span of three months after the arrival of Henry Burris. Now looking back that was a great move by the REDBLACKS, but of course it had to happen to Glenn.
6. Glenn’s next life will be more than just making sure Detroit is fully caffeinated; he’s also involved in a startup clothing line called A.S.K. Motto.
I would comment more on this but I’m still fighting off the idea that I can’t wear white anymore just because we’ve passed Labour Day.
7. While he has never won a Grey Cup, he did win the 2011 Tom Pate Memorial Award for all his outstanding work in the community including his children’s charity initiative, ‘Kevin Glenn’s Touchdown for Kids’.
We may never be able to place Glenn in the category of “Grey Cup Champion” but he will always be remembered for lending a helping hand to so many different families.
8. So how about Glenn’s Hall of Fame chances in the near future? Well, it should be noted the six quarterbacks who have more passing yards than Glenn are either in the Hall of Fame or, in the case of Anthony Calvillo, will eventually be inducted into the Hall.
Now of course you can debate that Glenn doesn’t deserve to be in the Hall of Fame — maybe he never reached the elite levels consistently enough to warrant an invitation. I can accept that argument. But when all is said and done, there is no argument about just how interesting a career Glenn has had.
