Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
DeVier Posey can remember the exact moment he got hooked on the CFL.
It was 2014 and his brother Julian was about to hit the CFL’s biggest stage for the 102nd Grey Cup.
At the time, Posey was a member of the NFL’s Houston Texans (the same team that had drafted him in the third round in 2012). He wasn’t at the game in Vancouver between his brother’s Tiger-Cats and Calgary Stampeders – only his mother made the trip to B.C. – but that didn’t stop him from getting bitten by the Canadian football bug.
“He (Julian) explained about his experience in Vancouver, what it’s like as a city. I mean, when somebody is describing it to you it sounds like it’s a fairy tale place,” he smiled, sitting relaxed at a table at the University of Toronto after a speaking engagement in late January. “I just remember that day and just seeing that they (Tiger-Cats) lost to Calgary and I just remember my mom talking about the experience in the CFL and how big it was and the Calgary fans.”
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Posey hoists the MVP trophy over his head after the 105th Grey Cup (Patrick Doyle/CFL.ca)
The following year, Posey signed with the New York Jets and was released by the team in August. With free time on his hands, Posey decided to take a trip north of the border to catch one of his brother’s games.
He ended up in Toronto to watch the Argonauts play his brother’s squad, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Little did he know; the Argos would soon become the team that Posey would go on to join and win a Grey Cup with.
But at the time, he was eager to experience a new city and attend the final game at Rogers Centre before the Boatmen moved to their new home at BMO Field.
“They (the Argos) were playing Winnipeg,” he recalled. “And my brother played in the game and I was like, ‘this is a cool environment, it’s football and how about this city?’”
With Toronto and the CFL still on his mind, Posey really started to get into learning about the league. When he wasn’t training and preparing for the upcoming NFL season, he’d keep a close eye on his brother in Winnipeg.
“I’m watching my brother play and getting to know the game and getting to know the players,” he explained. “(I’d ask) ‘what’s a rouge? What’s this, what’s that?’ and I became familiar with the game. I always said if the NFL isn’t an option on the table anymore, I’ll take a CFL deal and I’ll go up and I’ll be happy.”
After a stint with the Denver Broncos in 2016, it seemed like the time to take a deal in the CFL had finally become a reality when he was released in August of that year. At first, he wanted to join his brother in Winnipeg but that fantasy wouldn’t play out since it was the Toronto Argonauts that held his rights.
“Are you going to try to work out a deal to play here (in Winnipeg)?” he laughed as he remembered a question his brother had asked him. “(Then I said) ‘man, I don’t want to bend the rules too much.. I’m going to stay in Toronto. I love you bro!”
Julian Posey played two seasons with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
Posey signed with the Argonauts in September of 2016 and he appeared in four games, making two starts, in his first season with the team. He caught 13 passes for 161 yards on offence while also pitching in two punt returns for 20 yards and eight kickoff returns for 127 yards on special teams.
DeVier relied on his brother heavily as he started to get used to the Canadian game. Julian, two years DeVier’s senior and a defensive back, was always just a phone call away to ask for advice. Whether it was asking what his brother saw on the defensive side of a play or getting him to explain the waggle, DeVier always looked to his brother for guidance. That’s why when Julian gave him a piece of advice before he took the CFL stage, he made sure to take it.
“Before I came (to the CFL) he said, ‘I believe you can be a really good receiver, yards after catch.’ So I always try to implement that into my game, catching a ball and running with it afterwards.”
While 238 of his 744 yards in 2017 were after the catch, his biggest, and most memorable, YAC-yard play was at the 105th Grey Cup presented by Shaw.
It was the first play of the second quarter, Toronto was down by six and snow blanketed the field of TD Place in Ottawa. Ricky Ray aired it out to Posey who ran down the fluffy, white-covered sideline for a 100-yard touchdown, with 66 of those yards coming after the catch.
That score would go down as the longest touchdown catch in Grey Cup history.
When told he would be in etched the history books, he paused, at a loss for words and then said, “it means a lot. Until somebody does it and breaks it, it won’t ever happen again until it happens. It means a lot to be a part of history.”
That catch was the moment that made Posey an instant Grey Cup hero and he was named the game’s Most Valuable Player – an accolade that, at the time, he didn’t believe was really happening.
“I thought it was a joke,” he said, shaking his head. “You never know how many (yards) or your numbers. You never know them during a game. You’re just like, ‘I feel like I’m doing well.’ It was easy to do math after you catch a 100-yard touchdown. I think that play, I figured, ‘hey man, that play kind of made me become MVP.’
“But at the end of the day I was still kinda like, ‘are you sure it’s not Ricky Ray?’ Because he threw me the ball and he gave me all the opportunities. I mean.. he’s Ricky Ray.
“Ricky came up to me and he said, ‘man, you deserved it.’” Posey continued. “He kind of helped me accept the award better because it was an experience to win it just because I’d never thought that I could be a (MVP winner).
“I’ve never won an MVP of anything, of nothing. I’d never, ever had any MVP trophies on my trophy wall. It was a blessing.”
Just being able to play in the Grey Cup was another blessing for Posey. The 27-year-old was born with a deficiency that affected his immune system. Since his white blood cell count is lower than his red blood cell count, Posey gets really sick, really easily.
Because of that deficiency, his health and nutrition weighs on his mind every single day. He says he needs to add defence to his body by making sure he has enough vitamin C in his diet and is always thinking about cleaning his liver and detoxing his body to make sure he can fight off any kind of infection.
“If I can control things before it happens, because I know I can’t fight back once it happens, then I can manage it. They always said if I didn’t learn how to deal with it, the way that I did it would result in me living in a bubble. That was never an option. I mean, come on, really?” he chuckled, rolling his eyes. “It’s an extreme viewpoint of it. I’m learning how to deal with it and my body at a young age.”
When he was just three years old, the Make A Wish foundation sent him and his family on a trip to Disneyland. Although he was so young at the time, Posey does remember the trip – aided by photos his family took – and realizes just how lucky he is to be here today.
“Make A Wish has every kid that they bring out there on their wall, it wasn’t just me,” he remembered. “But one thing I did realize is that a lot of those kids don’t make it after that. I’m in awe sometimes how blessed I am to still be living on borrowed time.
“Honestly, to still be breathing but also just to play football it’s almost like you have to make this stuff amazing because I’m not supposed to be here.”
