Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
If you’ve spent any time around Ricky Ray through his 16-year career, you know the basics. He’s humble, quiet, low-key and, as the shine from his four Grey Cup rings will attest, one of the best to ever play in the CFL.
I learned everything I ever needed to know about Ricky Ray in one year.
I’d been around Ray in Edmonton for a few years before I became the full-time beat writer for the Esks at the Edmonton Journal in 2011. That first year around him was enlightening and reaffirmed what I’d heard or thought I already knew about him. He was a team player and led by example. He was quiet, but when you got to know him he was funny. But the telling stuff came between December 12, 2011 and November 25, 2012.
The first date is the day that Ray’s blockbuster trade took place, sending him from Edmonton, his home of nine years, to Toronto. The second date is the end of the following season, when Ray lifted the Grey Cup in Argos’ double blue, capping a storybook finish for him and earning him his third career Grey Cup.
Through his 16 years in the CFL, Ray has led by example and let his play do the talking. (Adam Gagnon, CFL.ca)
In the days, weeks and months that followed the trade, the length of a CFL offseason was painfully felt. Ray moving across the country in a trade that many felt was lopsided, tearing him from the city that he’d said in years prior to the deal that he wanted to finish his career in, was the top story across the league. Ray did his best to not feed the frenzy that had grown around him, the Argos and the Esks over that winter, but the trade remained the talk of the CFL, right into training camp. Of course, the Argos opened the season that year in Edmonton, taking the hype and headlines up another notch.
It wasn’t because of anything he’d said prior, but Ray’s press conference in Edmonton the day before that game was tense. He’d gone from an 11-win team that played in the West Final to the Esks’ visitors locker room in six months. The Argos sent Ray and his Argos teammate (also a former Esk), receiver Jason Barnes, up in front of the media together. With Barnes at his side, Ray coolly and calmly went through the questions. The Argos would lose that game the next day and dropped their lone date at Rogers Centre later that season.
Ray didn’t say a word as the Argos fluttered around the .500 mark that season. They were 6-4 after Week 11 and finished 9-9, but got hot at the right time. The Esks seemed lost that season too, finishing 7-11 and squeaking into the playoffs on the crossover. Their opponent, of course, waited for them in Toronto.
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There was no trash talk leading up to that playoff date, but you could feel the outcome hanging over the Esks before they took the field. The Argos exploded with a 31-point second quarter and put the game away before halftime. In a rare boisterous moment, Ray found the end zone on a rushing play and spiked the ball between his legs. The (extremely tame) action spoke more than Ray would say about the trade that entire year.
Underneath the cool demeanour and the say the right thing at all times approach he takes, there is a competitor in Ricky Ray. He’s since, of course, won another Grey Cup and climbed further up the all-time passing yards, completions, touchdowns, etc. lists. He’s one of the best to ever do it and he knows it, but he accepts his role on the team the same way that the linemen in front of him over the years accept theirs.
“I don’t really consider myself anything,” Ray said of his place in the game during this year’s training camp.
“(Success) definitely gives me confidence, for sure. I can definitely draw off of those experiences I’ve had. I have the confidence knowing that if we do get to another Grey Cup or East Final, I’ve been there and I know I can play well.
One of the most dominant field generals in the league’s history, Ray has hoisted Earl Grey’s trophy four times. (CFL.ca)
“But if you look at my career it’s been like this,” he said, doing a roller coaster motion with his hands. “I know things can change really fast. We went from winning four games or whatever the year before to winning the Grey Cup last year. Honestly, I look at the other quarterbacks in the league and think, ‘Man, there are some talented guys, more talented than myself.’ I know that I don’t try and rank myself with those guys. I just try to come out and do my best and help this team.”
As he recovers from the neck injury he took on Saturday night, you hope first that he continues to improve and heal and that he can get back to his family. His place in the game already solidified, you wonder if this will be the injury that makes him ask himself if he wants to continue on. He’s made it through knee injuries, shoulder surgery and a partially deflated lung. He’s been written off through each injury and each birthday he’s had since he got into his early 30s and he’s always come back with more in the tank, quietly and humbly going to work.
