O’Leary: Bethel-Thompson harnesses karmic energy in Argos’ first win of season

McLeod Bethel-Thompson walked north up BMO Field with the weight of the world off of his shoulders.

A thumbtack-riddled map details his journey through the game of football. While the cuts the 31-year-old has accrued along the way — upward of a dozen of them from teams in various pro leagues over the years — aren’t physical, they do take their toll. They have to.

He walked slowly, his helmet still on, past the 30, the 20, the 10. Fans leaned over the railing and cheered his name. He had no idea that his coach had just told a room full of reporters that he thought Bethel-Thompson had just played the finest game of that long, zigzagging career.

“I know how hard he prepares, no different than myself and everyone else,” Corey Chamblin said.

“I wanted them to have a level of success tonight. And he did have that, to prove to himself. I think that’s the finest moment in his career. That game.”

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Bethel-Thompson stopped at the goal line, dropped to his knees and put his face to the grassy turf in the end zone.

It’s been a day, we often say when we finally get home from work when everything has gone wrong. It’s been a week, we’ll sometimes groan as we fall back onto our beds on a Friday night.

It’s been…a lot more for Bethel-Thompson and the Argos, who have felt all of the lows the game can throw at you over the first six weeks of this season. They opened their season with a historic loss. They’ve been out of games by halftime. Weeks worth of mistakes and self-inflicted wounds have left their feet looking like figurative Swiss cheese. They lost on a rouge.

On Wednesday, Argos GM Jim Popp traded for veteran QB Zach Collaros. During the walkthrough practice that morning, Chamblin said Bethel-Thompson would get the start against Winnipeg but wasn’t guaranteed the finish. The losses were mounting and it seemed like the writing was on the wall for the quarterback. One more thumbtack, maybe the final cut in what’s been an incredible journey.

“No one gave up,” Bethel-Thompson said when he made his way into the locker-room.

“No one let go of the rope. We just kept fighting. Sixty great men in this locker-room. It’s a pleasure to be a part of that.”

There were plenty of sources of inspiration for the Argos. It could have been Chamblin, who went into Thursday night’s game winless as the Argos head coach and had a losing streak from his previous head coaching gig in Regina sitting at 15 straight. It could have been veteran receiver S.J. Green, whom Chamblin and Bethel-Thompson noted have hall-of-fame-hands that had gone barren up until Thursday night. It could have been as simple as the team falling behind 20-0 a week after getting blanked 26-0 by Edmonton and just refusing to give up, knowing that they could do better than what they were showing. Whatever the collective motivation was, the Argos found it and they fought like they hadn’t all year.

Chamblin has said all season that his team was close. On Thursday, they finally broke through.

“Those are the things that take you to a championship. Now, we know it’s just one game, but it’s a mindset,” he said.

“Guys understand that we were as close as we thought we were, sometimes. We just had to find a way to dig and find that fight and guys did that.

“It’s not like we won one and lost a couple. We’d lost several. And to win that one it gives hope back to you that hey, we can get this done.”

Bethel-Thompson didn’t buy into the idea of playing for his career. He made 37 of 49 passes for 343 yards, three touchdowns and just his second interception-free game of the season. If this was the best game of his career — finding offensive lineman Jamal Campbell for a TD at one point and hitting Green for the game-tying score — he said he did it for the men in front of him.

“Tonight I was out of my own way,” he said.

“Last week, I wanted it so bad for this team. And my face was all the way in it. And I was gripping the bar soap as tight as I could because I love this group of men and I was fighting for it.

“But when you do that you don’t give yourself the space between you and the game to throw to the open guy. Just simple stuff. (On Thursday) I just gave myself my own space and just stepped back and knew that my energy can just flow through and the guys have my back. Just throw to the open guy. Take it one step at a time and not want it too much.”

Toronto Argonauts quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson attempts to throw past Winnipeg Blue Bombers defender Willie Jefferson (The Canadian Press)

When he kneeled at the end zone, Bethel-Thompson didn’t think about himself. He thought bigger picture.

“Just thank you. Thank you, my loved ones,” he said.

“Thank you to my family, thank you, mom and dad. I just think of all of the people that believed in me and sent me good energy. Thank you to my ancestors…my grandpa Pete that passed away.

“My ancestors were there tonight, I could feel them floating with me and I just let go. When you believe in karmic energy and space and time, everything happens at the same time. (My ancestors) were with me. I just thank them and thank them for having my back and thank them for the moment.”

It’s the moments like these ones — the elated locker rooms, the fans hanging over the rails cheering, coming through when the stakes are high — that have kept Bethel-Thompson on his journey. It had been a week. It’s been a few weeks, but nights like this one are what keep you going.