Patrick Doyle/CFL.ca
Chris Matthews has had some disappointments to overcome throughout his pro football career, so not being able to pull on a jersey with his favourite number on it doesn’t rise above the level of being “no big deal.”
That number, 13, has sentimental value to him. But the Montreal Alouettes’ newest receiver completely understands that the digits belong, forever and rightfully, to Anthony Calvillo, the brilliant quarterback who retired with just shy of 80,000 passing yards to his credit, in 2013.
“I was disappointed but I understood,” said Matthews, who will wear number 12 when he makes his debut with the Alouettes. “He was a great player and did a lot for Montreal. I’d seen it first hand.”
Matthews has bigger things than the number on his jersey to worry about as he looks to jump-start his CFL career in a deep Montreal receiving corps, after a lamentable first half of the season with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
“All blessings to Montreal for giving me the opportunity to extend my career in the CFL,” said Matthews this week, following his new team’s practice in preparation for Saturday’s game against the Roughriders, in Saskatchewan.
“I’m happy to be out here and to play.”
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Winnipeg Blue Bombers receiver Chris Matthews (13) tries to evade Edmonton Eskimos linebacker Vontae Diggs (43)
The CFL’s Most Outstanding Rookie (2012) has the potential to make Montreal’s impressive array of receivers – including Eugene Lewis, DeVier Posey and Quan Bray, who already form a downfield nightmare for opposing defences – even more dangerous, if he can find the form that he showed in his late-season run with Calgary, in 2018.
He earned a Grey Cup ring with the Stamps, playing in four regular-season games and two more in post-season, making 19 catches for 350 yards and a touchdown.
After that, the stage was set for a big Act II with the Blue Bombers.
That’s a distant memory, though, in a season that I guess you could say came off the rails except that it never seemed to be on them in the first place.
The big man (6-foot-5, 230 pounds) was jazzed about a return to Winnipeg when, this past off-season, he signed a three-year contract, planning to build on his CFL successes with the team where his first act – his rookie season – had gone so well.
Being released, then, at the midway point of this campaign, came as a disappointment. Even if it was not surprising.
“I was definitely disappointed,” said Matthews, who caught 12 passes for 180 yards and a touchdown in six games with the Blue Bombers this season. “Not at anybody in particular. Just overall. Because I felt like that was my home.
“That’s where I wanted to build my CFL legacy and bring a Grey Cup there.”
Matthews started the year with a lower-body injury, missing the team’s first game of the season, before missing more action due to a finger injury, and also being a healthy scratch. There was also a July altercation at a Winnipeg restaurant, where Matthews suffered what he said doctors described as a superficial wound, to his abdomen.
“The city was great, the fans were great, the coaches and everything were great,” said Matthews. “It just wasn’t the right fit for me,” he said. “Things didn’t work out. Can’t really get mad at that. Things change all the time.”
Matthews knows that for a fact. Like many football players, he’s been around, faced a lot of hurdles. After his brilliant rookie season in Winnipeg, he missed most of the next year due to injury before trying the NFL for a second time, landing with the Seattle Seahawks and famously having a stellar game that might have had him being named Super Bowl MVP in 2015 had the Seahawks won.
Less than a year later, he was offered a practice roster spot with Seattle and declined, instead going to Baltimore where he spent some time on the active roster, but some on injured reserve as well. The Ravens released him in the fall of 2017 and he made his way north to Calgary a year later.
Now, in Montreal, Matthews has another chance to show he can be the dominant player he’d been as a rookie, and he believes he can. There are some familiar faces for him to gravitate towards, having been teammates with linebacker Henoc Muamba in Winnipeg, and running back Jeremiah Johnson in high school.
After I knew I couldn’t get 13, I was like ‘just give me any number.’ I can make it happen in any number.
– Chris Matthews
He likes the energy around this Alouettes team, likes how they’ve welcomed him with a no-nonsense attitude that he feels he can embrace.
“First thing that came out of their mouths was ‘let’s go to work.’ That’s the type of feeling I’ve gotten from this team,” he said.
He mentioned a few new teammates by name when asked who has been helpful to him, but cut the list off before saying “pretty much all of ‘em.
“They’ve all shared an equal amount in helping me and making sure I know what I’m doing. The coaches are doing an amazing job with teaching me the plays and helping me learn as fast as possible.”
Matthews’ debut in a Montreal uniform could come as early as this weekend, in Regina.
“Whenever my number’s called, I’ll be ready for it,” he said.
When Matthews’ number is called in Montreal, it will be 12, but he has a very good, personal reason as to why he’s always been so fond of 13.
His father, Darel, wore the number when he played football at Tennessee State and may have worn it had he gone pro. We’ll never know since Darel met and fell in love with another student at Tennessee State, a star basketball player named Michele. The two would go on to marry and soon be ready to welcome their son, Chris, to the world.
Winnipeg Blue Bombers receiver Chris Matthews fends off an Edmonton Eskimos defender (The Canadian Press)
So Darel decided to put away his football aspirations and become an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department. Some thirty years later, he will retire in the next month or two, said his son.
“He chose to go the working route because he knew he was having me, honestly,” said Matthews. “When I found that out, I was like, I’m gonna change my number to 13 and stick with it from there.”
In one of those “isn’t that something” life coincidences, it turns out that Darel might well have turned pro with the Blue Bombers, though being a private man of few self-serving words, he hadn’t told his son about that.
“I was going through the boxes one day and I was looking for something and I came across these documents from Winnipeg,” said Matthews. “They had a deal with him to go out there and he turned it down.
“Ironic, isn’t it?”
While Matthews would have liked to pull on a Montreal jersey with his favourite digits on it, he’s not worried about that. He wore 81 in Calgary, and for a time wore 84 in Baltimore.
“After I knew I couldn’t get 13, I was like ‘just give me any number.’ I can make it happen in any number,” he said.
Besides, he’ll still have his father’s number with him, every game. He carries it with him, always, by way of a tattoo.
