BCLions.com
‘Is he human?’ The question has been asked over and over again. Those who have seen Bryan Burnham make one acrobatic catch after another over these last several years wouldn’t seem so crazy to inquire. Enough highlight-reel plays to fill a week’s worth of TSN Sportscentre Top Tens.
The leaps, the arm extensions, the dives. If Geroy Simon is Superman and Lucky Whitehead is the Flash, certainly number 16 is worthy of his own Marvel or DC comparable. We’ll leave that up to the fans. Getting back to that question: he certainly is human. And he faced his fair share of adversity off the field in 2021.
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More on that in a few minutes. But to first understand how Burnham came from an unknown, raw commodity in 2014 training camp to fifth amongst all-time Lions in receiving yards, you must chronicle his journey that began in his senior season at Tulsa where an injury almost put a dent in his path to the pro ranks.
“Man, just a lot of memories and emotions just kind of rushed back. I mean I could talk all day. I could write a book about it,” reflects Burnham on the day he re-signed for an eighth season with the Lions.
Falling Down, Getting Back Up
Growing up in Moorestown, New Jersey just outside of football-mad Philadelphia, the son of former Eagles defensive end Lem Burnham always wanted to follow those footsteps and made it to the NFL. He enrolled at Tulsa in 2009 and redshirted as a defensive back in his first season with the Golden Hurricanes. After making a career-defining switch to wide receiver, he began to finally realize his potential.
After leading his squad in receptions and yards a junior in 2011, Burnham suffered a knee injury just one game into his final college season. All of a sudden, the NFL dream looked bleak. He remembers exactly when a move up north first entered the picture.
“I spent that summer at my parents’ house,” says Burnham.
“I remember watching TV, it was like 11 o’clock at night. I’m in bed, scrolling through the channels and on comes CFL game. Ottawa playing Montreal. And at the time, one of my old teammates from Tulsa, Moton Hopkins was playing in that game. I remember watching it and seeing guys like him, SJ Green, seeing just the atmosphere and the way they were talking about these guys. I wanted to be a part of that.”
Fast forward to May 2014 when he would get his opportunity to shine. Thanks in part to his sister, Shannon Ulmer, working as a club executive assistant at the time, who suggested to Neil McEvoy that they look at his highlights on YouTube.
Burnham would then be invited to a free agent workout in Seattle and was signed as the last receiver right before 2014 training camp. Now it was time to prove Shannon and his family right. Like many unknown rookies, it wasn’t the smoothest ride.
‘Who Is That Number 74 Guy?’
Just like his pal and teammate Manny Arceneaux five years earlier, Burnham reported to camp with jersey number 74 in his locker room stall. A clear indication of the expectations he would emerge from Kamloops as a member of the squad.
“I was like, ‘oh man, this is going to be tough.’ As a player, your number shouldn’t matter. But seeing that was a bit of a let-down,” remembers the four-time CFL All-Star.
“Veterans see guys like me as competition for their spot. But I was lucky to have veterans like Courtney Taylor and Manny welcome me in and show me how to be a pro. And honestly, I never thought my time in BC would turn out like this. I wanted that first camp to help catapult me to the NFL. That was my plan. It didn’t work out, but I’ve found a home in British Columbia. Love the fans, love the organization. It’s just been an amazing time.”
Although he emerged with a spot on the practice roster after that first Kamloops voyage, Bryan was presented with another challenge. After rupturing his spleen in just the second game he dressed for in his rookie campaign, questions emerged on how long he would last in camp number two.
“I WAS ON THE VERGE OF GETTING CUT. I HAD GUYS COMING UP TO ME, SAYING, ‘HEY BURNHAM, LIKE, YOU KNOW, THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT YOU. YOU GOTTA PICK IT UP.’”
BRYAN BURNHAM
“I know some guys have been in that situation and they kind of take it personally and they’re like, ‘yeah, you know, that’s not on me, that’s on them. Whatever.’ But for me, I took that as a challenge, You wanna cut me? All right. Watch this, I’ll show you.”
And he would do just that. A very respectable 423 yards in 11 contests in year two, followed by the first of four-straight 1,000-plus yard seasons in 2016. He soon began to garner his reputation as the highlight-reel machine. With that came the realization that the unknown commodity from suburban Philly might just go down as an all-time great for the franchise. No matter what other adversity came his way.
Burnham and Arceneaux observe activity at training camp in 2016 (BCLions.com)
The Road Trip From Hell
October 29th, 2021. Burnham and the Lions are boarding their flight to Toronto and two critical games against the Argonauts and Tiger-Cats with an eight-day stayover in Hamilton in between. As the team’s playoff hopes were slipping away, the extended stay in Southern Ontario would hopefully be a great opportunity to bond and get away from the day-to-day routine at home.
For good reasons and bad, it would be eight days Burnham will never forget. The interview with Bryan is in minute number 19 when we broach the subject. He recently chronicled the ordeal in a very detailed Instagram post below. He and wife his Aubrey had been told prior to last year’s training camp that they couldn’t have children. There was a glimmer of hope early in the year before a pregnancy turned out to be ectopic.
After several anxious and sad months, Aubrey had became pregnant again. But then as the squad was taking off for Toronto, Bryan got the call he was dreading. She had one again miscarried. What followed was a week-long rollercoaster of emotions and days filled with sadness as Bryan felt helpless; thousands of miles away playing a game for a living.
View this post on Instagram
Burnham scored a touchdown in the overtime loss at Toronto and would have the ball made up into a commemorative keepsake as part of Aubrey’s Christmas present. Against the Ticats six nights later, he moved past Mike Trevathan into fifth spot on the Lions’ all-time receiving yards list. That was a moment we were proud to acknowledge, only having no idea what he was going through. He also suffered a broken hand in Hamilton, the ultimate dagger to cap off an excruciating eight days on the road.
“After the Toronto game, I just broke down, man. The game is emotional in itself. But coming into the locker room, it just hit me,” says Burnham.
“Then after the injury, I just kind of looked up into the stands and wondered if I had played my last football game. You know, at that moment I truly didn’t know.”
Being the warrior that he is, Burnham got taped up and played the final two games of the season back at home. During their time in Ontario, it was his friend Michael Reilly who would help him pull through the pain that was eating at him. The miscarriage. Another lost season and lost opportunity at a Grey Cup. The broken hand. Seriously? Bad things truly do come in threes.
“HE ASKED ME WHAT WAS UP AND YEAH, THAT’S THE FIRST TIME, THE ONLY TIME, I’VE CRIED IN SOMEONE’S ARMS OTHER THAN MY DAD’S.”
BRYAN BURNHAM
“He just, he just hugged me and said, you know, I got you, man. It’s gonna be right. I’m here for you. That’s the kind of guy Mike Reilly is, you know, he’s more than just a quarterback to me. He’s one of my best friends and a brother and someone who truly cares.”
Now he will chase the Grey Cup dream with Nathan Rourke, a quarterback he believes has an extremely high ceiling.
The Burnhams with their dog Copper (Photo: Bryan Burnham)
Burnham Resume Almost Complete
The deeper you get into a conversation about his decision to return to the orange and black, the more you realize just how much it would mean for him to win a Grey Cup here as opposed to somewhere else.
I mean, that’s the ultimate goal,” explains Burnham.
“I won’t name a name, but somebody in the front office at the end of this past season was talking to me and they said, ‘you know, Bryan, I understand if you want to go elsewhere. If you want to go chase a ring, you know, we understand. We won’t take it personally. That’s really stuck with me since then. That’s what I’m doing. I went chasing the Grey Cup and that’s why I came back to BC because I don’t want to win anywhere else. These fans deserve it. This team deserves it. And think that the core of this team is, is really, is really in a position to make a run.”
The All-Star selections, the 1,000-yard seasons, those highlight-reel plays. Get ready for more of them. And you know he will face his adversity head-on like he always has.
Is Bryan human? You know the answer: one of the better Lion humans you’ll ever meet.
