MITCHELL NOT RULING OUT NFL IF RIGHT OFFER COMES ALONG
The CFL lost the services of a great quarterback earlier this week in Ricky Ray, and may be in line to lose another this winter if Bo Levi Mitchell ends up bolting to the NFL.
Throughout his stellar, seven–year CFL career, Mitchell has repeatedly denied any interest in trying his luck in a league that snubbed him coming out of college.
True to his word, he kept signing contract extensions with the Calgary Stampeders, admirably demonstrating his loyalty and remaining a big fish in a small pond.
It prevented him from being courted or considered by NFL clubs that might want to make him the next Doug Flutie, Jeff Garcia or Dave Dickenson.
However, things have changed, including his mindset.
No longer is the 28-year-old Texan militantly against the possibility of chasing dreams and riches south of the border.
His contract is up at the end of the year and after chatting with team president John Hufnagel about re-upping, he has decided to wait things out for a number of reasons.
“I honestly don’t know,” said Mitchell when asked if he’d consider going south if a legitimate offer came in. “My focus is strictly on this year and making sure I do everything I can to make Calgary wants to re-sign me.
“The (soon to expire) CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) is what it is. That’s what’s causing a lot of us guys not to re-sign. With the way the league mandated teams not to pay out off-season bonuses, there’s not much incentive to go out and sign right now. And we don’t know what the cap is going to be. So, it makes it hard, and in a weird way not smart, to sign right now.”
Every day he doesn’t sign — and it doesn’t look like he will until there is off-season clarity in a new CBA — gets him one step closer to someone in the NFL knocking his socks off with an offer he can’t (read: shouldn’t) refuse. After all, he is the CFL’s best candidate to make that jump since Flutie, Garcia and Dickenson before him.
“It’s a dream, right?” said the former Eastern Washington pivot.
“It’s like staying in the AHL when the NHL comes calling. It’s not a fair comparison because I believe we’re both top tier leagues, but yeah, I believe it’s a tough decision. I have to first of all prove I’m healthy by going out there and having a great season and let the chips fall where they may.”
Proving he’s healthy is every bit as important as proving the 6-foot-2, 200-pound chucker is good enough to play with the big, big boys.
Back to that in a second. “Huff sat me down and asked, ‘Has your interest in the NFL changed at all?’” said the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player in 2016, whose club is already 3-0 with him leading the way.
“All I told him is that it would have to be a vast difference to even think about it, given the way the NFL felt about me. I still feel slighted when I came out of college and I love this league and I want to keep building my career and my legacy here.”
Having won one Grey Cup and pacing his club to appearances in three of the last four title games, Mitchell’s stats put him among the CFL’s greats already.
In Thursday’s win, he eclipsed the 20,000-yards passing mark, and his touchdown-to-interception ratio is a remarkable 121-47.
A leader in the community with various charitable endeavours and a weekly radio show, ol’ Bo is certainly a household name in Calgary where he’s doing well to build a legacy, as he so often talks about.
It’s endearing to Calgarians to hear him speak so passionately about his time here, the city in which he lives full time, and a league that is seen by far too many as a pit stop on the way to the big show.
He epitomizes what being a Calgarian is all about, setting himself up for many years here should he continue on this path.
So far this season the shoulder and elbow issues he fought through last year haven’t bothered him, thanks to an off-season of intense scrutiny by top doctors, and rest.
Should that continue, there’s little doubt he’ll keep tearing up a league he has dominated from Day 1.
The question will really come down to whether an NFL offer he feels would give him a legitimate shot to see the field comes in.
“As a quarterback, it’s a tough position to be in because you want to show loyalty to your club and you want to encourage other guys to sign contracts because you want the best team on the field to keep these guys here,” he said of his contract quandary.
“We’ll just have to see what happens.”