Ray shelves retirement talk to play in Trestman’s offence
REGINA Ricky Ray ’s hairline has receded yet another inch. But there’s something about him that somehow looks younger.
It could be that he’s been born again.
Overnight, he went from being a Canadian Football League quarterback considering retirement or relocation to one with a new lease on life.
All it took were 41 words. “There will be no competition. I’ve seen Ricky Ray play, and I know he’s a Hall of Fame quarterback who has won championships. He’s excited to play, and he’ll come in here as the starting quarterback. There will be no competition.”
The words were delivered the day Marc Trestman was hired as the new head coach of the Toronto Argonauts.
Ray was in Regina with 55 other stars of the Canadian game to participate in the inaugural Mark’s CFL Week. He’s headed into his 15th season in the league at age 37 with a not-to-be-understated new lease on life.
“It was the first off-season where I didn’t know where I was going to play,” said Ray, who has passed for an all-time CFL best 67.97 completion percentage but has started only 11 games the last two years.
“The way the season went last year, it was the first off-season as a result of the way things went last year and a couple of injuries that I had to think about my future. It didn’t take long for me to decide I wanted to come back, but then it became ‘What opportunity am I going to come back to?’
“It was kind of waiting on the Argos to figure out what they were going to do and who they were going to hire and how I was going to fit into those plans. But to have Marc Trestman become head coach and say what he said about his plan for me as quarterback, I feel grateful for the opportunity.”
Ray is undergoing a different offseason training routine similar to the flexibility-orientated training adopted by Tom Brady. Maybe that will end the run of injuries.
“Just in my time since I left Edmonton and became an Argo, I’ve missed time each year,” Ray said.
“I had a couple of minor injuries in Edmonton, but getting to Toronto and getting something every year has been frustrating.
“We all know how it works with injuries. That’s how I got my job,” he said of going from working as a potato chip delivery truck operator playing arena football to catching on as a backup with the Eskimos and then replacing Jason Maas as starter.
With all those games Ray lost, he says Anthony Calvillo’s record of 79,816 yards passing is likely safe, at least from him.
Ray goes into the season with 54,883 yards passing.
“Just being injured the last few years has pretty much taken me out of a realistic opportunity to catch Anthony.”
But he believes he now has a chance to get what he considered the ultimate CFL record anyway. Ray has won three Grey Cups. He’s in a nine-way tie for Grey Cups started and won by a quarterback with Calvillo, Warren Moon, Damon Allen, Bernie Faloney, Tom Wilkinson, Ken Ploen, Doug Flutie and Russ Jackson.
“That’s definitely a motivating factor,” said Ray. “I know there are a few who had three. How awesome would that be to have four?”