Edmonton Journal

ONE OF THE GREATEST?

Reilly makes his case: Jones

- TERRY JONES

Sunday was the deadline for first-round voting by the Football Reporters of Canada for the CFL Awards. And if this year’s ballots were completed the way I expect them to have been, this is going to be a special, special year. Mike Reilly versus Ricky Ray. Today’s great Edmonton Eskimos quarterbac­k versus yesterday’s great Eskimos quarterbac­k — the one GM Eric Tillman traded away to Toronto in an act of temporary insanity and arguably the dumbest deal in CFL history.

Mike Reilly is leading the injury devastated Eskimos in a third straight refuse-to-lose late-season charge and putting himself up there with all those other great quarterbac­ks the Eskimos gave the league like Bernie Faloney, Jackie Parker, Warren Moon, Matt Dunigan, Damon Allen, Tracy Ham and Ray, who will go up on the Eskimos Wall of Fame the minute he announces his retirement.

So much is involved in what is going to make this so interestin­g if it comes to be Ray versus Reilly during Grey Cup week in Ottawa.

Maybe it’ll even be Edmonton versus Toronto in the Grey Cup game, too. Or it could just as easily become the Eskimos versus the Argos in the East Division crossover semifinal in the crazy finish to the season.

With their possible record 366plus man games lost to injuries, record $1 million plus spent on injured players and 86-andpossibl­y-still-counting different players having worn their green and gold uniforms this year including 54 different starters, the Eskimos go into the last week knowing they could still play their first-round playoff game in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa or Toronto.

However it all works out, Reilly versus Ray for Most Outstandin­g Player would create great debate.

Just on the face of the season statistics, it shouldn’t.

Reilly has a dozen 300-yard passing games and leads the league in yards passing with 5,536 and is tied for first in touchdowns with 30. Ray is second in yards passing at 5,205 and is tied for fourth in touchdown passes with 25. Reilly is also 11th in the league with 361 rushing yards, four yards out of the top 10. Ray ranks 48th with 52.

But there’s much to argue for a vote for Ray, who missed a game due to injury in which the Argos lost in Montreal Aug. 11. Ray has matched Reilly’s dozen 300-yard passing games, one of those for 506 yards, the only 500-plus passing game in the league so far.

Sacked more often — 38 times so far — than any other quarterbac­k in the league, Ray has had a long history of taking a licking only to keep on ticking due to a lack of protection. He has missed significan­t time in the last few seasons leading to his considerin­g retirement until Marc Trestman came along as head coach and made his first order of business stating Ray was his regular QB.

Ray this season became the only player in CFL history to have 100-plus touchdown passes with two teams, having thrown 210 of them in Edmonton.

Just turned 38, Ray has never won a CFL Award as Most Outstandin­g Player despite this season reaching the 60,000-yard passing milestone.

Sometimes these awards end up being heavily influenced by career considerat­ions. The guy deserves to win one.

No problem short term for Reilly, 32, especially in the leadership category. Two years ago, he returned from injury to win the last 10 games of the season including the Grey Cup. Last year, Reilly won five of the last six in the regular season and the crossover Eastern Semifinal. Now he has won all four in October.

With Brandon Zylstra setting an Eskimos record with his 10th 100-yard receiving game and putting away the league receiving title, Reilly has also been quarterbac­k for four league leaders in his five seasons as the Eskimos’ starter.

Involved in all of this is also the Edmonton thing.

The Eskimos, since coming into existence in 1949, have won more Grey Cups than any other team. And the City of Champions used to take a lot of pride in having the biggest stars in the game, too.

Edmonton hasn’t had a CFL Most Outstandin­g Player since Ham in 1989.

The first Schenley Award winner was Edmonton’s Heisman Trophy winner Billy Vessels in 1953, although he maintained Rollie Miles of the Eskimos deserved to win it that year. Parker won it in 1957, 1958 and 1960 with Johnny Bright taking it in 1959. George McGowan won it in 1973 and Tom Wilkinson in 1974. Then the Eskimos won the Grey Cup five years in a row and they give MOP honours to non Eskimos every one of those years.

Finally, in 1983, in his last year in Edmonton before leaving for the NFL to go into the Hall of Fame in both nations, Moon got it as something of a going-away present.

If it’s Ray versus Reilly, there are a lot of voters who are going to lean toward doing the same thing with Ray.

In 1983, Moon won the Schenley and Wayne Gretzky won the Hart as the most valuable player in the NHL.

Gretzky won it eight times in Edmonton and Mark Messier once. This year, Connor McDavid became the first Oiler to win the Hart since Messier in 1990. McDavid and Reilly in 2017? There’s that, too.

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 ?? LARRY WONG ?? Edmonton Eskimos quarterbac­k Mike Reilly, left, is the front-runner for the most outstandin­g player award with a CFL-best 5,536 yards passing and 30 touchdowns.
LARRY WONG Edmonton Eskimos quarterbac­k Mike Reilly, left, is the front-runner for the most outstandin­g player award with a CFL-best 5,536 yards passing and 30 touchdowns.
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