REILLY NAMED LEAGUE M.O.P.
Esks QB honoured for stellar year
Mike Reilly knew this was going to be a special deal long before he won it.
All season he was reading how he could end up giving Edmonton a CFL Award as Most Outstanding Player to go with Connor McDavid’s Hart Trophy as NHL Most Valuable Player in the same calendar year.
All season, Reilly was reminded the combination had previously been achieved only once before — back in 1983 by Warren Moon and Wayne Gretzky.
He was also reminded frequently just how long it had been since an Eskimo had last won the award.
Edmonton won the first one, back in the Schenley Award days with Billy Vessels in 1952. Jackie Parker won three. Johnny Bright. George McGowan. Tom Wilkinson. Warren Moon. But the last one was Tracy Ham in 1989.
“I have yet to meet him but I’ve seen a fair amount of Oilers games and he’s an amazing players who is going to be a star in that league for a long, long time. I’m happy for Edmonton that I was able to win this to make that combination happen again. I think it’s exciting for the city of Edmonton to do this,” Reilly said.
It was the long drought of MOP’s back to 1989 that blows his mind the most.
“To me that’s just a little bit crazy with all the great players we’ve had in this league,” he said.
Reilly, two years ago the Grey Cup game MVP, had never won major season honours until Thursday evening.
“In my senior year in college I was up for the Harlon Hill, which is the Heisman equivalent for Division II. I think I tied with another guy for second and the winner was a landslide victory by Bernard Scott.
“I had a statistically very big year that season but I paled in comparison to what the running back from Abilene Christian did. But it was a pretty cool experience. They flew us out to Alabama and had a big ceremony and stuff.”
Winning the Grey Cup MVP didn’t really move the needle for him because he won the Grey Cup and spent a couple of weeks celebrating that with his teammates in Edmonton.
“Winning the Grey Cup itself was such a cool experience. I remember it being brought to the stage by the RCMP and thinking ‘I can’t wait to touch that thing. It’s a little different when there’s a then 103-year-old trophy you want to get your hands on.”
Problem was, he wasn’t going to be able to have it very long because they built such a small stage in Winnipeg. He held just long enough to have it over his head when the confetti fell to produce the photo of the day.
“When I was standing there they were kind of telling me they were worried and wanted me to quickly take it to the back of the stage and hand it to my teammates. They were afraid the stage wasn’t going to hold everybody. So I got off there as quick as I could.
“But I got a canvas picture made of that and it’s definitely my favourite picture.”
The plaque was almost forgotten.
“A couple weeks after the game I got home and was unpacking everything and I had the plague from the MVP and I was wondering if my wife was going to display it on the main floor of the house or whether she was going to make me put it downstairs with all my other football stuff. She said that one is a pretty big one so we can put it in the living room.”
This one has living room written all over it.
But that said, Reilly said the day was somewhat depressing because the way he had it pictured his team would be here with him.
“It’s not a very good feeling. But I decided I was going to get up in the morning and enjoy the day with my parents and my wife and daughter. But I’d have loved to have my football family here, too. In 2015 I remembered watching Henry Burris win it with the rest of his Ottawa teammates in the room. So it was bitter sweet for me — more bitter than sweet. I wanted 87 other guys, or however many we had on our team, and our coaching staff to share it with me because they all helped me win it.”
As an individual, he said it’s a little like that Grey Cup MVP plaque.
“I think it’s one of those things that when it’s all said and done and you look back and say ‘wow, the was pretty awesome’ if you were able to win this — especially when you know how hard it is to do this and some of the incredible names who haven’t won it.”