Backup Lulay ‘enough of a man’ to park ego

As with Romo, no sulking at being relegated

in Vancouver hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”

Travis Lulay, the oft-injured veteran quarterback of the B.C. Lions, read all the same tea leaves that Romo read. Jonathon Jennings, 24, is the new “it” kid. The team is rallying behind him. Lulay, the CFL’s (and Grey Cup’s) outstanding player in 2011, is healthy now, but must wait for the opportunity that might never come to prove that he can still play.

He had a decision to make. What he did, without fanfare, was park his ego, accept a hefty off-season pay cut, and hunker down to the task of helping Jennings be a professional in every way — and a quarterback, it may yet turn out, good enough to make people forget that Travis Lulay is still around.

“He’s done tremendous things for me,” Jennings said Wednesday. “More than that, he’s been a friend, and a guy who’s always there for anything I need.

“He gives me an outlet when I need to speak about or understand something, he’s there to answer my question. That’s been big in my development. It’s just hard to always learn from coaches.”

Lulay, understand, is a fierce competitor. Every day he has to swallow the desire to get the No. 1’s reps in practice, to lead the way he once did.

“I mean, it’s a couple of things,” the 33-year-old Lulay said. “One, I’ve always preached and always believed that only one guy gets to play but everyone in the room helps contribute to the play of the position on game day.

“So what does it say about me, when I’m not the one on the field, if I change that attitude, and I’m not the same guy and I don’t do the work to make sure the position is as strong as it can possibly be?

“And two, life’s about choices: you can pout and feel sorry for yourself, or you can recognize that you can make a difference in a different way. It’s a conscious decision.

“You’ve got to understand that somebody else’s successes No. 1 Lions quarterback Jonathon Jennings, left, and former No. 1 starter Travis Lulay, pictured earlier this year in February, say they have a team concept in mind. aren’t directly tied to you being a failure. If you have enough self-confidence and believe you can still play, but you understand the circumstance just isn’t allowing you to be on the field right now, you can still sleep well at night. I know I can play. I just know that right now, it’s Jon’s time and, Jon has earned it.”

Jennings’s game has grown immensely in a season-and-a-half. The physical talents were evident early, but his maturity, his ability to shrug off mistakes and stay in the game, and most tellingly his increased focus and sharpness in comefrom-behind situations are already hallmarks of his play.

“(Lulay) is as healthy as he’s been in a number of years, but it’s Jon’s time — and so it is pretty similar to what’s happened over in Dallas, but both of them are standup guys, and not everybody is equipped to handle it,” said Lions offensive coordinator Khari Jones.

Usually, that kind of selfless patience is rewarded with a few starts, often due to injury. It is Lulay’s lot that this is that rarest of Lions seasons in which one quarterback goes the distance. “Well, yeah,” he chuckled. “That is a bit of a twist of fate, huh?”

That’s Lulay. Bright, articulate, upbeat, and for several hours of every day, inseparable from the kid who took his job. Weight room, field, film room.

Some would say it’s the nature of the position.

“I think it’s the nature of the man,” Lions head coach Wally Buono said. “Travis is enough of a man to be able to be second and still be genuinely happy for the guy he’s helping.”

He’s seen quarterback relationships that were, to say the least, distant.

“I’ve seen it where a (displaced starter) will say, ‘I’m doing my job, but I’m not doing yours,’ ” Buono said.

“That’s not Travis. Never has been, never will be.”