National Post (National Edition)
‘Superman’ gets his call to Hall
CFL finds splashy way to celebrate Simon’s career
How else would you put Superman into the Hall of Fame? In the past, the Canadian Football Hall of Fame has had underwhelming ways of announcing the latest class of inductees. Not this year.
In the past, there had been press releases and announcements that got lost late during Grey Cup week.
But the way Geroy Simon and one of the greatest CFHoF groups ever was presented here Wednesday at the inaugural Mark’s CFL Week surely made it a staple for all future editions of the league’s new off-season football festival.
It was a CFL Awardscalibre production, except with things sort of in reverse. The event featured a lock-up where the accredited members of the media were given the results prior to the introductions. But instead of bringing in the individuals to be interviewed after they were presented on stage, they were brought in for interviews before the introductions.
The new Hall of Famers were presented at a $250-aticket gala before 400 fans at the spectacular new Mosaic Stadium. And it couldn’t have been more Super for the former Saskatchewan Roughrider.
OK, so Geroy Simon was only a Rider for one year. But he was the only inductee with a Saskatchewan past. So that made him the star of the show, or at least no worse than the co-star of the night, which also featured former Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo.
Superman, as he came to be called around the CFL, of course played the majority of his career with the British Columbia Lions.
Nobody in CFL history had more passing yards than Calvillo and nobody caught more passes for more yards receiving than Simon.
Prior to Simon’s 12 seasons with the Lions — with whom he won two Grey Cups and was the 2006 CFL Most Outstanding Player — the Johnstown, Pa., native played two seasons with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Traded to the Riders in 2013, Simon won the third Grey Cup of his career and spent the next season in the Saskatchewan front office before the Lions brought him back to B.C. to work in football operations.
“Geroy’s place is with the Lions,” said B.C. president and CEO Dennis Skulsky at the time.
There have been no lack of testimonials for Simon, but the best may have been produced by teammate Angus Reid writing in the Vancouver Province.
“How do you look back on a career like Geroy Simon’s?” he wrote.
“In awe, mostly. I was extremely fortunate to be Geroy’s teammate for every one of his games with the B.C. Lions. We actually both came to the Lions in the same week, but even back then in 2001, you knew you were around someone different, someone special.
“Geroy’s career numbers speak for themselves, but it was so much more than the numbers that made him great. It was how he went about every single part of his career. It was how he prepared, carried himself, led — and maybe most importantly, how he gave back.
“Geroy’s career is a study on how to be a true superstar. He was everything you could ever ask a sports hero to be. He could do what others physically couldn’t and win games seemingly all by himself. Make the impossible look easy and somehow do it all with a smile.
“I’m proud of a lot of things from my career, but being able say that I played with Geroy Simon, the greatest receiver to ever play this game, hits high on my list. The best part about it, though, is that I can speak just as highly about Geroy the player and teammate as I can Geroy the person and friend. Calling Geroy a star really doesn’t do him justice. In fact, there’s really only one word to best sum him up: Superman.”
When you own the records for receptions with 1,029 and yards with 16,352 and have your image on a Canadian postage stamp celebrating the 100th Grey Cup, it’s a slam dunk you are going to go into the Hall of Fame. But what a wonderful way to happen.