Parents say Reilly facing tough decision
Edmonton has been welcoming place to CFL QB’S family
Pat Reilly has driven eight-anda-half hours from Kalispell, Montana, to Edmonton to attend every game but one in the six years his son has quarterbacked the Eskimos in the CFL.
He relates to what the fan base has been going through waiting for his son to decide his future when he becomes a free agent Tuesday. It appears it will end with Mike departing to become a B.C. Lion. Pat has been going through it, too.
When I interviewed Pat and wife Rhonda the day before the report was published in Vancouver that Mike was about to return to the team he began his CFL career with, a close commute to Seattle where he, Emily and their two young daughters live in the off-season, Pat said he didn’t know what decision would be made.
They very much feel like they’ve been adopted by the community and make it clear they would be quite happy to continue the association with Edmonton for the rest of Mike’s CFL career.
And it has nothing to do with the driving time to Vancouver, where they used to travel to his games when he was a B.C. Lion.
“That was 12 to 13 hours. It’s an eight-and-a-half-hour drive to Edmonton. Not bad, really,” he said.
“My relationship with Edmonton has grown pretty deep over the past years since Mike became an Eskimo. I love the city, the people, the players, coaches, management and the press.
“I also have a great relationship with the players, as well. They really are wonderful people who I have managed to get to know very well over the years. Those relationships will last a lifetime.”
There was no sense that Pat Reilly was saying goodbye.
Rhonda had her own take on this unusual relationship between the parents of a player and a city in another country.
“Edmonton is a place we travel to see our son and his team of brothers play for an extraordinary city. The people of the Edmonton football community are exceptionally kind and welcoming to us,” she said.
“I love Edmonton and our trips there are memorable every time we go ... I am anxious and impatient waiting to hear what all this stuff works out to be,” she added.
Pat said “Mike is faced with a difficult decision for sure. He has so many people he cares about in Edmonton that he has to weigh that. Honestly, I don’t know which way he is leaning.”
That was 48 hours before the report came out.
I sent Pat Reilly a direct message via Twitter and asked if that remained true after the report emerged in Vancouver from Postmedia columnist Ed Willes.
“Yeah, let’s stay with that,” Pat said. “Seriously, nothing is signed yet and as we both know, stranger things have happened. Until a contract is signed …”