Lulay has 436 reasons for optimism
Lions quarterback says shoulder feeling better than it has in years
So you didn’t think Travis Lulay could still throw for 400 yards. Yeah, you weren’t alone. Even Lulay had doubt in his arm. How could he not?
A string of shoulder issues, which spanned several years, gnawed at the quarterback’s exit velocity, and his confidence.
A tweak to that shoulder in 2012, followed by a couple of painful dislocations, a surgery and two long stretches of rehab left Lulay unable to make some of the throws that made him, well, Travis Lulay.
“I was not sure. I didn’t know for sure,” said Lulay, the 2011 CFL MVP, when asked if he wondered whether he would ever fully recover.
“There was a time when I thought I was going to be a little limited in my arm strength and I’d have to make up for it with my eyes and be quicker with my feet.”
That time, of course, is past. At least, it looked that way Saturday when Lulay and his B.C. Lions offence were busy shredding a hapless Hamilton Tiger-Cats secondary for a career-high 436 yards in the most productive relief performance in CFL history.
He did it efficiently, and made it look effortless in the 41-26 victory. Like he had never faded. Like 2011 wasn’t a lifetime ago. Like the shoulder was as strong as it has ever been.
And, just maybe, it is.
“I can tell you that my shoulder feels the best it has in years and that’s just fact,” Lulay said. “There’s no question it changes your ability to play the game when you’re focused on reading defences and making the right decisions and not worried about how the physical throw was going to end up.”
This is all wonderfully encouraging news for the B.C. Lions, who will likely lean on Lulay to start the next two games, and maybe more, with starter Jonathon Jennings nursing his own shoulder injury.
A poor start or two, and all the hype Lulay has generated this week will seem misplaced. But it’s not unwarranted.
The 33-year-old once hoped he’d return from his shoulder woes in the same way Peyton Manning came back from neck problems and for the first time that looks plausible.
His performance was so good, many watching him had the same question: Why is he backing up Jennings and not starting somewhere else in the CFL right now?
The question is incredibly premature.
Lulay’s start this Friday will be his first in two years.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth asking.
The answer is complicated and somewhere beneath the layers there are lessons for us all. Because every one of us faces similar dilemmas to the one Lulay was staring down in the winter of 2016, in the days before he was set to become a free agent.
Does he swallow hard, accept a diminished role to stay in this environment, a place he trusts, understands and feels respected; or does he reach blindly for Door No. 2 where there may be more glory, but with it more variables, risk and doubt.
Lulay elected to keep it on the fairway, signing that two-year deal to stay in Vancouver. It does seem now like the right move, as he’s about to reap the benefit of his decision by quarterbacking what could be one of the best offences in the league.
“You could chase another starting job, but there are no guarantees,” Lulay said. “You could go somewhere else and get hurt. You could go somewhere else and some young guy is playing well.
“There’s just no guarantee. I do respect and appreciate that the club still wanted me here. They believe I can still play.
“Someone has asked me this before, if this affirms to me or makes me feel better about my decision to stay. I made peace with that a long time ago.
“If I had been sitting here rumbling about it the whole time, it would be entirely different. I’m in a good place mentally and I think that allowed me to be prepared to play. I know internally, I have good confidence from the players around me and that allows me to plug in.”
Wally Buono, the Lions GM and coach, said he never had to sell Lulay on the idea that passing on free agency and the potential of being a starter again was his best move.
“I never felt like I had to sell it,” he said. “I never felt like I had to put the thumb on him to pressure him to do this. These are the choices men make.”
He’s got that right.