Smilin’ Hank looks for one last Grey Cup
Durable QB craves another Cup to burnish his reputation
REGINA — The smile is always there, ready for any occasion. Henry Burris is famous for it, how it lights up whenever he talks to almost anybody; fans, media, team employees, opponents, the folks at the food bank. Shoot, as he would say, he’s not called Smilin’ Hank for nothing. Like its owner, Henry Burris’s smile hasn’t really gotten old.
But somewhere in there Burris holds reservoirs of resentment and hope and worry, however he tries to hide them. Burris will quarterback the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the 101st Grey Cup Sunday, and it will matter to him. It always does, always did, but now he’s 38, and for all his numbers, he has always been relegated in the discussion of the league’s greatest quarterbacks. His coach admitted he nearly pulled Burris in the East Division semifinal against Montreal, just to change things up. Kent Austin didn’t, and here they are, and Hank knows he’s running out of time.
“Oh, this is huge,” Burris said, still smiling after a practice in the face-numbing cold. “At the end of the day, when you do look back on it, (more than one Grey Cup) does mean a lot. I look at guys like Anthony Calvillo, who’s won multiple Grey Cups, the guy I look up to probably the most, Damon Allen, he won four Grey Cups … You look at Ricky (Ray), he’s won multiple Grey Cups.
“I need to make that happen now. We have the team here that can get that done. That’s why this is important to me. This run is more important to me than any other run that I’ve been a part of.”
For all the smiles, Burris has clearly had his feelings hurt over the years. He’s now one of five quarterbacks to throw for 50,000 yards in this league, and is a reasonable half-season from passing Danny McManus for third place. He is 10 touchdowns from passing Ron Lancaster for third place, too.
But Burris has just one Most Outstanding Player award, and one Grey Cup to his name (he didn’t play in the 1998 game), and has a history of big-game mistakes — the 2005, 2006, and 2007 West finals stand out — that have managed to stick to him. He wonders sometimes why the Good Hank/ Bad Hank label doesn’t stick to other quarterbacks; he throws more interceptions than most other great ones, sure, and led the league this year, but Burris hates that nickname. There’s a lot of pride in there, behind the ease of that smile.
“I wentt hrough some tough times the past couple years,” Burris said. “We didn’t have success last year as a team, and of course, (being cut loose by) Calgary beforehand, everyone was writing me off, saying I can’t do this, can’t do that, and Good Hank and Bad Hank, but the last time I checked it’s the same Henry Burris who’s helping his team win, and be successful.
“Henry’s place in the history of this league is solid, and deserving.” Kent Austin, Tiger- c at s c oa c h
“I mean, I touch the ball every play, so if I didn’t make mistakes I’d be walking on water or flying like Superman. But the times that I do, it makes me better in the end. And for me, at the end of the (East final, when he pounded the turf with a joy and fury), that was kind of everything that was coming out of me.
“Because regardless of what people said, I’ve just tried to do what I can to help my team win.”
That’s his mission statement, right there: He has tried his best. This season Burris has endured quarterback rotations, an offensive system that is less vertical than he likes, trying to throw the ball in the rain and wind kettle of Guelph. But he has not really grumbled, because it’s his job. And he needs this.
“(Grey Cups are) only one measuring stick,” Tiger-Cats coach Kent Austin says. “Dan Marino was a pretty good quarterback. It’s a team game, and the quarterback, although he’s a huge part of it, he does not win the game by himself. Or games by himself, to get to the point to win a championship game. So Henry’s place in the history of this league is solid, and deserving.
“But Henry’s success is due to Henry. I’ll say this, too. When I got out of football I went down to visit with Fran Tarkenton, and I’ll never forget Fran said, ‘You know, Kent, quarterbacks really don’t learn to play this game until they physically can’t play it anymore.’
“It’s an exaggeration, but the point was well-stated: You learn the game over time, right? And the game slows down for you over time. And the guys who are able to keep themselves in great condition and don’t get beat up a lot have an opportunity to really excel later in their career. I think Henry’s a testament to that.”
Burris is remarkably durable, and says he has never got a concussion, though he has two surgically repaired knees. He was nearly perfect on Hamilton’s 97-yard drive into the gale against Montreal in the East semifinal, with the season riding on those throws. He outduelled Ray in Toronto last week. His legs are still capable of escaping. Now, back in Saskatchewan — which he left after the 2004 season to go to Calgary — he is closing a circle.
Henry Burris keeps playing the football lottery, trying to outrace time and defenders and his own damned reputation. Burris says he nearly cried when his four-year-old son Barron, who wasn’t yet born when Burris won in 2008, didn’t know what a Grey Cup was. The old man has lasted this long, smiled all the while, and this chance is sitting, waiting for him. On Sunday Henry Burris will walk into a mad green cauldron and face the wind, and it will matter so very much to him. And he will have to be good.