Calvillo settles into post-QB life
New retiree spending time with his family
VANCOUVER — Anthony Calvillo is a professional talker now, only months removed from his former life as a professional quarterback.
When he arrives in Vancouver on Thursday night to speak at an awards dinner, Calvillo will manage his prep time and sleep routine in much the same manner he did for 20 seasons as the Cool Hand Luke of the Canadian Football League.
His genius as a player was not in ignoring pressure, but in embracing it. Speaking before an audience, pouring out his life story, is still a challenge.
“The only difference is, I’m not getting hit,” said Calvillo. “But I treat it as if it were a game. It’s weird. I’ve gone on speaking engagements before, but I don’t want to leave the hotel. Even though I’m not playing, I go through the whole mental preparation thing. I get the right amount of sleep, I study my notes ... I want to represent myself well.”
Hundreds of people watching your every move, instead of thousands — so what? Read the defence (expressions), complete the pass (entertain the audience) and allow the paying customers to go away satisfied.
Calvillo is not only a legend in Canadian football, but a thoughtful, wellspoken man of humanity whose battles with cancer — both with Anthony and wife Alexia — have been well documented. His background was profiled in a TSN documentary, The Kid From La Puente, which touched on Calvillo’s upbringing among the street gangs of East Los Angeles and his life with a violent, alcoholic father. Part of Calvillo’s appeal is that he makes people feel relaxed — and they identify with him, a man able to connect the mythology of celebrity to real life.
“I’ve been doing formal (speaking) engagements for the past three years, four or five a year,” he explained. “This is probably the first time I’ve been at an affair that involves another (CFL) organization. It’s a B.C. Lions’ room. But they’re all football fans, and CFL fans. I feel pretty comfortable going in there.”
Unlike a lot of new retirees, Calvillo isn’t preoccupied with filling a void in his life. He spends two days a week as an intern at the Alouettes’ offices, an arrangement that will allow him workplace credits to complete a degree he left unfinished at Utah State when his class graduated 20 years ago. He turns 42 in August.
“Coaching is what I want to do, either at the professional, university or high-school level, and a degree is going to be helpful,” he said. “But I also want my daughters (Athena and Olivia) to see me visually on the stage for my graduation. For me, it’s always been important to finish what I start, and I want them to see that.”
On May 3, the family will be in Logan, Utah, to see Anthony pick up his sheepskin before the Calvillos leave on a five-week European vacation this summer, with stops in France, Germany and Greece.
“As a football player, you miss a lot of opportunities to be with your kids,” Calvillo explained. I want this to be a memorable year. Next year, I’ll go full time into coaching. That’s the plan. The Alouettes have been great. They told me I’ll always have a job in some capacity. Coaching is about timing, and there might not be a window for me. But I’ll definitely be involved in football in some way. It’s what I know. It’s my life. It’s what I have a passion for.”