Glenn would embrace Redblacks
Calgary QB ready to give his best in Ottawa if part of expansion draft
If the building uncertainty of Monday’s CFL expansion draft has left him frantically reaching for the antacid tablets, Kevin Glenn certainly isn’t letting on.
Seventy-two hours away from possible professional relocation, he busied himself volunteering, handing out pizza slices at University Prep Academy, a kindergarten through Grade 5 school his wife Asha teaches at in his hometown of Detroit.
“Yesterday I was helping kids make cool snowman crafts,” said the Calgary Stampeders’ immensely popular quarterback, “You know, out of socks, pompom balls, glue ... mak- ing fake googly-eyes, fake snow. You know, fun things. Christmas things.”
A note of chastisement crept into his voice. “C’mon, you must’ve done stuff like that back when you were a little kid ...” A century or two ago. At 34, it only seems as if Kevin Glenn has been slinging passes, dodging blitzes and filling copy inches in newspapers for at least that long.
The CFL’s expansion draft is set for Monday and the new kids on the block, the Ottawa Redblacks, are expected to spirit the ageless one away from the Stamps, as a complement to a young, eager, soon-tobe-blossoming signal-calling talent, quite possibly current B.C. backup Thomas DeMarco.
Rick Campbell, former defensive co-ordinator in Calgary and Ottawa’s head coach, fully understands the range of skill sets and intangibles a Kevin Glenn would bring to any organization, much less a startup project. Dependability. Peerless professionalism. An unflappability — both in the claustrophobic chaos of the pocket or when asked to cool his heels along a sideline and help plot strategy.
For two seasons at McMahon Stadium, he’s only been the best insurance policy this side of All-State. Just wins games when asked to play, doesn’t moan and sulk when ordered to watch. Who better, then, to act as a mentor to your quarterback of the future? Or to come in and give you a chance to pull games out of the fire?
Redblacks’ general manager Marcel Desjardins said a week ago that he’ll pick a veteran and a youngster at the position in the draft, and won’t be picking any potential free agents. Which means Toronto’s Zach Collaros, Hamilton’s Henry Burris and Saskatchewan’s Drew Willy aren’t on his radar.
With Calgary set to protect Bo Levi Mitchell at the nerve-centre position, and Drew Tate habitually banged up, the Glenn option makes the most sense. In pinch-hitting magnificently for Tate the last two seasons since coming over from Hamilton, Glenn threw for 6,930 yards, a 66 per cent completion percentage and 43 TDs, reached one Grey Cup and a West final.
If they do decide to exercise the option, the Redblacks won’t be sorry.
“You know what?” said Glenn. “I don’t think about it. Honestly, I don’t. It’s one of those things you have no control over. Why beat yourself up playing ‘What if ... ?’ This is a waiting game. And typically when you have to wait for things, if you think too much about them, you just succeed in driving yourself crazy.
“You know, I’ve never been involved in an actual draft. Like, being drafted. There’s something cool in that. You always see people at home, with their families, waiting for their name to be called. That’d be kinda fun. And if they do select me, it means they want me, and everybody always wants to be wanted.”
Glenn made his CFL debut in 2001. The Ottawa Renegades rose from the defunct ashes of the Rough Riders a year later. So he’s familiar with the city, the football culture.
“The first Grey Cup I ever attended was the one in Ottawa in 2004. Never actually, physically, been to one before that. And so I got a chance to see Ottawa, beyond just getting in and going out, playing. A really beautiful city.
“Look, I love Calgary. I’ve really enjoyed my time there. I’ve had a wonderful time wherever I’ve played. But nothing is promised to you. You don’t really know what’s going to happen in the future.
“Will it affect me? Well, as a family we’re lucky because my wife’s a schoolteacher. She has the summers off, when the seasons are played. I don’t live in Calgary yearround, either. So we’re in a nice situation, that way.
“I have no idea what’s going to happen. So I guess we all just have to wait until Dec. 16th.”
When the Stampeders cleaned out their lockers the morning following the gutting West final loss to Saskatchewan last month, Glenn went around the dressing room and shook hands with every media person there, thanking them. All class. If he leaves, he will be missed. “If it does happen,” he says philosophically, between doling out slices of pepperoni pie to the kids. “I’ll be very proud. A new franchise, in the country’s capital, you’re building something from the ground up. It’d be intriguing. A challenge.
“So if it does happen, I am certainly ready to embrace the opportunity. And if it doesn’t happen, then, you know, I’m a Calgary Stampeder until further notice.
“You know me. I’m pretty easygoing. I just take whatever comes.”