Mitchell willing to foot bill for a winning team
Bo Levi Mitchell is equally adept at distributing the football and the wealth.
The Calgary Stampeders quarterback — the CFL’s reigning most outstanding player — is a top-drawer talent who could justifiably demand top dollar.
But he is driven by team success, not avarice.
“I’ve told my guys from Day 1 that I understand that quarterback’s the highest-paid position,” Mitchell said Tuesday. “I’m going to get paid because of that. But every time I go out to eat with anybody on my team or do anything with my guys, I pay for it.
“Some guys respect it. Some guys have a lot of pride and it’s, ‘Hey, man, why are you paying for me? Is it because you’re getting paid higher?’ I’m like, ‘No, man, you don’t understand. It’s because I believe that I am 100 per cent equal to you. I don’t think I do anything more for this team than you do. I’m one piece of the puzzle and it’s not fair that I get paid that much more than you, but I do, so I want to help out by taking care of some things.’ ”
There is a parallel to the New England Patriots. Their quarterback, Tom Brady, is not even close to being the NFL’s highestpaid quarterback. He is, however, the most accomplished.
“I’m not going to be the guy who goes and asks for $550,000 or $600,000,” Mitchell said. “I told Dave (Dickenson, head coach) and Huf (general manager John Hufnagel) that I don’t want to be the highest-paid quarterback. I don’t want to be the highest-paid player in the league, because that handicaps them in what they can do. If I ask for that kind of money, we probably don’t get Quay (slotback Marquay McDaniel) back.”