As Manny show ends, Duron drama begins
Arceneaux arrived with a selfish reputation and left as team player. Will history repeat itself with Carter?
When Manny Arceneaux pulled up stakes and left town Friday to join the Saskatchewan Roughriders, he left behind a huge hole — both as a selfless, hard-working leader in the B.C. Lions’ locker-room and nine years of outreach work that made him pillar of the community.
But few remember that in the beginning The Manny Show was all about its singular star — every Manny for himself, so to speak — before the gregarious wide receiver matured as a person and a player.
The performance shifted from being a one-man show to an inclusive and ensemble cast member as he embraced his responsibilities in a teamfirst culture.
Now, another player labelled with a reputation as a me-first guy, just another mercurial merc with a mouth, will supplant Arceneaux on the depth chart.
Duron Carter only shrugs and flashes his megawatt smile when asked about his character, his reputation as a disruptive locker-room cancer, and always challenges the questioner to talk to any of the fans who’d encountered him face-to-face during his previous stops in Montreal, Saskatchewan and Toronto, or the teammates who always celebrated his on-field triumphs just as boisterously as he did.
With current B.C. assistants Jarious Jackson and Marcus Howell in Saskatchewan in 2017, Carter had a career season with the Roughriders — his 73 catches for 1,043 yards and eight touchdowns led the team, and he was named a CFL all-star for the second time. But he found himself at loggerheads with coach Chris Jones the next season.
As their relationship fractured, the 6-5, 205-pound wideout was pulled off of the offence and moved to defensive back — where he had some success, even famously calling his Babe Ruth-like pick-six of Calgary’s Bo-Levi Mitchell — and even after he made a highlight-reel return to the offence in a 26-19 loss to Mike Reilly and the Eskimos, the writing was on the wall. The Roughriders released him 10 days later.
“I get labelled as a problem or whatnot, but for me, when does that happen? Because everyone in my face is so smiley, and we have great relationships, but when it comes down to nut-cutting time, nobody’s on my side,” said the 27-year-old.
There have been incidents that could be considered red flags: his final season in Montreal was marred by an overthe-top touchdown celebration that included a bump that sent Ottawa head coach Rick Campbell tumbling to the ground, sparking a massive melee and resulting in a one-game suspension to
Carter.
He also got into a shouting match with quarterback Rakeem Cato in practice, and a fight with a Riders’ practice-squad member the following season.
But Reilly, who was a major factor in Carter’s decision to come to B.C., pointed out that Arland Bruce III came to the Lions in 2011 with the same kind of baggage and was nothing but an exemplary teammate in his time with the team.
When he was released by the Riders, there were no shortage of suitors for Carter’s services — including the Lions. Carter was staying with Argos’ receiver S.J. Green in Toronto — the two had been teammates in Montreal — when the Leos made the full- court press for him to join the Leos, though he ended up signing with the Boatmen.
“I was literally a phone call away from signing with B.C.,” said Carter. “I was on the phone with (defensive lineman) Odell Willis as he was literally driving to practice, and he was like ‘Ed (Hervey) wants you. Ed wants you.’ I said ‘I’m here in Toronto and I’m just about to talk to them, and if I don’t like what I hear, I’ll come to B.C.’”
After the volatile final season in Regina, stability was an appealing factor for Carter. Jim Popp was the Argos’ GM, and gave Carter his CFL start in Montreal, where he played with Green and current Argo Bear Woods. Head coach Marc Trestman also had history with Carter’s dad — NFL Hall of Famer Cris Carter — as a quarterbacks coach with the Minnesota Vikings.
“I called Ed and talked to him about it, and he said ‘We’ll always want you in B.C.,’” said Carter, adding the Lions even tried to trade for him later that year.
The final half-season in Toronto turned out to be a bleak one, as he had just 10 receptions for 119 yards and a touchdown. Carter struggled to integrate into an offence that was already one of the CFL’s worst, a turnover machine that ranked second-last in points scored under the helm of quarterbacks McLeod Bethel-Thompson and James Franklin.
When Jacques Chapdelaine was hired to replace Trestman after his disastrous 4-14 campaign, the discussions they had spurred Carter to move on. B.C. was his preferred destination. The Lions were building something, and they had just signed the league’s reigning passing champ in Reilly.
“Being in Toronto, and being pushed out of the offence (in Saskatchewan) … the game wasn’t fun. I don’t know if people could see it, but I wasn’t having fun playing football at that point,” said Carter.
“And talking to Ed Hervey this off-season, he just reassured me about coming in, having a fresh start, and them wanting me as a person, not only as player, to come into B.C. and be a part of the culture they’re building.”