Stamps leader plunges deeper
Fearless, thoughtful Mitchell takes third shot at Cup and reverses field on Kaepernick after teammates’ tales
Where do you start with Bo Levi Mitchell? How about Katy, Texas, where he was born and raised in the churches of religion and football, and only one of them really, really stuck? How about in Calgary, where the 27-year-old is in his third Grey Cup in four years with the Stampeders and is still somehow the best young QB in the league? How about on his radio show, where he can chat football and white privilege with equal ease? How many star quarterbacks can do that?
OK, let’s start with his baby girl and how she hurt dad’s shoulder. He and his wife Madison welcomed her in March and named her Ele, pronounced Ee-lee, an acronym for Everybody Love Everybody. She’s changed his life for the better, except in one little way.
“It’ll come out after the season, but in the Saskatchewan game (in week five) I did something to my shoulder, and it was pretty bad then . . . but it got to the point where we were going to sit me, now and then,” says Mitchell. “We were putting a licking on (Hamilton and Toronto after that) and that made it easier to bring me out, so I could get that rest. So coming into this bye week and I thought: I need this bye week. I’ll feel great.”
He and Madison travelled to Lake Liberty, Wash., her hometown. Ele was 5 months old.
“And you know how it is with your wife, you can kind of see how her nerves are at the end?” says Bo. “So I would take (Ele) for walks, and because my right arm is my strongest arm, I would always carry her on my right side, and I didn’t think twice about it because it wasn’t that big a deal. She weighs, like, 15 pounds. And during the week I’m realizing, my shoulder is killing me.
“And after the bye week I came back and I went to my massage therapist, and she said: ‘What do you need me to work on?’ And I said: ‘My shoulder. My shoulder’s dead.’ She was disappointed in me for doing that.”
It was one reason why he didn’t repeat his most outstanding player campaign from 2016 — and it was a lesson. But Calgary finished first again and is in the Grey Cup again. En route, Bo had a year unlike anybody else’s. He called out Saskatchewan’s use of a shadow practice roster, which was against the rules and got the Riders in trouble; he playfully trash-talked Duron Carter before throwing an interception to the Saskatchewan receiver-turned-defensive back; he eloquently addressed the NFL player protests during the anthem. Imagine if a star NFL quarterback did any of that. Bo did all of it.
“The thing is, you want to stay authentic and true to who you are, and not change because of anything like that,” says Mitchell. “Don’t speak out just to speak out. I’m definitely learning from the Ricky Rays, and being smart in what you say, and lock into your job and focus on what you do. But I’ve always been the guy to speak my mind when I feel it’s necessary. It’s not always the right time, but that’s something I’ll continue to learn from.”
Bo was drilled with discipline in high school football.
He watched Andy Dalton deal with the job as his predecessor at Katy, and especially how Dalton dealt with disappointment. Bo learned his natural sandlot instincts needed to be sublimated by a team, though he still resists playing like a robot. He is a man who has evolved because he is capable of evolution.
Like, the white privilege thing: he always knew that, from the time when he was a kid. Bo would see how his church-going friends’ parents would be devout on Sunday, cheer the African-American players on the field and bad-mouth them at home. He remembers driving with three Black friends in the car, getting pulled over, and it was the other guys who were asked for their IDs. He remembers driving through a little town in Texas and seeing a cross burning, and driving the hell away.
But when the debate over protest and systemic racism in the United States came to football, Bo Levi Mitchell didn’t like Colin Kaepernick and his first instinct was that the protests were disrespectful. And then he listened to his teammates — the ones who had actually lived the experience of being Black in America — and changed his mind.
“I started to understand it, and I said, ‘I’m wrong,’ ” says Mitchell. “That’s what I think we’re really missing (is) the people who can’t swallow their pride and say that they’re wrong.” He could listen, and learn. On his Sportsnet 960 radio show on Sept. 25, Mitchell spoke for five uninterrupted minutes off the top, and the most important thing he said was about being aware of the benefits being white conferred on him. It was the same day San Anto- nio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said much the same thing.
“This is about the fact that there is social inequality, and (some people think) if you’re not white you’re not right. And that’s a problem,” said Mitchell that day. “I was blessed and given a privilege for the colour of my skin, and I get to walk around every day as if I’m better than anybody else because of that. And I think that’s the problem right now.
“I had people who say there’s no racism in Canada, so why are you talking about this?” says Mitchell. “And I was like, you’re the perfect person to be listening to this.”
If you wanted to sum up Bo Levi Mitchell, you could say he isn’t afraid to be himself and he isn’t afraid to change. He seems likely to try for the NFL in two years; he may remain and try for all-time CFL status. He might use his platform more; he might cut back. Maybe the right question with Bo Levi Mitchell isn’t “Where do you start?” Maybe we should wonder where he’s going.