ANGUS REID PUMPED TO DEFEND GREY CUP
Football fire still burns in 35- year- old eager to repeat Grey Cup win
The fire is still there for Angus Reid. In fact, when it comes to football and the B. C. Lions, it might be burning brighter than ever before.
The 35- year- old centre agreed on Wednesday to return to the Lions for the 2012 season, not two full months removed from one of his best individual seasons in the Canadian Football League and a Grey Cup championship that erased a dreadful 0- 5 start.
“It was a tough decision and I wanted to take the Christmas break to figure it out and see how I was feeling,” said Reid during a phone interview Thursday.
Reid was named a West Division and CFL all- star for his efforts last season, which came after he initially hinted at retirement on his Twitter account (@ angusreid64) following an up and down, injuryplagued 2010 campaign.
“Nothing lasts forever … Tomorrow might just be my last game in a Lions uniform,” Reid tweeted on Oct. 30, 2010, one day before B. C. defeated the Saskatchewan Roughriders on the final day of the CFL season to secure the final playoff berth in the West.
The Lions were eliminated shortly after by the same Roughriders in the West Division semifinal, and again talk surfaced that Reid’s career was done.
His status as starting centre was taken away at the start of 2010 — thanks in large part to a broken foot the previous season that required surgery — and he was reduced to a secondary role until Dean Valli went down with an injury.
“I was mentally preparing myself that the team might not want me back,” Reid said.
“To be honest, I even went into last season thinking it might be my last.”
But times have changed. Despite starting the year 0- 5 and dipping to 1- 6, the Lions looked unstoppable by the time Grey Cup weekend rolled around, and then they ran over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 34- 23 for the championship — the team’s first at BC Place since 1994.
Talk of putting his career to rest will be brushed aside until the end of 2012, when, as Reid believes, the Lions could defend their Grey Cup title.
“Honestly, that was a big motivator as to why I came back,” he said.
“The sky is the limit with this team. It’s just going to get better and better. And the best part is this is a good team off the field. Guys really care about each other.”
Not only was Reid a big part of the improved play of the offensive line this season, which gave quarterback Travis Lulay time to operate an efficient offence, it’s the off- field intangibles that make Reid so valuable to the Lions, said general manager and VP of operations Wally Buono.
“I think Angus is a tremendous human being on and off the field,” said Buono.
“He carries himself very well in the locker- room and in the city.”
Buono, too, admitted that he believed No. 64 would call it quits following 2010.
“He had a tough two years there, with injuries ... but he was able to endure. I honestly did think [ Reid would retire],” said the Lions former head coach, the winningest of alltime in the CFL.
“You could see there were things that were much more difficult for him.”
Maybe, as Buono put it, Reid found a new “re- appreciation” for the game, once healthy.
Given the physical pounding football players take, particularly on the offensive and defensive lines, you have to love the game in order to play it well into your 30s, said Reid.
“I wouldn’t do this just for the paycheque. You’ve got to love what you do — all the weightlifting and training and smashing people ... I have a lot of love for this and a lot of fire.”