Phillips walks after refusing to take a ‘back seat’
Veteran defensive back latest to leave club under awkward circumstances
The move was not a surprise. In a league with a limited salary cap, where the allocation of resources matters, how that money is distributed can destroy that which brings teammates close.
The consequence of seeing his production dip to one interception last season was going to have consequences for Ryan Phillips, the 12-year veteran halfback and fourtime CFL all-star of the B.C. Lions.
But he was not prepared to accept a salary reduction of “38 to 40 per cent” — a $50,000 haircut — much less agree to playing a secondary role proposed by head coach and GM Wally Buono.
With an unbridgeable gulf between Phillips’ estimation of himself and the team’s expectations of him, the 34-year-old Seattle native could see no alternative but to ask for his release, just days before CFL free agency begins on Tuesday.
“I was being asked to take a back seat to players who had no accolades, no all-star berths, no his- tory in this league,” Phillips said Friday. “What was really disheartening and insulting is that I would be given no chance to compete. It sounds ridiculous.
“At the very least, I wanted the chance to compete and have the (starting) job taken away from me, if it came to that. I made a choice. This is not how I deserve to see my career end in B.C. after 12 years.”
Are you picking up a pattern here?
Other long-tenured Lions who plied their trade with distinction — Geroy Simon, Dante Marsh, Korey Banks, etc. — left town with awkward exits on the far side of their playing careers, a reminder that football is visceral and riveting as a game, but raw and ruthless as a business.
Only Simon returned, after winning a Grey Cup with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, to take up his current role in the Lions’ personnel department.
Discussions with the GM aside, Phillips said Simon was the only member of the Lions organization to communicate with him and of- fer guidance and strength when the impasse became apparent.
“He’s playing a company role, but that’s what I admire about Geroy,” Phillips said. “He reached out to me as a friend.”
“It’s a raw deal for Ryan,” said Marsh, a retired 11-year cornerback who trains athletes and coaches football at a junior college in Modesto, Calif. “But does it surprise me? Not at all.”
“We went through the same thing with Geroy,” Buono explained. “We couldn’t agree on a role he wanted to accept, so he asked for a trade. It’s unfortunate, but the cap is what it is.
“Putting the emotion aside, you put a value on a player and base it against his production. When that production changes, so does the value. Decisions like this are not easy stuff — on the player, the team or the fans. It affects everybody. But it affects some players more than others. They are the victims (of the salary cap).”
Shortly after Phillips’ release, the Lions announced a one-year contract extension for halfback T.J. Lee, seven years his junior and a fellow Seattle native who went to the same university — Eastern Washington.
Coming off an Achilles tear — Lee only played four games in 2016, but was a dynamic presence in each one of them — he admitted his bargaining power was limited, the reason he settled for a oneyear deal “to prove what I’m really worth at the end of it.”
Mentored by Phillips, Lee said the veteran was many things to many Lions that added up to much more than statistical measures.
At that, Phillips departs with 47 career interceptions (regular season), second all-time in club history to Larry Crawford’s 51.
“Our energy, our positivity, our leadership will take a blow because R.P.’s not there,” Lee said. “It’s unfortunate. He was a big brother to players like me. You knew he wanted to stay. I’m learning what a cruel business this is.”
While not naming specific individuals, both Lee and Phillips said there are backups and role players on the Lions whose contracts could have been restructured to make up the shortfall in Phillips’ negotiations.
“Some of that money should have gone to R.P.,” Lee said. “He’s a starter.”
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, he paid Phillips a lavish compliment by vowing to attempt to fill the leadership void left by one of the CFL’s most cheerful, engaging and hardest-working stars.
“Ryan had the mindset and the approach of a leader,” Lee said. “Somebody has to take up his mantle. Why not me?”