June 21, 2017

Kevin Glenn is set to pass a legend

Saskatchewan Roughriders' quarterback Kevin Glenn (5) passes while being chased by B.C. Lions' Craig Roh during the first half of a pre-season CFL football game in Vancouver, B.C., on Friday, June 16, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

MONTREAL — As Kevin Glenn approaches his 17th CFL season, it’s obvious that using the veteran quarterback is more than a passing fad.

The 38-year-old product of Detroit has dressed for 269 regular-season games in the league and has made 191 career starts, spread out over stints with eight of the league’s nine teams.

The only club for which he hasn’t played is the Edmonton Eskimos — and he has jokingly suggested that he wants to sign a one-day contract with them before he retires so that he can complete the series.

But more importantly, Glenn has been productive as both a starter and a backup. Now the No. 1 pivot with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, Glenn goes into Thursday’s regular-season opener against the host Montreal Alouettes with 48,829 career passing yards.

Already seventh on the CFL’s all-time yardage list, Glenn is on the verge of becoming the seventh quarterback in league history to reach the 50,000-yard milestone. It’s not far from there to the sixth-highest total on the all-time list — the 50,535 yards put up by Roughriders legend Ron Lancaster.

“It’s cool, especially being in this market and being on this team, to be able to get those kinds of numbers to pass that guy,” Glenn says. “Lancaster was a great guy and a lot of people in this league praise him. To be able to accomplish something like that would be amazing.”

Glenn, whose tour of the CFL began with the Roughriders in 2001, never got to know Lancaster on a personal level. They met and chatted, but Glenn notes the relationship was never “a talk-on-the-phone type of thing.” Lancaster died in September of 2008.

But Glenn — after arriving in Regina from Illinois State University — heard all about The Little General.

“You find out who he is really quickly and you take note of it,” Glenn says. “At that particular time, I never would have thought that I would still be here playing and maybe surpassing him one day as far as yards are concerned.”

Instead, the Kevin Glenn of 2001 was simply trying to find his way in a new league and a new country. He was just out of college and was trying to make the most of his first opportunity to play pro football.

That Kevin Glenn never envisioned becoming the Kevin Glenn of 2017.

“I probably didn’t even have a thought about 38 at the time; I was worried about 23 or 22,” he says. “I was living in the moment. That’s what happens when you’re young and you get that opportunity to do something that you’ve loved to do your whole life.

“I always say it: We’re grown men playing a kid’s game. We initially started playing this game because our friends played it and we just wanted to be around our friends. At that point (in 2001), it was that same mentality. It was like, ‘I get an opportunity to play football, to make some money and do something I’ve always loved to do.’ ”

But things started to change for Glenn the longer he stayed in the league. Peers like Damon Allen, Henry Burris, Anthony Calvillo and Ricky Ray were moving up the all-time list, so Glenn figured he too had to be climbing.

Now that he’s just 1,171 yards away from 50,000, the magnitude of his accomplishment has hit home.

“I appreciate the media and our (communications) guys bringing up those numbers because we as players don’t always get a chance to focus on it because we’re focused on so much other stuff,” Glenn says. “But it is an important part of us being athletes: The legacies that we want to leave behind and talk about and tell our children about someday.”

Glenn, whose 268 career touchdown passes rank ninth in CFL history, has yet to win a Grey Cup in his career. But Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones has hitched his team’s wagon to Glenn this season, signing the veteran in January in hopes he could replace the departed Darian Durant.

“You don’t play as long as he has played without being an outstanding football player,” Jones says of Glenn. “He has had 17 opportunities to get cut and he has made it every year. There’s a reason why he’s seventh all-time (in passing yards).”

Jones likes Glenn’s production and his calm nature, which the QB has exhibited at times by acknowledging opposing coaches while taking the field. In recent years, one of those coaches has been Jones.

As the Roughriders’ bench boss puts it: “The game’s not too big for him.”

Glenn fended off challenges in training camp from Brandon Bridge, Bryan Bennett, Marquise Williams and Vince Young to be the Roughriders’ starting quarterback this season. In reality, it wasn’t much of a competition; Glenn was the best QB in training camp from the moment it opened.

Now, with his third go-round in Saskatchewan about to begin, Glenn is looking to improve on his 94-96-1 career record as a starter. The key, he says simply, is to do whatever it takes to put the Roughriders in position to win.

“That has always been my M.O.,” Glenn says. “I’ve never looked at this situation as an individual per se. I’ve always been a team guy … and whatever I need to do in order to help the team, that’s what’s going to happen.”