Could be even better second time around

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This article was published 13/09/2016 (3306 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When you play in a nine-team league for long enough, you’re bound to wind up on the same team twice at some point. Or perhaps your name is just Kevin Glenn.

Indeed, the well-travelled 16-year Canadian Football League veteran quarterback who has been a member of eight of the nine clubs currently in the league — the Edmonton Eskimos being the exception — made his return to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ practice field Tuesday morning.

The Bombers acquired the wily vet Sunday night from the Montreal Alouettes in a deal that sent a fourth-round pick in the 2017 CFL Draft the other way. They also shipped former starter Drew Willy to the Toronto Argonauts in exchange for first and third-round picks and defensive back T.J. Heath. 

“I always got told by my father and (former Blue Bombers executive) Jerry Maslowsky (who passed away last week after a battle with cancer) I was going to end up back here one day before my career was over,” Glenn said. “I never thought it would happen because a lot of times when you leave somewhere, the different coaches and everything, it’s hard to get back there. It happened. I’m happy. I’m ready to come in and help any way I can.”

Glenn spent five seasons in Blue and Gold threads in the 2000s, his longest stint with any franchise during his career and a team he credits with giving him his true start in the CFL after being a backup in Saskatchewan since the Roughriders brought him into the league in 2001.

He lead the Bombers to a Grey Cup appearance in 2007, a game he missed due to suffering a broken arm in the division final, before being cut by then-head coach Mike Kelly in 2009. 

Glenn was surprised to be traded, but when asked if he was happy to be gone from the 3-8 Alouettes, he played an evasive card.

“Its nice to be here in Winnipeg. We’ll leave it at that,” Glenn said. “I’m not here to talk about the past, I guess you could say. I had an opportunity and it didn’t work out.

“Just from conversations we had (with Als’ brass), I didn’t think that it was at an end. But this is the CFL, you never know what can happen. I’ve been in plenty of situations like this before — I was dealt last year in October to Montreal (from the Roughriders in his second stint in Regina).”

Glenn goes from the basement in the East Division with the Als to a Blue Bombers team fresh off its sixth consecutive win in a 17-10 triumph over the Riders in Sunday’s Banjo Bowl, and one very much in the thick of the playoff conversation.

“Awesome,” he said. “I mean, just coming into the locker room this morning, the guys are coming in and they’re all excited, they’re alive. Sometimes you think a team that has had six wins is complacent. You get onto the practice field and it’s not. Those guys are flying around like they lost three in a row. You got to give credit to the organization, the coaches and everything.”

Glenn slots into the backup role, and perhaps most importantly while fellow pivot Matt Nichols is at the helm, a mentor role to the current No. 1.

“He’s a Hall of Famer and a guy I feel I can learn a lot from,” said Nichols. “I think we’re going to work very well together. We’re already talking about protections and game-planning this week. He’s a guy that already has a lot of input. I’m going to listen to everything he has to say; he’s thrown for like 50,000 yards in this league (48,766, to be exact).”

Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea said there is always a litany of emotions that go along with a major trade in the CFL. O’Shea was a staunch proponent and supporter of Willy, even naming him the starting pivot on the day the team signed him, months before training camp began in 2014.

But the field general said he also understands it’s part of the game.

“It’s not something you take lightly,” he said. “Right up until the last second you’re like, ‘All right, is this the right thing to do? Are we making sure we are double-checking and triple-checking?’ We go over our trains of thought and make sure it’s the right move. And it is.”

O’Shea feels Glenn’s presence and CFL savvy will help more than just Nichols.

“I think there is a comfort element that says this guy’s been to Grey Cups, he’s been through the playoffs, he’s been in situations where he’s had to battle,” O’Shea said. There’s just an immense comfort knowing you have that much experience in the room. Besides being out there, he’ll help everybody out around him. You don’t make these deals without checking on character.”

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @scottbilleck 

Scott Billeck
Reporter

Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.  Read more about Scott.

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