By Jaime Stein
CFL.ca
Steve Morley has finally landed in the CFL after a nine-month courtship that at one point may have involved all eight teams in the league. At the end of the day, it was the Toronto Argonauts who obtained the services of the highly-regarded offensive lineman.
On the surface, this is an outstanding deal for Toronto, a team which over the past couple of seasons has done the unthinkable by CFL standards and started three imports along the offensive line.
The Argos braintrust – specifically Adam Rita and Greg Mohns – have gone to great lengths this off-season to improve the Canadian depth at the offensive line position. With Morley’s addition on Tuesday the Argonauts could potentially start four non-imports including incumbents Chad Folk and Jude St. John and the recently added Taylor Robertson. The final spot on the offensive line comes down to a training camp battle with Dave Costa and Mike Pearson as the likely front runners.
Beneath the surface, Toronto appears to have usurped East Division rivals in Montreal and Winnipeg who both had tendered official offers to Morley this week.
Last September when Morley was released by the New York Jets several teams rolled out the red carpet for him, including the Argonauts who went as far as bringing him to a game at the Rogers Centre in the owners’ box complete with a limousine for transportation.
The former first overall pick in the Canadian Draft opted not to return to the CFL and instead signed with the Seattle Seahawks. The talk at the time was that his salary demands were too high for the new era of the Salary Management System.
While Argonauts expressed publicly this past week that they were still far apart on financial terms with Morley, it appears as though they were able to close the fiscal gap. Morley will still earn a six-figure salary and with that will come the high expectations that he perform on the football field.
Argos fans have been patient in recent years with other highly touted, high priced talent that has failed to pay dividends, but patience will only last so long.
That being said, fans should not expect a miracle from Morley – at least not at the start of the season. Morley was decent as a rookie in Calgary, but not outstanding. Additionally, he has seen little live action since the 2003 season. Morley has played sparingly during his time in the NFL and NFL Europa. He will need some time to get reconditioned to playing the game.
The upside with Morley is that he is reportedly a good character guy and he is still young by football standards. He will celebrate his 26th birthday this August. He is also a winner. Morley was a man amongst boys winning three Vanier Cups for Saint Mary’s University in Canadian Interuniversity Sport action.
The Argos are gearing up for a place in this year’s Grey Cup at home and are clearly pulling out all the stops to try and make the big game by upgrading their talent across the board. Morley’s presence, despite it being for only one year plus an option, could be a win-win for both the player and the club. The Argos improve their chances to make a run for the Grey Cup while Morley returns to action on the football field and re-starts his somewhat stalled career.
Jaime Stein is the former play-by-play voice of the Toronto Argonauts.
