By Jeff Paterson,
Team 1040
There is a realization here on the West Coast that football fans are being treated to the greatest era in B.C. Lions history. The team is closing in on hosting a fourth-straight West Final and has a chance to win back-to-back Grey Cups for the first time in the team’s 54 years of existence.
There’s no question these are heady times for the B.C. Lions. But it was astounding to discover when the 2007 Rogers CFL Player Awards team winners were released earlier in the week, that when it comes to individual honours – which is by no means the best way to gauge success in a team sport — this era of the B.C. Lions has exceeded the accomplishments of those great Edmonton Eskimos teams of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The Green and Gold won five straight Grey Cups from 1978 to 1982 and will always be the standard by which other CFL franchises are measured. But for the new generations of CFL fans who may not have witnessed the exploits of that Eskimo dynasty and know about it only by studying league record books, it will likely come as a surprise that during that amazing five year run, no member of the Eskimos was named the league’s Most Outstanding Player.
And during an era when the CFL handed out five year-end awards (the special teams player has been a recent addition), Eskimo players won eight of the 25 presented between 1978 and 1982. At that, only five individual players were saluted with Dan Kepley, Dave Fennell and Mike Wilson all winning two apiece.
Since 2004, six different members of the B.C. Lions have taken home a total of eight Rogers awards including five last year alone. And twice in the past three years, the Lions have had the league’s Most Outstanding Player –- Casey Printers in 2004 and Geroy Simon last season.
It seems that Cam Wake and Ian Smart are shoe-ins to join the list as rookie of the year and top special teams player this season and a legitimate case can be made for all of the Lions nominees –- Joe Smith, Jason Clermont, Wake for defensive player of the year and Rob Murphy -– to garner strong consideration in their respective categories.
Now, by no stretch is the Lions success at the trophy table to suggest that this era of Lions stacks up with what those great Eskimos teams accomplished. But it is interesting to note that these Lions have attracted more individual attention while the Edmonton dynasty clearly suffered vote splitting due to a wealth of talent at so many important positions and that the Esks were never concerned with personal hardware, but always had their eyes on the one big prize that is presented at the end of each season. That same one the Lions are looking to defend this season.
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Nowhere is the B.C. Lions depth more evident than on defence where Ryan Phillips, who tied the Leos single-season interception mark with his 12th pick of the year last weekend against Edmonton and is now just three off the league’s season record, isn’t even his own team’s nominee for defensive player of the year. A case could easily be built that Phillips is the league’s best defensive player and yet he couldn’t squeeze past defensive end Cam Wake to get the Lions’ nod. It’s remarkable that in a pass-happy league like the CFL that a defensive back has never walked away with the defensive player of the year honour.
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How valuable has Joe Smith been to the B.C. Lions? Since the LSU product joined the team in Week 6 of the 2006 season for a key divisional game in Calgary, the Lions have gone 25-5-1. The Leos beat the Stampeders that night at McMahon Stadium and rattled off victories in Smith’s first seven CFL games. They finished the year with 11 wins in their final 13 games, won both the West Final and the Grey Cup and are now 12-3-1 this season. In that time, Smith has carried the ball 422 times for 2,272 yards and 27 touchdowns.
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As the Lions and Tiger-Cats get set to battle on Friday night at Ivor Wynne, it should be noted that his has been a one-sided fight in recent years. After a 22-18 win over the Tabbies on July 19 at BC Place, the Lions have now won six straight and nine of their last 10 games against Hamilton. They’ve also won 15 of the last 18 and 18 of the 22 meetings. In fact, going back to the start of the 2003 season, the Lions have won a whopping 40 more regular season games than their feline counterparts. The Lions are 61-26-1 in their last 88 games while the Ticats are 21-66-1.
Jeff Paterson is a broadcaster on the Team 1040, the B.C. Lions flagship radio station, and is also a Vancouver-based freelance writer.
(The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily of the Canadian Football League)
