Rick Moffat
CFL.ca
Like the Eagles’ song “Last Resort”, he came Providence—yes, the one in Rhode Island.
But Phil Price knows Canada like you don’t know Canada.
They called him “PhillyDog”. “Philly” for short. From a family of 12. Now he’s a Prairie Dog. A dog carrying a painful secret too many years.
Two-time Grey Cup Championship coach and NFL Hall of Famer Marv Levy failed to discover the secret. Nor did his teammates, as learned a lot as they were on the football field. All assumed he could read a playbook as sure as good buddy and fellow defensive back Tony Proudfoot taught him to read defences.
Disguising coverages was a piece of cake for a youthful man who’d disguised so much about himself already.
“Proudfoot was my hitter. Man, Tony could hit,” says Price, who explored Montreal, Edmonton and Regina during his CFL career. “He made me a better man just for playing with him. He made me a better player, but he made me a better man just for knowing him. He’s such a great guy. What a fighter.”
Long before Proudfoot’s battle with Lou Gehrig’s Disease began, Price was drawn to Taylor Field by the hope he’d run into his former teammate. The smiles cracked their faces easily. It became a roadtrip tradition. When Tony was in town with the Als for CJAD 800 Radio, breakfast or dinner together got war stories flowing easier than the coffee.
And one year, the PhillyDog felt safe enough to conquer the shame of his secret.
“I’d gone back to the USA, to Arizona and was working as a fireman down there, making good money but I wasn’t happy,” recalls Price. His lean build allows you to picture him to this day dashing into a burning building to carry out any child or pet in need of rescue.
“But I had to come back to Canada to be with my lady. So I applied at the fire department in Regina. They told me I had to write a test even with my years down south. I flunked. I was devastated.”
And busted. The secret had finally caught up to him.
Crestfallen in Canada. It was time for Phil Price to confront what he’d hidden from coaches, teammates, even his mother his whole life.
He was illiterate. Nobody knew about the only thing Phil Price could read or write was his own name. Nobody seemed to care.
“I walked into the Regina Public Library. I was desparate and scared. I told this woman—‘you gotta help me’. She thought maybe I wandered in lost.”
“I said I wanna read a book. And you gotta help. I can’t read or write. This woman named Liz took me back to Grade 3. I was 40 and did 4 years of college but I was back in Grade 3.”
“The last time anyone had cared about me like that was Marv. Marv would stay after practise and throw footballs for me to practise interceptions. He’d have me running sideline to sideline. Shuffling every which way. He was a lefty and he was wild! Throwing everywhere I couldn’t catch it. Johnny Rodgers (the former Heisman Trophy winner and Alouette) joined us just for fun.”
Price’s teachers in elementary and high school had always shuffled him along. American universities turned a blind eye to his academic blind spots and offered scholarships despite the fact he was lacking one key slip of paper—no diploma. See how mighty sports is, suggests Price.
Proudfoot could turn the puzzle of playbook diagrams into simple tasks for Price. A career in teaching and education awaited Tony after football. After his playing days were done, Phil faced homework with zeal for the first time in his life.
Long after his U.S. college career was over, long after his CFL career was over, Canada taught him how to read this.
“My passport says I’m American but Canada is my country. The people up here will help you.”
At 16 he feared he’d be painted into a professional corner by illiteracy. So he took a painting class in high school and all these years later his paint business is thriving.
“Things are getting better. I feel younger every day. It’s a trip,” says Price who’ll turn 62 before Grey Cup kicks off this fall. He shows no wear and tear from seven years in the CFL. Laughter still explodes from him like he exploded on nearby pass-catchers.
Love this game. Love this country.
