Rick Moffat
CFL.ca
Ben Cahoon’s retirement day celebrated all the skills that made him a great player and great teammate. But it also blew his cover. “Velcro Hands” had another secret identity. “The Phantom.”
“Ben is a Hall of Fame liar,” says Anthony Calvillo. “He always denied. He always played innocent. Ben was a big part of ‘The Phantom.’”
| “His whole nice-guy approach was a set-up.” – Scott Flory |
The best Alouette pranks, the stick’em that would bond a locker-room, all now seem to trace back to Ben, the CFL’s ultimate “Agent 86.”
“Two years ago the O-line’s fridge in our meeting room went missing,” roars Scott Flory. “We’re O-linemen: we need our drinks and snacks. We walk in one day and the fridge is gone. Not only did Ben vehemently deny it, I supported him and defended his innocence.”
“His whole nice-guy approach was a set-up. He even tried to frame one of us (one of Flory’s O-line comrades). But Ben’s conscience got the better of him.”
On the field Ben would set you up as well. He’d give you the “slow, white guy” look, then out-muscle, out-leap or outmanoeuvre you to the football.
The question is not whether Ben Cahoon deserves Canadian Football Hall of Fame induction. There are 1,017 good reasons in Ben’s case. The only question is timing.
There is a three-year waiting period after retirement before the Hall’s selection committee can bestow such an honour. Ben just stepped in front of Anthony. Would AC like to go together with him to the Hall?
“I think the first opportunity he gets he deserves to be in there,” says Calvillo, looking well after a radiation treatment that followed his thyroid surgery. (His teammates assembled for the Cahoon retirement jokingly asked if they’d glow after shaking his hand.)
“I’ve been extremely fortunate to be a part of his career.”
The many lives of Ben Cahoon have been well documented. The stabbing while on a Mormon mission that could have ended his career. His red-shirt underdog fight to launch his career at BYU alongside his lifelong friend and Super Bowl champ Chad Lewis.
Even his Canadian-ness was well examined. The Argos hoped he’d keep it their secret but Ben wisely pronounced himself Canadian to all CFL GMs in his draft year.
Another future Hall of Fame Alouette teammate points out that Ben faced one more severe obstacle in his first Als’ camp in ’98 that could have prevented this astounding career from ever being realized. A rookie-hating, fire-breathing head coach named Dave Ritchie.
“All the rookies knew Ritchie hated us,” recalls Barron Miles, now coaching with the BC Lions. “ ‘You may as well go home’ he’d say. ‘I’m gonna cut you anyway’ he’d threaten. I didn’t even think of myself as a rookie cause I’d been in the NFL. But Ben just kept making circus catch after circus catch. He forced Dave Ritchie to keep him.”
Only three rookies survived the cut, Miles and Cahoon among them. “The Phantom” had just been handed more culprits on whom to pull his pranks.
Miles would beat Cahoon for Eastern Rookie of the Year that season, but marvels at Ben’s durability.
And the lying? No self-respecting receiver shows a DB he’s feeling any pain. Deception is a key weapon in the no-pain/no-gain world of CFL secondaries and Miles says only Jason Clermont rivals Cahoon for pain-threshold.
He also predicts Ben will be an outstanding coach. “He understands players, he understands offences and he understands defences. He’ll be great with young players.”
If Ben Cahoon wins his next dream job at BYU, just tell someone to make sure the fridges are chained down.
