Jimmy Jeong/CFL.ca
After practice ended on a cold, wet day, the B.C. Lions were drying out and warming up in their dressing room.
Running back Jeremiah Johnson was standing near his locker chatting. Fellow running back Anthony Allen walked by and handed Johnson a freshly baked cookie.
“That’s my boy Anthony giving me a cookie,” Johnson said with a chuckle. “That’s how much love we’ve got for each other.”
From the beginning of the year Johnson and Allen knew they would share a dressing room but won’t dress for the same games. Johnson has played 10 games this season while Allen has started seven.
Sharing a job could have driven a wedge between some talented and competitive veterans. Instead, the two have found a way to make it work.
That’s one of the reasons why the Lions (11-6) are enjoying their best season in three years. B.C. can lock up second place in the CFL West this weekend with a win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders (5-12).
“It’s been really easy,” said Johnson, who has rushed for 769 yards and seven touchdowns on 130 carries. “We just bought into the system.
“I don’t think it was a personal goal type of thing. We looked at the grand scheme of things. We knew having this program implemented is going to give us the opportunity to be healthy, give us the opportunity to be the best we can be.”
Allen admitted he was skeptical when Wally Buono, the Lions head coach and general manager, first explained how the year would work.
“At first, just being a player, being a competitor, wanting to play all the time, I thought it sucked,” said Allen, who has 436 yards and three touchdowns on 87 carries. “As the year started progressing and I started feeling how my body felt when I was going into games, and how his body felt, it was amazing.
“I have never felt like this at this part of the year. That’s a testament to coach, to him trying to do something like this. It worked out.”
Johnson has rushed for 100 yards or more in each of the last two games and three of his last five starts. If he stays healthy, he will probably start in the playoffs.
The two backs have different styles. At six-foot-one and 220 pounds, Allen is the bigger of the two. He’s more of a power runner.
Johnson, who is five-foot-nine and 209 pounds, is faster. He finds the hole quickly then uses moves to make tacklers miss.
“We both have different things we bring to the table,” said Johnson, 29. “I don’t do things better than him and he doesn’t do things better than me.”
Quarterback Jonathon Jennings said the two are interchangeable.
“We trust both of those guys,” said Jennings, the Lions nominee as the league’s most valuable player. “They have done it all year.
“They do similar things. Nothing changes for us. We trust both those guys to go out and make plays.”
Both players have been football nomads.
Johnson, a Los Angeles native, attended college in Oregon. After not being taken in the 2009 NFL draft he had stops in Houston, Washington, Carolina and Denver before landing in Toronto. He played five games with the Argos in 2014 before finishing the year with the Ottawa REDBLACKS.
Last season, Johnson played 10 games in Ottawa, collecting 448 yards and nine touchdowns on 97 carries. His season ended with a dislocated foot. He was on the sidelines watching when the REDBLACKS lost in the Grey Cup to Edmonton.
“I shed a couple of tears before kickoff,” Johnson said. “You wanted to be on the battle field with your guys.”
Johnson signed with the Lions as a free agent, partly to be closer with his family in Oregon.
Allen, 28, was born in Tampa, Fla., and attended Georgia Tech. He was taken in the seventh round of the 2011 draft by Baltimore. After a brief stint in Buffalo he joined Saskatchewan
In two seasons with the Riders, Allen had 1,505 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on 261 carries. He was released when new Riders head coach Chris Jones cleaned house and signed as free agent with the Lions in February.
Allen’s best game this season was Oct. 1 against Ottawa where he had 82 yards on 12 carries.
Allen said having experience in both leagues helped the two backs adjust to their shared role in B.C.
“We’re both veterans,” he said. “We’ve both been starters here in the CFL.
“You see this is a good team. You have to buy in and ride this all the way to the Grey Cup.”
Buono has been pleased that the two players can co-exist. He’s also let it be known any dissension would be settled quickly.
“They’ve been very good about dealing with the situation,” he said. “I’ve also been very clear that it’s easy to go to one. Somebody is losing their job.”
Some of the running back duties have also fallen to diminutive Chris Rainey.
What the five-foot-eight, 180-pound punt and kick returner lacks in size he more than compensates for with blinding speed. Most of the plays called for Rainey are designed to go around the end, where he can outrun tacklers.
Any Western team hoping to teach the Grey Cup must travel through Calgary. The Grey Cup game itself will be played in Toronto. That means outdoor games and possibly weather conditions that demand a running back to be successful.
Having two healthy, capable running backs just gives the Lions a little more bite. Johnson and Allen would happily share a drink out of the Grey Cup.
“It’s all about the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Johnson. “The light in the tunnel is the Grey Cup.
“That’s the goal for both of us. Whether it’s him or me playing, we still want to encourage each other. We are on the same team and going for the same goal.”
