He saw the field as well as any quarterback ever to play the game of professional football.
But what Ricky Ray doesn’t see is any professional football games being played this season.
“Not at the moment, no,” said the former Edmonton Eskimos and Toronto Argonauts great, whose career completion percentage of 68.16 is tops on the list of all-time passers over the 40,000-yard mark in both the CFL and NFL. “We look at how things have gone with the initial shutdown and people staying at home, the numbers definitely started to decrease. And now that we’ve kind of opened back up, you see what’s happening again.
“You could go ahead and do it, I just don’t know if it’s worth it. I don’t know. It’s a tough question to ask, is it even worth it to bring the guys together and deal with all that stuff to play part of a season? Or just to say, hey, we don’t have a season this year.”
In his old stomping grounds where his career began in 2002, the Alberta government has restricted sports cohorts to groups of 50, which is barely enough to fit one active roster worth of players, let alone sideline staff, officials and a whole other team. And, looking beyond this year, it seems a far cry from phasing 30,000 into a stadium again.
“I’m glad I’m not making those decisions,” Ray said of salvaging some sort of 2020 CFL season. “But I don’t know at this point how they really can.”
Week 4 of the schedule would have been underway right now, sans COVID-19, with the defending Grey Cup champion Winnipeg Blue Bombers visiting Commonwealth Stadium on Friday.
E-mail: [email protected]
On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge
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