70,000 plus and counting

For a while it seemed like no one would be able to see some Argo and CFL history get made, a pre game pyrotechnics festival sent a haze of smoke wafting through the Rogers Centre at game time Saturday night.

Like the famous fog bowl game of the sixties, watching the action from the stands and on television was the work of those with very good eyesight and an ability to squint quite a bit.

Perhaps it was so no one would notice that the game was being played on a baseball field, as the Blue Jays return to Toronto for Monday was given a head start by having the bases set up on the football field without the bags of course.

The Argos special field was not to be used as it would take too long to take it out and set up the ball field for the Jaysfor Monday (one assumes that Skydome maintenance doesn't work Sundays). So it was like those days at Exhibition Stadium for the double blue, a rock hard playing surface and a fog bank to boot.

The smoke finally filtered out by second quarter enabling the Rogers crowd to get a glimpse of their quarterback and his attempt to reach closer to pro football immortality. Although Damon Allen didn’t reach his mark without giving his fans and team mates a bit of a scare, knocked out of the game for a bit to clear his head after a crushing tackle by the Alouettes Louis Mackay.

By the third quarter Allen had sufficiently recovered to return to the field and looked none the worse for wear as he took over from the struggling Spurgeon Wynn and resumed a potent Argonaut attack. By the time the night would be finished, Allen would be a step closer to his Moon shot and the Argos had claimed a 31-6 victory.

The moment everyone had been waiting for took place late in the third quarter as Allen tossed a pass to Keith Stokes to pass the career mark of 70,000 yards in the air, bringing the Argonaut quarterback and CFL legend to a mark of 70,112 by games end and closing in on Warren Moons all time pro football record of 70,553 yards in the air.

The Argos also benefited from some uncharacteristic play on the Alouettes side as Anthony Calvillo threw five interceptions, something quite uncommon for the start QB of the Als. The loss was Montreal’s second in a row and brought them back down to the mortals of the CFL after a fast and powerful start out of the gate this season.

But as much as Calvillo was off this night, Allen was definitely on, defying the odds of his elder status in the league and setting the stage for an exciting second half of Argonaut football, with nine games to go before the regular season, it won’t be long before Allen eclipses the Moon record. A moment that will once again write a new chapter in the CFL record books and send notice to the USA that there has been a pretty good QB plying his trade in Canada all these years.

The above posting first appeared on my Twelve Men on the Field blog, a look at the happenings of the Canadian Football league.