As we are now in week 4 of the CFL season when I came home from a long road trip where I was off-line literally for 5 days (very limited, if any access to internet/phone/TV) and turned on Sportsnet to catch up on latest highlights, of particular interest to me was the fact that former Heizman winner Johnny Maizel has been traded to my former home team, the Montreal Allouettes.

Although it has now been a few decades since I actually lived in various suburbs of Montreal, the Allouetes back in the day was one of the reasons why I chose to play football among the others I played, their great teams in the 70’s/80’s I had an opportunity to see play live and watched them with great interest in the 2000 era in BC where they appeared in the Grey Cup eight times including the comeback classic in 2009.

The quarterback that lead them to those 8 appearances was  Anthony Calvillo, now quarterback coach of the Allouettes whom will mentor Johnny to bring the once proud franchise back to their competitive glory.

The big unkown is whether Johnny will be the savior that Montreal is looking for, even the smaller McGill stadium that the Allouettes moved to from the Big O when the franchise came back from the failed attempt by the CFL to expand into the USA (much like when the Expo’s moved to Washington for good, it truly saddened me when the Allouettes left my home town but fortunately returned much like the Winnipeg Jets did in the NHL).

It got me thinking about the days when I was playing and my buds would head to the park for good old pickup games, just a football, cleats and full on tackle (GAME ON) without any equipment.

Thinking back, probably not the smartest thing to do (in recent years due to CTE, concussions and head trauma’s but we never lead with our heads like kids do today as think they are safe with all the gear) but anyone that has watched the movie invincible about Philadelphia Walk-on Vince Papale played by Mark Wahlberg and his buds playing in the rain on the field with car lights get it.  When I had the opportunity to connect with Wade Gilbert (AKA the Coaches Doc) for our summer summit and we talked about all the sports we played as kids, we both agreed there was nothing better than sliding around in the mud (although our mothers were not too happy when we came home)

One of the things I prided myself when we were in tight pickup games I would tell our QB (whoever stepped up to play QB at the time) was I wanted to that GUY that caught the hail mary pass at the end of the game to win the game. Unlike what the Hail Mary pass has evolved to now, it could merely have been a 20-40-year dash but it still was a Hail Mary.

 

 

 

It got me thinking, what were some of the greatest Hail Mary Passes of all time and here is my list of fav’s;

1. THE original Hail Mary – thrown by one of the classiest to play the game, Roger Staubach, in a playoff game against Minnesota Dec 28, 1975. When he was interviewed after throwing the game-winning pass to Drew Pearson “I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary” and the desperation longshot pass for trying to win/ tie in the dying seconds was born.

 

2. Dec 3, 2015 – Miracle in Motown – Aaron Rodgers of the Green Packers threw a 61 yard Hail Mary pass in extra time as Detroit took a defensive penalty and were knocked out of the playoffs as a result

 

3. Jan 16, 2016 – Aaron Rodgers did what many thought to this day was impossible, he threw a 60 yard Hail Mary pass to score in the final minute of the fourth quarter, followed by a 41 yard touchdown pass to Jeff Janis (who caught the 60 yard pass as well) to tie the game in the final play. Sadly, Green Bay lost in OT but what a game.

 

4. Dec. 23, 1984 – The Hail Flutie game when Doug Flutie threw the 63-yard “flood tip” for Boston College to win in a nail-biter 47-45 over the Miami Hurricanes. Doug was the first to throw for over 10,000 yards in college, won the Heisman Trophy that year, went on to play many years in the CFL and NFL even though many felt he was not big enough to play beyond college and he proved all the naysayers wrong.

 

5. Sept 28, 2009 – Brett Favre’s miracle pass to defeat the 49’ers at the end of the game early in the season playing for Vikings, the very same team that were victim to Roger Staubach’s original Hail Mary Pass. It also was the team that sadly he would retire playing for, after too much drama if was retiring or not to make way for Aaron Rodgers when Green Bay Managment said ENOUGH, as decision many questioned at the time, but have not looked back since.

There are many, many other instances of the Hail Mary Passes leading to games being won, including those in pickup games playing in the mud, turning on car lights to finish as I did with many of my buds after our competitive careers finished, including infamous New Years Day bashes recovering from the festivities the night prior.

Here is the prayer that started it all …