Henry Burris: a good guy faces tough times
Wednesday, November 8, 2006 | 04:31 PM ET
I’m not afraid to admit this right away: I like Henry Burris.
During 1999 Grey Cup week, I was chatting with someone when Burris interrupted our conversation. We’d never met before. He said, “Alright, who am I?” and proceeded to imitate the way I did my on-camera reports. A couple of my co-workers started laughing about how he even moved his chin like I do.
As he moved to Saskatchewan, to Green Bay, to Chicago, and back to Calgary, more discovered the fun side of Burris’s personality: the nickname Smilin’ Hank suited him well. Those people rooted for him to do well because he’s a real good guy.
However, Burris now faces the greatest challenge of his career. There was always a sense he would outgrow his erratic nature; that the “Bad Henry” side of his quarterback persona would disappear as he aged.
Now 31, Burris just finished a season where he led the CFL in touchdown passes (23) but also tied for first in interceptions (18). The playoff loss to Saskatchewan was a nightmare of Biblical proportions, with the quarterback chased all day long by a ferocious pass rush.
“All day long I was forced to throw off my back foot,” Burris said.
How many different blitzes did you see?
“Only about two or three,” he said. “They didn’t surprise me. They did the same things they normally do.”
(Roughrider defensive tackle Scott Schultz agreed, saying the Saskatchewan schemes weren’t anything special. “We just imposed our will,” he said.)
In his last two playoff games – both home losses, both led by Calgary at halftime – Burris is just 27-52 for 440 yards. He has zero touchdown passes and (ugh) six interceptions.
Three months ago, Calgary and Saskatchewan were tied at the half when Danny Barrett gave an interview where he said his team would be okay because “Henry hasn’t made his two bad throws yet.” They didn’t come that day, as Burris scorched Barrett’s defence en route to a 53-35 win. Barrett privately delivered the same message once again, and this time he proved prophetic.
To his credit, Burris stopped running once the game was over, facing waves of reporters and even doing a live radio interview with a station lining up callers eager to roast him. He’s under contract through the 2009 season, but this is an organization that benched last season’s CFL Defensive Player of the Year because it felt John Grace was no longer good enough.
Will the Stampeders do the same to Burris? It’s not a ridiculous question. One of Dave Dickenson/Buck Pierce will be on the market. So might Casey Printers. All of a sudden, one of the sport’s real good guys is no longer secure.
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About the Author
Elliotte Friedman is the host of the CFL ON CBC. Prior to being named host in 2006, Friedman worked on the CFL on CBC broadcasts for the three seasons as a sideline reporter. A Toronto native, Friedman is well known for his additional work on Hockey Night in Canada, as well as his presence on the Torino 2006 Winter Games telecasts as a hockey reporter. Prior to joining the CBC, Friedman worked at The Score network and was widely regarded as one of the best reporters in the country. Friedman used his reporting skills to break stories and file feature reports for high profile events including six Stanley Cup Finals, four Grey Cup Championships, two World Series and one Olympic Games. He is also a regular on the nationally syndicated Prime Time Sports radio telecast, hosted by Bob McCown.
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Comments
Brent
Hamilton
As a suffering Tiger Cat fan, I eagerly wait for Calgary to lose patience with Hank. The sooner the better. He is one of the few players in the league who is 'worth the price of admission'.
Posted November 16, 2006 03:03 PM