DAMON ALLEN: PARTY LIKE IT'S 1985

Greater minds have already put Damon Allen's conquest of Warren Moon's record in perspective (and the Pen of Doom did his best to pour cold water all over it in this morning), so there's not much more that can be said.

Some time in the third quarter of tonight's Labour Day "classic" between the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats (hard to call it a classic when the teams are a combined 7-14), Allen is going to reach 165 passing yards on the night and eclipse Moon's all-time pro football career mark of 70,553. Of course, the friggin' Ticats are gonna win.

All that can be offered up here are some fun Damon Allen facts, about a guy who broke into the pros when people still carried around boom boxes and is still going strong in the iPod Era.

(Hopefully this goes a little way toward illustrating what he's done in twenty-two seasons of pro football. No, it doesn't add up to a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but neither Allen, the Argos nor the CFL should need the NFL's approval to feel validated. The accolades he's garnered in this country are more than enough.)

In 1985, when Allen started playing in the Canadian Football League, the USFL was still operating. The original Montreal CFL team was still operating. No one was talking about Ottawa possibly not having a team.

Allen outlasted them. In a matter of speaking, he outlasted the World League of American Football and the XFL. He's outlasted 10 CFL teams -- Montreal, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Shreveport, Birmingham, Memphis, San Antonio, Baltimore and Ottawa twice.

Allen played his college ball at Cal State Fullerton. It doesn't have a football team any more, which is a little odd, seeing as the CFL's all-time rushing and receiving leaders, Mike Pringle and Allen Pitts, also played there.

He broke into the league four years before his coach, Pinball Clemons, did. He has a teammate, defensive back Leron Mitchell, who was two years old when Allen played his first pro game.

In '87, when Allen won his first Grey Cup with the Edmonton Eskimos, there was a rookie quarterback on the roster named Tracy Ham, who later became a standout CFL QB in his own right. Well, Tracy Ham, nine months and two days younger than Allen, has been retired from football for seven years.

Another timeline comparison: Troy Aikman has been in the Pro Football Hall of Fame for a couple years. In 1985, Aikman was a sophomore at Oklahoma, trying to run the wishbone.

In 1985, the Berlin Wall was still standing. George W. Bush was just a drinking man with an oil problem. Sidney Crosby and Maria Sharapova weren't even born. Neither were Mischa Barton or Lindsay Lohan. The Toronto Blue Jays won the American League East pennant with a team payroll of about $10 million, less than what Roy Halladay alone commands these days.

So you get the idea of what Allen means to the CFL? For fans under 30, it's hard to imagine the league without him.

OTHER BUSINESS

• Bert Blyleven has been bounced from the next two Minnesota Twins telecasts for dropping a couple profanities on the air. Considering Blyleven is the kind of guy who, as TSN's Rod Black alluded to a couple weeks back, once did what some call a "pressed ham" on the window separating the broadcast booths, it's not surprising his language could be so earthy.
• Jesse Lumsden was not put on the Washington Redskins practice roster, so look for him back in the CFL real soon. O-lineman Steve Morley was also cut by the New York Jets, but Jon Ryan will apparently open the season as the Green Bay Packers punter.
• Canada's women's fastpitch team is out of the medals but still has a shot at securing an Olympic berth, since host China finished in the top four at the Worlds in Beijing. Canada needs to beat Italy tomorrow (later today for those of you in eastern Canada.)
• Hometown Breakdown note: Hat tip to the Jarvis Merchants (10 minutes east of Simcoe, Ont., where yours truly plied his dubious craft at the Reformer), who came home with a bronze medal from the Canadian senior men's fastpitch championship in Prince George, B.C. Jarvis' southern Ontario rival, St. Thomas, won the gold.

Off to watch the Indians and Jays while listening to the U of T-Queen's radio broadcast. What a geek I am. That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.