MontrealAlouettes.com
MONTREAL – It’s tough to be a Canadian football fan and not know all about the legendary 20-year career of Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo.
Or is it?
Here are 13 things you (probably) didn’t know about professional football’s most prolific passer.
Calvillo with Hamilton in ’96.
IF YOU CAN’T BEAT HIM…: …Sign him. If you forget all the records, championships, milestones and awards for a moment, and look back at AC’s career from a purely numerical standpoint, one of his best games in the CFL wasn’t actually played with the Alouettes at all, but rather, against them. It was on October 25, 1996, while a young Calvillo was still sporting a Hamilton Tiger-Cats jersey, that he threw for 542 yards and three TDs on the road in Montreal at Olympic Stadium.
Percival Molson Stadium’s west end zone, with the Royal Vic in the background.
FOOTBALL FAMILY: Playing in the shadow of Montreal’s Royal Victoria Hospital since the Alouettes made the move to Percival Molson Stadium in 1998, AC’s ties to the downtown stadium go beyond his records set there, as both of his daughters were born in the hospital that overlooks the Alouettes’ home turf.
TOGETHER AT SCHOOL: AC is no stranger to university campuses, he has after all called one home for the past 16 seasons in McGill’s Percival Molson Stadium. But now that he’s called it a career, Calvillo will be trading in his playbooks for textbooks full-time, as he finishes the final 15 credits towards a Bachelor’s Degree in General Studies.
GAMEDAY GRUB: You may have known that when his career took its second wind in 2008, today’s leaner-looking AC changed his diet for one that emphasized healthier eating. What you probably didn’t know is that since that 2008 season, right through to his final game in 2013, Anthony Calvillo has eaten the same pre-game meal every gameday — home and away. What does pro football’s all-time leading QB chow down on before hitting the gridiron? Quinoa and sweet potatoes served with an extra-large salad and topped with olive oil.
“Make that two steaks.”
CHECK, PLEASE: Blessed with one of the best O-lines in Canadian football throughout most of his career, Calvillo has made a point of saying thanks at least once a season to the boys who have consistently kept him clean with a yearly dinner on his dime. No word if quinoa has ever been on the menu.
GIVING THANKS: Speaking of giving thanks, volunteering at a Montreal soup kitchen following the Alouettes’ yearly Thanksgiving Day home game is one team tradition that Calvillo quickly bought into, taking part in the event nearly every season since arriving in his adopted hometown.
KEY TO THE CITY: After a season which saw him break the CFL marks for most completions and TD passes thrown on his way to becoming pro football’s all-time leading passer, Anthony Calvillo was presented with the Key to the City at Montreal’s City Hall in December of 2011. More than just the records however, AC was saluted as a great Montrealer and an upstanding citizen.
HERE TO STAY: It’s hardly the CFL’s best-kept secret, but sometimes it feels that way: unlike some of his teammates, AC does in fact live in Montreal with his family year round, even over the winters.
FOR THE LONG RUN: Already knew that one? Then try this one on for size: When AC ended his press conference by admitting that he’s looking forward to spending the rest of his life in this city, he wasn’t stretching the truth. These days Calvillo is working on completing his Canadian Citizenship.
BEARING IT ALL: There’s no questioning that Anthony Calvillo and Marc Trestman hold each other in the highest esteem. The video congratulations that the Alouettes’ former head coach sent in from Chicago in time for AC’s retirement is just the most recent proof of that. But did you know that when Trestman opened his first ever NFL training camp this past season, he invited Calvillo to spend one of the early organized team activity days tutoring Bears QBs Jay Cutler, Josh McCown, and Matt Blanchard, sharing some insight into the offensive system that Coach Trest was bringing with him from Montreal? That’s why over the years, whenever Trestman has said that Calvillo is as good as any quarterback that he’s coached, it’s never been hard to believe him.
LUCKY NUMBER 13, PT. 1: Talented even from a young age, Anthony was one of only two sophomores to make his high school’s varsity football team in Grade 10. But because the eleventh and twelfth graders got first dibs on their jersey numbers, what AC got was stuck with an unlucky number 13 jersey that no one else wanted thanks in no small part to its association to the local Puente 13 street gang. As luck would have it however, that 13 turned out to be not-so-unlucky after all, and the number that he started off stuck with ended up being the number that Calvillo would stick with throughout the rest of his football career.
Anthony’s #13 over the years.
LUCKY NUMBER 13, PT. 2: No, really. From that day forward, AC would never play another snap without that number 13 on his back again, taking it with him through college at Mt. San Antonio and Utah State University, all the way to the pros with each of Las Vegas, Hamilton, and Montreal.
Hey, that’s not AC.
LUCKY NUMBER 13, PT. 3: The only time Anthony didn’t have his number 13 was briefly during the start of Las Vegas Posse training camp in 1994. With so many players reporting to camp, the 13 was already taken when AC arrived at what would be the beginning of his incredible 20-season CFL career — but not for long. In fact, it’s almost as if it was there with him all along, as Calvillo checked in to the Riviera Hotel as, you guessed it, one of 13 QBs at camp that year.
