An avid Argos supporter and season ticket holder, Don Landry has covered almost every type of news from sports to music to talk radio in his 25 years of broadcasting and has conducted over 10,000 interviews with the likes of Prime Ministers, Premiers, sports legends, showbiz stars, power brokers and many more. Follow Don on Twitter @argoslandry or visit his website at donlandry.com.
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DON LANDRY
Argonauts.ca Columnist
TORONTO — When Pinball Clemons is in the room and he’s NOT the main event, you know something special is afoot.
That was the case on Wednesday as the Argos introduced new quarterback Ricky Ray at a fancy media reception some 1100 feet above the city of Toronto.
Argonauts.ca columnist Don Landry breaks down the Ricky Ray trade which he believes improves the team’s chances at competing for a Grey Cup in 2012.
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The venue – an events room at the CN Tower – seemed appropriate, in keeping with the level of hopes Ray brings to the Argos in his trade from the Edmonton Eskimos. Expectations in Argoland have quickly moved from cautious optimism after the hiring of new head coach Scott Milanovich two weeks ago, to an almost giddy anticipation in the wake of Ray’s arrival as the new calm, cool hand on the trigger of the Argo offence.
It’s not just Ray’s physical abilities that have brought a sense of direction to the club. It’s something more of an intangible, as Ray’s former Edmonton teammates well know. Or, as Milanovich put it: “It helps you sleep at night when you know that the guy that’s gonna walk in that locker room on game day…his teammates are gonna look at him and they’re gonna believe.”
Forty thousand career passing yards. Two Grey Cup Championships. A career completion percentage of 66.8. A quarterback rating of 95.6 over 9 seasons. 210 touchdown passes.
Yet there’s certainly more to consider than just statistics when you size up the great quarterbacks in the CFL’s history. Name any of the league’s finest ever: Flutie, Allen, Calvillo, Moon, Clements. Brock, Dunigan, Lancaster, Jackson. Holloway, Wilkinson, Parker, Etcheverry. Add anyone else you’d care to. You’ll find a variety of strengths and skills. But, one quality that most assuredly is shared by all is one that Milanovich was hinting at.
Leadership.
As the “Ray Day” t-shirts were being distributed at the media conference, I thought I’d approach the man who might know more about leadership than anyone else in the room – the aforementioned Michael Clemons. Clemons is very, very good in that department. Everybody knows that. He’s also very good at deconstructing intangibles and giving them a more concrete existence, thereby making them easier to understand.
In the case of the abstract ingredients of Ricky Ray’s leadership, Pinball says it comes down to a concoction of ability, work ethic and, just as importantly, modesty.
Argonauts.ca has extensive coverage of one of the biggest trades in franchise history as Ricky Ray takes over behind centre.
“The difference for me with Ricky Ray is his humility,” began Clemons. “He’s so unassuming, so calm, so matter of fact. That is appealing to people. He’s an endearing guy.”
“He’s one of those people that is easy to love. Because he’s so humble, so selfless. With all the talent that he has, all the ability and all that he has achieved, he’s so unassuming. He gives you that Clark Kent feel.”
For Clemons, humility is a touchstone. He’s long been known for it and displays it with ease. The same might be said for Ray. But why is that necessary, in the football leadership sense?
“It’s so important because now your players will do anything for you,” says Clemons. “When they see that humility, they buy in. They trust you. They believe that you’re doing this for the right reasons. There are some guys that are great, but they’re out there for themselves. When there’s a guy who goes out there and performs and he’s not the ‘hey look at me’ guy and he’s gonna be giving credit to the offensive line… he’s gonna be giving credit to the receivers… those guys love that.”
Quiet resolve and sharing the credit are powerful tools in the world of winning the hearts and minds of football players, it seems. Clemons is careful not to give the wrong impression, however. Personality is not enough. It’s crucial that it be paired with illustrated success.
“It is a level of professional excellence that it starts with. Great at what he does. Works hard at what he does. Puts the time in. Does all of those things. If you don’t have those things first, there’s a challenge. But he has that professional excellence, and the track record. And the rings. He has all of that, and then he has the humility. That really does create that kind of bond. Because you trust him professionally, you trust him physically. But you can also trust him emotionally, mentally, psychologically.”
“A guy like Ricky Ray turns the attention back to everybody else,” continued Clemons. “A guy like Ricky Ray behaves in a way that’s endearing and you wanna root for him, cheer for him. So when he makes a mistake, you’re not critical of him. You wanna pick him up.”
There is one final pinch of spice in Ray’s leadership recipe, according to Clemons. Pleasure. Not his own, but for those he’s leading.
“He gives you the ability to be successful AND have fun doing it. And enjoy the process. And that’s the difference.”
After dissecting the finer points of leadership, Clemons asks me a question, although it seemed more rhetorical than anything else.
“If there was one player you could bring to impact your team this year, who would it be?”
Before I responded, he answered it himself.
“If you were given one name, he might be that name,” said Clemons. “If you were given three names, he would certainly be one of those three.”
For Pinball Clemons, the reasons would go beyond ability and history. Far beyond.