After not taking a single snap last season, Kevin Glenn feels as if a year has been added to his pro football career.
The 39-year-old spent 2018 backing up Mike Reilly with the Edmonton Eskimos but didn’t see any game action.
“I’m very fresh, I didn’t take a hit. The worst hit of the year might have been a practice hit from the quarterback coach with one of the dummies when we were doing some individual drills,” Glenn said on 620 CKRM The SportsCage.
“It was the first time in my career that I actually never played in a game, so it was a little different going out every day preparing but never ever touching the field.”
Glenn started 17 games for the Riders in 2017, throwing for 4,038 yards, 25 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. Saskatchewan went 10-8 that year earning a playoff spot as the crossover team and came within one third-and-15 Ricky Ray to James Wilder Jr. conversion of going to the Grey Cup.
But last season was quiet by comparison.
“There was a couple times that I thought something was going to happen, but Mike’s a very durable guy. Even early on in the season he would take a couple hits and I’d be running over to grab my helmet and Danny O’Brien, who had been with Mike before, was like ‘he’s alright, he’s getting up’ and had to stop me a couple times,” Glenn said.
“During the season when he would get hit I was a little shy of not running over to the helmet because I knew he was going to get up. There was a lot of teaching moments. I always take positives from situations like that.”
Glenn has played 18 CFL seasons making 208 career starts. He has been a member of all nine CFL teams suiting up for seven of them. Over his career, Glenn has totalled 52,867 passing yards, 294 touchdowns and 207 interceptions with a 63.2 completion percentage. The veteran quarterback is currently a free agent.
“I’ve been in talks with different clubs. In my situation it has to be the right situation. At this point I sit in a good situation to where I can pick and choose when and where I say do business this next year. But the situations I’ve talked to different teams about, they haven’t been the right ones for me,” Glenn said.
“I’ll sit and wait. I understand this and I’ve been around this game long enough to know that it’s a long season, sometimes you may not sign contracts in February, March, April, you may not sign in May, but it may come in June. Something happens and that’s when a team may come call and the situation may be a little bit different. I’m comfortable with saying when I’m ready to make sure the situation is right, that’s when it’ll happen.”
After nearly two decades in the league, Glenn knows the CFL well and would be a steady starter, valuable backup and mentor for younger quarterbacks learning the nuances of the Canadian game. If and when Glenn signs a contract to play in 2019, he wants a chance to see the field along with a fair deal.
“An opportunity to play. I’ve been in all the different roles, so it doesn’t necessarily have to be I’m going to be the starter. Just an opportunity to play,” Glenn said.
“It has to be a fair wage in order for me to leave things that I have going on here [Detroit] to come back up there to play because it’s getting later in my career to where there’s a lot of things that I do here at home, that possibly is gearing me towards that retirement or life after football. In order to leave that and put that on hold for another year the wage has to be right. The compensation has to be equivalent to the opportunity of me being able to play.”
Glenn has been keeping tabs on where quarterbacks have signed and how much money the starting pivots are being paid, particularly Reilly and Bo Levi Mitchell who signed multi-million dollar contracts.
“I don’t think it’s unreal and I like it – it’s overdue. I wish it would’ve came earlier back in my heyday. You always have to start somewhere, back in the day the players got paid pretty well and then it went through some troubled times and it has to adjust and that’s when I came into the league with the exchange rate and then it built itself back up,” Glenn said.
“Those guys just know that they should have to pay homage to those quarterbacks who fought and made less wages than they made. They were able to put some things in place for the CFL to be able to get to this point.”
Glenn’s experience gives him a firm understanding of his value, both as a player and a potential coach.
“I come from a coach, my dad was a coach. When I grew up I got coached by my dad. I believe it’s in my blood, it’s just making sure it’s the right situation,” Glenn said.
“I got a lot of people in my ear saying I’d make a great coach just because of the way I approach the game, the players and my teammates. It’s is in the future just don’t know where, how and when.”
