The childhood dream of g a professional sports contract quickly turns into an unrealizable fantasy for most people, but not for quarterback Danny Brannagan.
The Vanier Cup winning er signed a three-year contract with the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts. The contract offer came on Sunday, immediately after Brannagan participated in the league’s evaluation camp in Toronto, where top prospects run through a variety of strength, skill and agility drills in front of coaches and scouts from around the league.
Burlington-native Brannagan is the second-leading er in CIS history, and was the first ever quarterback to for 10,000 yards in his career. He now awaits the start of Argonauts training camp in June where he hopes to earn his way onto the roster as one of the top three quarterbacks.
Brannagan said he received a phone call from Argonauts head coach Jim Barker informing him of the offer.
“I was very surprised at how fast it came,” he said. “It was Sunday at the train station. I was coming back to Kingston and I got call from Coach Barker saying that he was going to fax me the papers.” Brannagan’s performance during physical testing at the camp included personal bests in the bench press (19 reps at 225 lbs) and vertical jump (32.5 inches). He placed first among quarterbacks in the agility test, beating two former CIS rivals who were also at the camp—Eric Glavic from the University of Calgary and University of Guelph’s Justin Dunk.
Since he’s known as a drop-back, pocket er, Brannagan said it was important to demonstrate that he can be effective at making plays with his legs, outside the pocket.
“Going in with the perception of being some who isn’t very mobile, my good times in the movement tests showed the coaches that it’s something I’m capable of.”
At six feet tall, some think Brannagan will have problems adjusting to throwing over taller CFL linemen. Brannagan, however, said the biggest challenge for him at Argonauts training camp will be dealing with the speed of the CFL game.
“Based on how fast all the players are you have to speed up your decision-making process and get your reads off while the receiver is making his break.” Based on his brief conversation with Barker, Brannagan said his thorough knowledge of the Queen’s offence will help him adapt to the Argonauts’ strategies.
“There are a lot of similarities between the offences,” he said. “The things I have been doing here for the last five years have prepared me well going into training camp.” Canadian quarterbacks are a rarity at the professional level. The last time a Canadian quarterback started a CFL game was back in 1996 when Simon Fraser University Clan alumni Giulio Caravatta started under centre for the B.C. Lions. CFL teams have no extra incentive to start Canadian pivots because the quarterback position doesn’t count towards the minimum required seven Canadian starters on any CFL starting lineup.
Brannagan, though, said issues of nationality aren’t at the front of his mind.
“Going in, I’m going to be competing with guys who haven’t played with Argos before so we’re all going to be at a level playing field in that respect.”
While Brannagan is keen on making the most of this opportunity to play professional football, he’s supposed to start a job with ing firm Price Waterhouse Coopers in September. How soon he actually starts that job will depend on if he’s able to crack the Argos’ roster. Brannagan said Price Waterhouse Coopers has been very ive of his football pursuits.
“They’ve been more than understanding about the whole situation.”
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be ed, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to [email protected].