Thursday was a day to celebrate Henry Burris and honour the Stampeders quarterback for his third consecutive Presidents’ Ring Award. It was also time to have a little good-natured fun at his expense.
Burris was invited to take a comfortable chair on stage while friends and teammates took turns taking playful jabs at the fun-loving quarterback, who laughed at the jokes harder than anyone. Much of the humour was aimed at Burris’ alma mater, Temple University.
For example, Stampeders coach Dave Dickenson noted that when he was playing quarterback for Calgary, he was concerned about losing his position on the Red and White’s depth chart when Burris arrived in town.
“He was a four-year starter from a football powerhouse named Temple,” quipped Dickenson. “I was worried until I found out he only had five career wins in college. That two-win season they had in ’95 was big news.”
Stampeders receiver Ryan Thelwell piled on by remarking that Burris was not in a very good position to participate in the usual locker-room discussion about whose college was better. Thelwell suggested Burris consider a few rules before wading into any such debates.
“The first rule is: If you go to a school and your nickname is the Owls, you might not want to be getting in that conversation.
“The second rule is: If your school has won three games in the last three decades, you might consider not getting in the conversation about which school is best.
“The third rule: If your claim to fame is scoring 20 points on Penn State . . . but you lost the game 70-20, you might want to stay out of the conversation.
“Last but not least, if you’re the leading passer of your university and right behind you, trailing by a few yards, is Bill Cosby, then do not get involved in the my-school-is-better-than-your-school conversation. It’s true. I googled it and there it was — Henry Burris, 1,001 yards, and then Bill Cosby, 998 yards. And that was over four years.
“So Henry, please, stay out of those conversations.”
>> More on the 2010 President’s Luncheon