By George Johnson
Calgary Herald

In Jeff Pilon’s opinion, only one thing’s lacking from the upcoming coronation.

“Remember the Kelvin bobble-head?” teases the retired offensive lineman, as he heads to work at Gridiron Drilling, back after a spell up in Fort Mac. “Joff’s on his way to being an all-time great, a Hall of Famer. You name it. But maybe that’s what’s missing. His own bobble-head.

“A Joffrey Reynolds Bobble-head Night. What do you think?

“And for this one you wouldn’t even have to paint that gap in his front teeth. They were great, those Kelvin bobble-heads. I’m sure I still have a couple of them around . . . somewhere.”

The subject of that head-bobbing keepsake can provide detailed locations to whereabouts inside Anderson’s house, if anyone cares to make the trek down to Marston, Mo.

“Oh, yeah,” laughs Kelvin Anderson. “I’ve got a whole gang of ’em.

“One’s in my room. One’s in my younger daughter (Kelsey)’s room. She’s six, so she never saw me play in Calgary or in the CFL. But she thinks that bobble-head is pretty cool.”

With the Labour Day Classic approaching on the southern Alberta horizon, Joffrey Reynolds finds himself now a tantalizing 136 yards away from eclipsing Anderson’s Calgary Stampeders’ career record of 8,292 along ol’ terra firma.

Six-year-old Kelsey Anderson might not think so, but really, that’s pretty cool, too.

“Never seen (Reynolds) play,” admits Anderson. “Heard a lot about him, though. I still talk to Chill and Pope and Eddie Davis quite a bit. They tell me he’s a real good back. Durable. That’s one thing I always prided myself on. Wally (Buono), the coaches, my teammates, they could always count on me. They knew I was going to be there.

“You know, I’ve got a satellite station that shows CFL games on Saturdays, but I’ve never caught Calgary. Saskatchewan. B.C. Montreal. But not Calgary. Not yet, anyway. I’d love to see the kid play.”

If he did – when he does – have the chance, the five-time Western Conference all-star selection might be bamboozled into believing he’s gazing into a mirror reflection, the only difference being that number on the front and back of the jersey – 21 instead of 32 (although, for the first five games of his Stampeders career, in 2004, the newcomer actually inherited Anderson’s old number).

Marvin Pope, Big Daddy himself, warned his buddy that the day would come.
“I knew this was going to happen three or four years ago. I saw the kid run, and I was like ‘Man, Joffrey’s gonna take that record down.’ And I told Kelvin that then. I said to him: ‘Beware. This kid is coming after you!’ “

The kid is at his doorstep.

Stylistically, they have tremendous amount in common. Both men hit the line like a hard slap on a cold night. Both are stubborn cusses, seemingly impervious to pain, a pain to bring down. Anderson led the Red and White in rushing in each of his seven years here.

Reynolds is on his way to seven in a row this season.

“The thing about Kelvin that always amazed me was his incredible balance,” says TSN CFL analyst Duane Forde, who arrived the same season as Anderson, in 1996, and shared the backfield for parts of five seasons. “And I see the same thing in Joffrey. They never seem to get knocked off their feet by the first hit.

“You always hear about YACs – yards after catch. Well, Dan Dorazio always talked about a different kind of YACs – yards after contact. And Kelvin and Joffrey are both great at that.

“Interesting, too, that neither one of them were automatics, considered go-to guys from the first day of training camp. Joffrey, remember, arrived in the middle of a season and Kelvin, when he showed up . . . well, I think if you ask either Wally Buono or Roy Shivers, they’ll admit they hadn’t immediately pencilled him into the starting lineup. He just flat-out won the job at camp and never looked back.”

On the franchise rushing lists, Anderson ranks first in carries and 1,000-yard seasons; Reynolds is second in both categories. Reynolds owns a Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy as Western Division MOP candidate but Anderson can counter with the CFL rookie of the year award of 1996, and trumps him in Grey Cups rings (for the moment), 2-1.

“Yup. Very, very similar players,” assesses Stamps’ quarterbacks coach Dave Dickenson, a teammate of Anderson’s and a mentor of sorts last year for Reynolds.
“I’d say Joffrey gets the nod for better smile. Kelvin had those gold teeth.”

And orthodontics aside?

“When I think of either of those guys, a quote from my time in San Diego with Norv Turner stands out. You know how people are always talking about ability. Well, on that subject, I remember Norv saying: ‘The best ability is AVAILability.’

“Meaning, they don’t miss a game. And neither one of those guys did. Just rock solid. Never hurt. Joff is as consistent as any back I’ve ever been around. His work ethic, being not too fancy. Kelvin, I thought, liked to play up to the crowd a little bit more. Both very good at protections, picking up blitzes, so you don’t have to take them on and off.
“And – this is critical – in the fourth-quarter, tough to bring down. To me, at least, a lot of a back’s living is made in the fourth quarter. Both hard-nosed, not overly fast guys. Grinders. Not going to bust off super-long runs but always had the ability to break the 40-, 50-yard plays.

“An important difference for Joff from three or four years ago is that now we’re playing with a lead.”

Despite Anderson’s unparalleled consistency – no one else in CFL history has rushed for 1,000 yards in eight consecutive seasons – he was never lavished with the sort of adulation the numbers warranted.

“A lot of that,” reminds Forde, “has to do with a guy named Mike Pringle being around at the same time. As consistent as Kelvin was, as solid, he was never going to be No. 1, not with Pringle setting those records. You can be the second best ever, at anything, but if the best happens to a part of your era, you’re going to suffer from a visibility perspective.”

Anderson’s Stampeders career ended in bitterness with Buono gone to B.C. and Jim Barker bringing in NFL misfit Lawrence Phillips (oh, didn’t THAT work out well!) prior to the 2003 season to be the feature back. Anderson was quickly reunited with his old boss and repaid the faith by churning for more than the customary 1,000 again before retiring to Marston prior to the 2004 training camp.

“I remember my time in Calgary, my teammates and coaches, Wally and Travis (Moore) and Chill and everybody, with fondness,” says Anderson seven years after being released. “But, you know, I don’t think I can ever quite forgive (the Stamps) for the way it ended.”

Seven years later, a running back is finally poised to run down Kelvin Anderson.
Which leads to an inevitable question in an age consumed with ‘bests’ and rankings: Reynolds or Anderson?

“Pick . . . one?” Pilon hedges.

“I couldn’t.

“Both quiet guys. So quiet – and I certainly don’t mean this to sound like a negative; anything but – they just came in
, did their work and left. You tend to take that type of player for granted. Kelvin, I guess, was a little more outspoken. But they’re on the field to do a job. To run the football, hard. To win games. No fanfare. No fuss.

“So if you’re asking me to choose, to split ’em up, no. Sorry. Couldn’t.”

A soft chuckle of appreciation.

“But I’d sure like to put ’em together. Joff and Kelvin. That,” he says, “would be my dream backfield.”

One half of that dream wishes the other nothing but the best in his pursuit of 8,292.

“Tell the kid I’m cheering for him, will you?” says Kelvin Anderson. “Tell him I’m proud of him.

“Hopefully, I can watch the game he does break the record in on TV down here. And I can’t think of a better day for him to do it than Labour Day. Games don’t get any bigger in the CFL than Labour Day.

“Am I sad? Naw. It happens. It always happens. I’m just happy and fortunate to be able to set a record that somebody could shoot for in the first place. A record is a fleeting thing.”

But being a bobble-head . . . now THAT is forever.