Age usually takes a toll on an athlete. It's rare that like fine wine, an athlete's performance improves with age.
So how does one explain Anthony Calvillo?
Sure, the California native is surrounded by a great supporting cast with the Montreal Alouettes, but in a brutal sport such as professional football, most quarterbacks accumulate a variety of bumps and bruises and lose the zip on their throws as they approach 40 years of age. That lack of zip results in passes falling short or more of them getting picked off.
So how does one explain the performance of Calvillo, the native of California who is in his 18th season in the Canadian Football League? Through the first three weeks of the 2011 season, Calvillo has been on fire, throwing 10 touchdown passes and leading the Als to a 3-0 record. Along the way, the 38-year-old Calvillo, a three-time winner of the CFL's most outstanding player award, surpassed Damon Allen's record for most career touchdown passes. Before he's finished, he may set the TD-pass bar so high it may be unbreakable.
"Never in my life," Als slotback S.J. Green told Sean Gordon of the Globe and Mail, "have I seen anything like him. He's amazing."
A finely-tuned athlete can occasionally defy the odds and perform at a high level longer than most, but how can one call Calvillo finely-turned? He underwent thyroid cancer surgery in the most recent off-season, a situation that would send almost all 38-year-olds to retirement, but for Calvillo, all he did after surgery was shrug his shoulders and give his coaches a 'let's-get-back-at-it' approach.
"A lot of athletes can be great one day and not so great the next," offensive lineman Scott Flory, who has played with Calvillo for 13 years, told Gordon. "To have that level of consistency is the true mark of greatness, in my opinion."
Calvillo has been through his wife's cancer scare, a cancer scare of his own, and now the only 'scare' involved in his life is the look on the faces of CFL defensive backs when he drops back into the pocket to make more history. He has won three Grey Cup games (but lost five) and says he wants to achieve at least a .500 record in grey Cups before he retires.
History suggests to never count him out.
Comedy writer Jerry Perisho: "Pyeongchang, South Korea was selected as the site of the 2018 Winter Olympics. The North Koreans will participate in the biathlon from their side of the fence line."
Greg Couch, FanHouse: "Brett Favre is like a piece of gum you've chewed too long and can't find a place to spit out. Once you finally do - thank God! - you accidentally step in it and can't get it off your shoe. We just simply cannot get rid of this guy."
Magic guard Gilbert Arenas, via Twitter, not fazed by the NBA labor stalemate: "I'm used to lockouts. I've been locked out of the house plenty of times."
Comedy writer Jim Barach: "The Dayton Dragons minor league baseball team is on the verge of setting a professional sports record of 815 consecutive sellout games. Mostly because there is pretty much nothing else to do in Dayton."
Jerry Crowe of the L.A. Times, on the proclamation of "We're chasing greatness" by new Raiders coach Hue Jackson: "Mediocrity, they've caught."
R.J. Currie of sportsdeke.com: "The Daily Mail reports the Seattle Mariners are one of the teams planning to have nut-free games this year. I thought they did that when they released Milton Bradley."
Rick Reilly, ESPN.com: "Greg Oden, the rarely dressed centre for the NBA's Portland TrailBlazers, has played 82 games in four seasons. That's one season spread over four. If he were a golfer, he'd be in Columbus running a big and tall man's shop. But in the NBA, he has made $19.3 million. Nice work if you can get it."
Headline at BorowitzReport.com: "Pitcher Roger Clemens celebrated his steroid case being declared a mistrial by throwing a car across the courthouse parking lot."
Greg Cote of the Miami Herald, on the Timberwolves' Michael Beasley being found in possession of 16.2 grams of marijuana: "Seldom a good sign when your career scoring average is exceeded by your career grams-per-possession average."
Seattle blogger Tim Hunter, on Alex Rodriguez's knee surgery: "Team officials say he'll miss 4-6 weeks of baseball and somewhere between 10 and 15 new girlfriends."
Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, lamenting the quality of the Major League Baseball All-Star game after 15 starters pulled out for various reasons: "Have you heard about the brand-new rule for All-Star Game rosters, that every letter of the alphabet must be represented? Giants fans are grumbling because the rule made Chad Qualls an All-Star."
Two more from Ostler:
- "Let's hope Tiger Woods isn't spending all his down time pumping iron. He'll come back with the short game and putting touch of Arnold Schwarzenegger."
