Kelly has a chance to become face of Argos franchise

Excuse the perspective from the Centre of the Universe.

But no matter your vantage point, it should be clear that Toronto Argonauts quarterback Chad Kelly is the most important player in the Canadian Football League right now.

Not the best, at least not yet.

Just the most important. And it’s really not that close.

Kelly opened his first season as Toronto’s starter Sunday night by rushing for three touchdowns and throwing for 192 yards by halftime in a lopsided 32-14 win over the visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the defending Grey Cup-champions’ 2023 season opener.

Making plays with his throwing arm and his feet, it was as dynamic a debut for a starting quarterback as you’ll see. It sent a bolt of excitement across the CFL at a time when the league could use the juice that comes with a rising star quarterback.

But there’s more to it than that.

As much as fans across Canada may not like it, Toronto matters.

As the capital of corporate Canada and with roughly one-fifth of the country’s population residing in the Greater Toronto Area, the impression made by the Toronto Argonauts matters.

And no, we’re not talking fancifully about the Argos finding a place on par with Major League Baseball’s Blue Jays, the NBA’s Raptors and the NHL’s Maple Leafs.

But the prospect of having a lively and substantially full BMO Field nine times a season – whether that’s experienced in person or on television – versus scads of empty seats, matters.

And the 29-year-old Kelly is the best shot the Argos have had in a long time to make that happen.

There’s no easy fix to making the Argonauts more relevant in the country’s largest market, but having a star quarterback who can win games with exciting football doesn’t hurt. And that is what Kelly represents to the Argonauts and their fans right now. With a strong team around him, Kelly has the opportunity to make himself the face of a franchise that is in desperate need of one.

It’s amazing how rarely the Argonauts have had a legit star quarterback they could call their own over the past 50 years.

Pick an Argonaut quarterback of any significance and he’s probably better known and recognized for what he did in another uniform. Ricky Ray, Matt Dunigan, Kerry Joseph, Damon Allen and Doug Flutie, despite their success, all accomplished more outside of Toronto than they did as members of the Argonauts.

The recently departed MacLeod Bethel-Thompson is the high-water mark for quarterbacks most noted for playing in Toronto.

Kelly can become that franchise quarterback the Argos and their fans have so rarely enjoyed. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s doing it in the same market two hours away from where folks watched his famous uncle, Jim Kelly, take the National Football League’s Buffalo Bills to four consecutive Super Bowls in the early 1990s.

Growing up playing quarterback with “12” on his chest and “Kelly” on his back, Kelly was a magnate for attention, which often landed him in trouble off the field. He was kicked off teams in high school and college for bad behaviour, one of the reasons why the Denver Broncos were able to select him with the final pick (seventh round, 253^rd overall) of the 2017 NFL Draft, earning Kelly the dubious distinction of being named that draft year’s “Mr. Irrelevant.”

Roughly 18 months early, Edmonton placed his name on their negotiation list, one day after he threw for 346 yards and four touchdowns in a 73-21 Ole Miss win over Fresno State. That junior season, Kelly would lead his team to SEC wins over Alabama, LSU and Auburn, claiming his place among the top quarterbacks in college football.

Off-field trouble followed him to the NFL when his time in Denver ended the night after he left a team party inebriated and mistakenly entered the wrong home. He then signed with the Indianapolis Colts who released him from their practice squad after two seasons without Kelly ever getting the chance to step on the playing field.

Though there had been a management change in Edmonton, with the club (before they were renamed the Elks) moving on from Ed Hervey and naming Brock Sunderland their new general manager prior to the 2017 season, Kelly still remained under consideration with the team. With the CFL preparing to resume play in 2021 after the cancelled 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sunderland offered Kelly a contract to compete for the backup role behind Trevor Harris.

Kelly turned down the offer, making it known he was only interested in playing closer to his home in Buffalo, leading Sunderland to deal him for quarterback Nick Arbuckle partway through the pandemic-shortened 14-game 2021 season.

During his rookie season with the Argos, Kelly was the only backup in the CFL who didn’t see meaningful playing time, subbing on third-and-short situations behind Bethel-Thompson. That all changed in the fourth quarter of the 2022 Grey Cup when he was forced into the game due to injury, leading his team to 10 more points on the scoreboard and a come-from-behind 24-23 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the 109^th championship. It was only half a quarter, but it added to the intrigue about what Kelly might be able to do in a No. 1 role.

Sunday night at BMO Field was Kelly’s first start of a meaningful game since his senior year of college, six-and-a-half years earlier, meaning that he doesn’t have much wear on this tires and should get better the more he plays.

The NFL could come back into play. But at his age-30 next season, with his off-field history, that’s no sure thing no matter how well Kelly plays this year.

Kelly and the Toronto Argonauts are set up to have a long, happy relationship together.

And his timing, both for the Argos and the CFL, couldn’t be better.