Former Riders QB Kevin Glenn reflects on 18-year CFL career

Kevin Glenn’s nomadic journey through the CFL has reached the end of the line.

The veteran quarterback announced his retirement on his 40th birthday Wednesday, ending a career that spanned 18 seasons and featured stops (some briefer than others) with all nine Canadian-based teams.

“I always told myself that I wanted to go out on my own terms,” Glenn said from his home in Detroit during a chat with The Green Zone’s Jamie Nye. “After talks with my family, it was just one of those things that you come to terms with …

“I’ve been doing this for a long time. It’s not the fact that my body isn’t in that shape to go play, because I didn’t even take a hit last year. But you know when it’s time to step away. It’s time for me to say, ‘It’s over.’ I’ll hand it over to those other guys and they can go ahead and run with it.”

Glenn had three separate tours of duty with the Saskatchewan Roughriders (2001-03, 2015 and 2017) and two with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (2004-08 and 2016). He also dressed for games with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (2009-11), Calgary Stampeders (2012-13), B.C. Lions (2014), Montreal Alouettes (2015-16) and Edmonton Eskimos (2018).

Glenn’s rights also belonged briefly to the Toronto Argonauts (in 2004, before he was traded in the off-season to Winnipeg) and to the Ottawa Redblacks (in 2014, before he was dealt to B.C., in the off-season).

He’s the only player in CFL history with ties to every Canadian-based team.

Glenn didn’t attempt a pass last season as the backup to then-Eskimos pivot Mike Reilly. Glenn hit the free-agent market this off-season and had conversations with some teams, but ultimately decided it was time to hang up the cleats – in large part because of his family. He and his wife have a 10-year-old son (Kaleb) and a seven-year-old daughter (Dylan).

“It did take a little bit of time (to make the decision), but as I started coming to terms with not being in the CFL or not playing again, I was focusing a lot on my kids, my wife, my family and doing some things as far as hobbies that I like in the off-season,” Glenn said. “It just started to play out.”

The product of Illinois State University ends his CFL career with 4,068 completions in 6,434 pass attempts for 52,867 yards, with 294 touchdown passes and 207 interceptions. His yardage total is the sixth-highest in league history.

Photo courtesy of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. (Liam Richards/Electric Umbrella)

Glenn said he arrived in Saskatchewan in 2001 desperate to make the team – and to prove himself to doubters back home. That drove Glenn for 18 seasons.

“I was basically told my whole career from high school on that I was never good enough to make it to the next level,” he said. “They told me that in high school. Then I went to college and I set a bunch of records. They told me that in college and I came to the CFL and did all these wonderful things.

“(Being doubted) was a trendy thing throughout my life to where I just took it as fuel to keep me going.”

Despite numbers that could one day put Glenn in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, there is one thing that doesn’t appear on his resumé. He never won a Grey Cup.

His best chance may have been in 2007, when he helped lead the Bombers to the East Division final. But Glenn suffered a broken arm in that contest and Winnipeg, playing without him, lost to Saskatchewan in the CFL final.

He also helped the Stamps reach the 2012 Grey Cup game, in which they lost to the Argonauts.

After retiring, Glenn said he can live with the fact he never won the Grey Cup.

“I’m content,” he said. “If someone was to tell you that a trophy defines them as a person – because at the end of the day, athletes are people – then that’s them, but it’s not me. Good for them, but I don’t let that kind of stuff define me.

“I had an awesome career. People would kill to live what I’ve lived for the past 18 years.”

Glenn noted that if he had regrets about not winning a title, he would have tried to join a team this off-season to make another run at the Grey Cup.

He also joked that he might still sign with a club – but only if it’s the expansion team that’s expected to pop up in Atlantic Canada. That way, he can keep intact his record of playing for every CFL team.

In reality, though, Glenn’s playing days are done – and he hopes people will remember him as the ultimate team player.

“Any place that I went, it was always a good situation, it was always a good opportunity and I met so many different people,” he said. “I don’t think you can go on any team with any of the players and (they’re) ever going to say that Kevin Glenn wasn’t a good teammate.

“I did everything I think I was supposed to do. Whether I was playing, whether I wasn’t playing (or) if I was injured, I always was a team guy. I always put the team first.”