Music: {allcanada} Eskimos QB Joseph to retire from pro football

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

{allcanada} Eskimos QB Joseph to retire from pro football

Grey's Anatomy, Season 10 - Grey's Anatomy

Kerry Joseph, whose remarkable CFL career began as the fifth quarterback on the depth chart of the defunct Ottawa Renegades, and peaked with a league MVP award and a Grey Cup title in 2007, is officially stepping away from professional football and will soon announce his retirement.

Joseph, now 40, was a backup with Edmonton last season. He will inform Eskimos GM Ed Hervey of his decision to leave the game.

It would perhaps be fitting that Joseph would leave the CFL with a one-day contract from the Saskatchewan franchise he quarterbacked to its third Grey Cup championship ever, and retire a Rider.

It was a football career that included so many highs and lows for a Louisiana native, who broke into the National Football League out of college, despite attending little-known Division I-AA McNeese State University. He was mainly a defensive back with Seattle, after first toiling in NFL Europe, playing four seasons with the Seahawks, following a season with the Bengals. When he was released in 2002, Joseph was out of football for a full year.

It was then that he got a call from Canada and went to Ottawa's training camp in 2003, on the surface appearing to be no more than a camp arm – competing with former Auburn quarterback, Dameyune Craig, and Romaro Miller of Ole Miss for a spot on the roster. By Week 4 of that season, Joseph was the team's starter, became the first pick of the 2006 CFL dispersal draft by Saskatchewan when Ottawa folded, and by the following November was the CFL's most outstanding player in a season that changed the course of modern-day Roughrider football.

Joseph was traded to Toronto that off-season, and spent two years with Toronto, enduring the mess of the Bart Andrus regime, before being released. He was signed by Edmonton late in 2010, and has been with the club ever since.

It was in the CFL, after becoming the face of the franchise in both Ottawa and Saskatchewan, that Joseph's back story emerged: His father, Donald, died in 2000, right around the time Joseph's first marriage ended in divorce, and he soon looked to the bottle to escape the reality of what was happening around him.

"I tried to ease that pain by drinking, isolating myself from family, isolating myself from friends. I would sit at home not realizing how this was just tearing my life away," he said, back in 2005.

His life was getting out of control, and it was then he received a call from someone involved with his local church in New Iberia, Louisiana. Joseph had realized he had hit rock bottom, and asked for help. Through his faith, he said he found "confidence and courage and the strength to continue to live life."

"I wasn't ashamed to walk in front of my friends and peers as Kerry Joseph the human being, not Kerry Joseph the football star. I wasn't ashamed of it anymore," he said.

As he emerged as a star in the CFL, Joseph invested some of his off-field time into Athletes In Action, spoke at churches in the markets he played in. By the twilight of his career, Joseph served as a mentor for younger teammates trying to find their way, and for quarterbacks attempting to grasp the Canadian game.

In his prime, Joseph's arm strength and elusiveness as a runner made him a dual threat. He rushed for over 1,000 yards in 2005 and threw for over 4,000 in 2007. By last season, then Eskimos head coach Kavis Reed knew it was imperative to have Joseph's football IQ in the meeting room to help transition Mike Reilly into the starting quarterback in Edmonton.

While Joseph is a workout nut, and has done plenty of personal and football training in the past, his hope is to get into coaching with his playing career now over.

The Big Bang Theory, Season 7 - The Big Bang Theory