Damon Allen is finally ready to hang up his helmet.
The 44-year-old Argonaut quarterback and future hall of famer is expected to announce his much-anticipated retirement at a press conference today.
For weeks now pro football’s all-time leading passer has been telling anyone who cared to ask that he might suit up for a 24th CFL season to add to the 72,381 yards he’s already tossed the oval ball.
But always, as he said that, there was a mischievous twinkle in his eyes and a sly smile on the corner of his mouth.
Even as recently as last Saturday, as he hosted his third annual Quarterback Challenge in Hamilton which brought together most of the CFL’s top quarterbacks for a charity event, Allen was telling questioners that he might be at training camp.
But today as the quarterbacks and rookies check in at the Argos’ Mississauga practice facilities, Allen will announce that he’s done after an outstanding career. He is expected to remain with the Argos but not likely as part of the coaching staff.
Allen leaves having played for six CFL teams beginning in 1985 with the Edmonton Eskimos. Then it was on to the Ottawa Rough Riders, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, back to Edmonton and then a year with the expansion Memphis Mad Dogs before joining the B.C. Lions and, most recently, the Argonauts.
