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Anthony Calvillo’s been placed on the nine-game list, but will that end his season or career?

andrew bucholtz

The Montreal Alouettes have placed veteran quarterback Anthony Calvillo on the nine-game injury list with a concussion, a move which may signify the end of his season and potentially even his career. It doesn't necessarily have to, though. Calvillo was concussed following a hit he took Aug. 17 against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, and his recovery appears to be going poorly. Here's what he told Montreal reporters following an Alouettes' practice he watched last week, as relayed byAllan Maki of The Globe and Mail:

"I'm having trouble focusing and seeing things, which is causing my brain to be really working," Calvillo had said after watching his teammates practice last week. "That's what's giving me some light-headedness and some headaches here and there.

"That's been the biggest issue, just focusing with my eyes to see what I'm looking at."

Calvillo added that he's had some setbacks:

"I was feeling great pretty much all week," he explained. "Every day it got better. And, two days ago, it just hit me and I felt like crap. Today I felt good so I went to see if I could push myself, but I don't feel right at all. It's not a headache. It's just pressure in my head. It throbs and then goes away, and then five minutes later it's the same thing.

None of that sounds good. With Calvillo's symptoms persisting this long, it's quite possible it will take him at least the rest of the season to fully recover, if he ever does. This kind of injury raises serious questions about his future going forward, too: Calvillo is in his 20th CFL season and turned 41 on Aug. 23. There are real questions about how much more punishment he's willing to take, and how long the Alouettes want to keep using him instead of a younger player, especially with Tanner Marsh impressing recently. It's quite possible Calvillo has played his last CFL down.

With that said, though, it's often foolish to underestimate Calvillo. After all, this is a guy who played half a season with a potentially-cancerous tumour while hiding that from everyone outside the locker room, won the Grey Cup, found out it was in fact cancer, had his thyroid removed and came back as strong as ever by the start of the next season. This is also a guy who survived miserable early CFL seasons in Las Vegas and Hamilton, but persevered to become pro football's all-time leading passer and one of the Alouettes' greatest legends. It's even possible he could overcome this concussion late this year, return to the team and lead them to glory. The odds may be against him, but that's always been the case for the "skinny little Mexican kid from La Puente." Betting against Anthony Calvillo has proven to be a foolish proposition to date, so it's hard to believe his career's over until he personally throws in the towel, no matter how stacked against him the odds may seem.