Kerry Joseph retires for the second time in a year: was coming back the right move for him?

It's not everyone who can officially retire twice in one year, but Kerry Joseph has managed it, a fitting coda to his unique career. The 41-year-old quarterback spent 2012 and 2013 with the Edmonton Eskimos, was officially released by them in January, and it's believed he signed a one-day contract with Saskatchewan afterwards to retire as a Roughrider (although it's unclear if that actually happened). Joseph then vanished from the CFL scene until Saskatchewan signed him again on October 7 in the wake of an injury to starter Darian Durant and ineffective performances from backups Tino Sunseri and Seth Doege. The Riders placed Joseph on the practice squad at first, but he became their starter just 10 days after his signing, and generally held that role down the stretch and in their first-round playoff loss to Edmonton (although he was pulled for Sunseri partway through the playoff game). Now, Joseph's announced his retirement again. Was his cameo with Saskatchewan this year worth it, or did it hurt the overall perception of his career?

On one hand, Joseph's numbers with the Riders absolutely weren't great. During the regular season, he completed just 43 of 89 passing attempts (48.3 per cent) for 606 yards with four touchdowns and five interceptions, and he only ran for 45 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries. His postseason performance was even worse; he completed seven of 17 passes (41.2 per cent) with one touchdown and five interceptions and was pulled for Sunseri. Yes, that was on the road in cold conditions against one of the best defences in the league, but it still isn't the greatest way to end a career.

On the other hand, Joseph generally gave Saskatchewan a better quarterbacking performance than they were getting from their in-house guys. There's a reason he was elevated so quickly after he signed; even at 41 and after a year largely away from football, he was simply better at running the Riders' offence than either Sunseri or Doege. Their aerial attack wasn't great under him, sure, but it was more competent than it had looked since Durant went down, and big passing stats weren't needed thanks to their ground game. Joseph's veteran presence may also have helped Saskatchewan stabilize their post-Durant skid and head into the playoffs on a decent note, and while he didn't cover himself with glory there, his struggles came against a very tough team. The Riders may not have won that one even if they had Doug Flutie at quarterback.

Overall, this is probably a fitting end to Joseph's career, which may be one of the most unusual in pro football history. He grew up in Louisiana and was a starting quarterback at Division I-FCS McNeese State (in Lake Charles, Louisiana) for four years, posting a 42-11 record and leading the Cowboys to two Southland Conference titles, but no one was particularly interested in him at the pro level. He went undrafted by the NFL in 1996, managed to get a training-camp invite with the Cincinnati Bengals, but didn't last long there. That convinced him to take different tacks; he went to NFL Europe as a quarterback with the London Monarchs, came back for a NFL tryout with Washington as a slotback in 1998, returned to Europe with the Rhein Fire (and won the World Bowl), then came back to the NFL and spent four seasons with Seattle as a safety.

After that, Joseph came north of the border. He joined the CFL's Ottawa Renegades as a quarterback in 2003, unseated starter Dan Crowley, played for Ottawa until they folded in 2006, headed to Saskatchewan in the dispersal draft, won a Most Outstanding Player award and a Grey Cup with the Riders in 2007 and then was promptly traded to Toronto that offseason, where spent two seasons struggling with the Argonauts before being released in February 2010 and popping back up in Edmonton that October. They cut him that offseason, but brought him back in June 2011, and he stayed with the club until 2014. The tail end of his tenure with the Eskimos wasn't particularly productive, and it looked like that would be it for his CFL career, but this chance with the Riders let him be a starter once more. That's not a bad way at all for one of the most unique pro football careers to end.