MICHAEL BISHOP

No calls from the CFL
Sean Fitz-Gerald, National Post Published: Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Related Topics

Michael Bishop
Kerry Joseph
Saskatchewan Roughriders
Toronto Argonauts
Football


Michael Bishop has been working out and playing basketball. He has been trying to get a business off the ground in his hometown, about an hour's drive north of Houston, and he has also been waiting.

Nine weeks to the day after the Saskatchewan Roughriders released him, the 32-year-old quarterback had still not received a single telephone call from an executive anywhere in the Canadian Football League. Bishop was hoping someone would call, but resigning himself to the possibility someone would not.

"If someone calls me, they call me -- if not, I'm prepared for a life without football," he said yesterday. "I've been playing football for a long time. I've been around some great players, I've been around some great coaches, but I've also seen the ugly side of football and what it brings."

And perhaps no season was as ugly as the one he completed last year. Bishop lost his job as a starter with the Toronto Argonauts before training camp and was placed on recallable waivers in July before, finally, being traded to Saskatchewan on Aug. 23.

His up-and-down tenure in Regina ended when he was intercepted three times and lost a fumble in a 33-12 West Division semi-final loss to the B. C. Lions. He was released two days later. Most of the frustration from his odd journey, though, lies with the Argos, and the way he was sent packing after more than six seasons in uniform.

Toronto had acquired quarterback Kerry Joseph in a trade with Saskatchewan in March, a move that ultimately split the team's dressing room. Bishop was traded in a bid to end the simmering quarterback controversy.

"I wasn't making any money, so it definitely wasn't a money issue," he said. "I think it was people talking: 'Kerry won the MVP, won a championship, and Saskatchewan doesn't want to bring him back, so let's bring in a name that everybody will recognize.'

"It was the same thing when they brought in Andre Rison, brought in Ricky Williams. It was the same thing with Kerry, and the plan backfired on them. They won four games."
Toronto general manager Adam Rita could not be reached for comment.

The Argos ended the season on a nine-game losing streak, finishing with a 4-14 record that kept them out of the playoffs for the first time since 2001. Bishop had been 11-1 as a starter with the team in 2007.

"I didn't divide the locker room," he said. "I came in, didn't say anything, took my reps, worked out and still hung out with the players. Maybe I should have stepped up and complained and did all the things that, I guess, people thought I would do -- and maybe I would have still been there, I don't know."

Bishop does not know where he will be this spring. With no obvious openings around the CFL, and with the Arena Football League having suspended operations, he has begun to investigate the possibility of playing in two minor-pro leagues trying to get off the ground in the United States -- the United National Gridiron League, and the All American Football League.
He has also been working at his football camp, Fourth Quarter Fitness, where he has been teaching football fundamentals to a group of about 70 teenaged hopefuls. He has also been helping out at his old high school in Willis, Tex.

"Do I want to play football? I've been playing football all my life, so of course I want to play," he said. "But in reality, you can't play football all your life. And I think a lot of people try to play past their prime, or hang on to it instead of looking in another direction. If I need to look in another direction, then I'm able to do that, and I can deal with it."
sfitzgerald@nationalpost.com