Anthony Calvillo

Anthony Calvillo

No. 13
Born:	(1972-08-23) August 23, 1972 Los Angeles, California
Career information
Status	Retired
CFL status	American
Position(s)	QB
Height	6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
Weight	200 lb (91 kg)
College	Utah State
High school	La Puente
Hand	Right
Career highlights and awards
CFL All-Star	2002, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2012
CFL East All-Star	2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012
Awards	Most Outstanding Player (2003, 2008, 2009) Terry Evanshen Trophy (2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
Honours	CFLPA Pro Player All Star Team (2002, 2003, 2008, 2010)
Records	Most career passing yards (79,816) Most career touchdown passes (455) Most career pass completions (5892) Most career pass attempts (9437) Most career passing yards in Grey Cup games (2470 yards) Most completions in regular season game (44)

Anthony Calvillo (born August 23, 1972) is a former Canadian Football League quarterback. He is professional football's all-time passing yards leader, and first in all-time CFL passing yards. In his career, he passed for 79,816 yards and is one of five professional quarterbacks to have completed over 400 touchdown passes (the others being Brett Favre, Warren Moon, Peyton Manning and Dan Marino). Calvillo won three Grey Cup championships in 2002, 2009, and 2010, and named Grey Cup Most Valuable Player in 2002. He also won the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award three times, in 2003, 2008, and 2009, which ties him for second all-time behind Doug Flutie. Calvillo announced his retirement on January 21, 2014.

Early life, high school career and family

Calvillo was born in Los Angeles, California. While attending La Puente High School, he was a two-sport standout in football and basketball.

College career

Calvillo spent two seasons at Mt. San Antonio College before transferring to Utah State University in 1992. After a solid junior year as starting quarterback, he had a terrific senior season in 1993. He set a school record with 3,260 yards of total offense in the regular season, and he also set a school record with 5 touchdown passes in a single game (he did it twice). With Calvillo leading the offense, USU won the Big West Conference championship for the first time since 1979. The Aggies finished the year with a 42-33 win over Ball State in the Las Vegas Bowl; Calvillo passed for 386 yards and 3 touchdowns to win MVP honors. It was Utah State's first-ever bowl victory.

Professional career

Anthony Calvillo game action, 93rd Grey Cup

Las Vegas Posse

After not being drafted by an NFL team, Calvillo started his Canadian Football League career in 1994 with the US expansion Las Vegas Posse.

Hamilton Tiger-Cats

After the Posse folded a year later in the CFL U.S. expansion experiment, Calvillo was selected first overall by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the dispersal draft. While in Hamilton, Calvillo served as a backup quarterback to players such as Steve Taylor and Matt Dunigan.

Montreal Alouettes

In 1998, Calvillo signed as a free agent with the Montreal Alouettes, where he became one of the most outstanding CFL quarterbacks in history. He led the Alouettes to the 2002 Grey Cup, their first in 25 years, where he was named the most valuable player in the game.

During the 2003 CFL season, Calvillo broke numerous Montreal Alouette passing records, completing 408 of 675 passing attempts for 5,891 yards and 37 touchdowns. In 2004, with 6,041 passing yards, Calvillo became the fourth quarterback in CFL history to pass for more than 6,000 yards in a single season (Doug Flutie, David Archer, and Kent Austin being the other three), earning him the East Division nomination for Most Outstanding Player for the third consecutive year. With Calvillo quarterbacking the Alouettes' offence, the 2004 Alouettes became the first team in CFL history with four receivers on one team all going over 1000 yards receiving in the same season: Ben Cahoon (1183 yards), Jeremaine Copeland (1154 yards), Thyron Anderson (1147 yards), and Kwame Cavil (1090 yards). During the 2005 CFL season, Calvillo and the 2005 Montreal Alouettes would again accomplish the feat of four receivers on one team all going over 1000 yards receiving in the same season (which had never been accomplished before the 2004 Alouettes precedent-setting team). The 2005 Alouettes set of receivers going over 1000 yards receiving were Kerry Watkins (1364 yards), Terry Vaughn (1113 yards), Ben Cahoon (1067 yards), and Dave Stala (1037 yards).

The 2008 CFL season saw Calvillo hit a number of career milestones. On June 26, in a game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Calvillo surpassed Danny McManus to become the second-all-time leading passer in the CFL. On July 31, in another game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Calvillo became the fourth quarterback in league history to reach 300 career touchdown passes. On August 15, 2008, in a game against the Toronto Argonauts, Calvillo became the second quarterback in CFL history after Damon Allen to reach 4,000 career pass completions. With 5,633 passing yards and 43 touchdown passes, Calvillo won the 2008 Most Outstanding Player award. Calvillo led the Montreal Alouettes to the 2008 Grey Cup final, which the Alouettes lost 22-14 to the Calgary Stampeders.

In 2009, Calvillo added to his club records while reaching more CFL milestones. On July 23, 2009, he surpassed Canadian Football Hall of Famer Ron Lancaster's 334 career touchdown passes to move into second place all time. He sat out two games during the regular season, but still accumulated 4639 yards while posting a remarkable 72.0% completion rate, the second best single-season completion rate in CFL history behind Dave Dickenson's 73.98% mark set in 2005. Calvillo led Montreal to a comeback victory in the 97th Grey Cup on Nov. 29, when the Alouettes defeated the Saskatchewan Roughriders on a last-second field goal.

Calvillo won his third Grey Cup on November 28, 2010 at 98th Grey Cup in Edmonton, Alberta. He added to his record total of passing yards in Grey Cup games with 2470 yards, as well as setting the record for Grey Cup starts with eight. As of the 2010 CFL season, Calvillo is 3-5 in Grey Cup Championship Games.

In a post-game interview, he revealed that he would be undergoing off-season surgery to remove a lesion on his thyroid that was discovered after he injured his sternum during the season. On December 21, 2010, it was reported that Calvillo had successful thyroidectomy surgery to remove a cancerous lesion.

On July 15, 2011, in a game against the Toronto Argonauts, Calvillo completed his CFL record 395th career touchdown pass to Éric Deslauriers. On August 4 of that same season, and again against the Argonauts, Calvillo completed his 5159th pass completion to Brandon London to move past Damon Allen to become the leader in that category as well. Then, on October 10, 2011, Calvillo completed a touchdown pass to Jamel Richardson to become professional football's all-time leading passer, in the Alouettes' third and final game against the Toronto Argonauts that year. In 2012, Calvillo became the only player in football history to pass 5,000 yards seven times in his career. He reached 4,000 yards passing eleven times in his career (a CFL record), only Peyton Manning has reached the 4,000 mark more times in his career with twelve 4,000 yard seasons. He also set another CFL record having 8 consecutive 300+ passing yards games in a single season, breaking the record he shared with Doug Flutie.

Calvillo signed a 2-year contract on December 13, 2012, the deal keeps him with the Al's through the 2014 season. In Week 8 of the 2013 CFL season Calvillo left the game after taking a hit from Saskatchewan's Ricky Foley. Three days after the game it was announced that he had suffered a concussion, and missed the Week 9 game against the BC Lions and the Week 10 game against the Toronto Argonauts. On September 4 2013 the Al's placed Calvillo on the 9-game injury list. On October 18, 2013 the Montreal Alouettes general manager and head coach Jim Popp announced that Calvillo would not be returning to play for the remainder of the 2013 season.

On January 21, 2014 Calvillo announced his retirement from professional football. Before his retirement, he was offered the offensive coordinator position with the Alouettes but declined.

On October 13, 2014, Calvillo's jersey number, # 13, was retired in a halftime ceremony at McGill Stadium, broadcast nationally on TSN.

In 2012, Calvillo became the only player in football history to pass 5,000 yards seven times in his career.[12] He reached 4,000 yards passing eleven times in his career (a CFL record), only Peyton Manning has reached the 4,000 mark more times in his career with twelve 4,000 yard seasons. He also set another CFL record having 8 consecutive 300+ passing yards games in a single season, breaking the record he shared with Doug Flutie.

However it should be noted on your records that Anthony Calvillo became the only player in football history to pass 5,000 yards seven times in his career. In Canadian football we in Canada play three(3) downs not four as you do in the USA. Hence to calculate an equivalency (four downs versus four downs) all his outstanding records should be noted and/or augmented by 33.33%. I would appreciate your comments regarding this important matter.

Career statistics

			Passing										Rushing
Year	Team		Games	Started	Att	Comp	Pct	Yards	TD	Int	Rating		Att	Yards	Avg	Long	TD	Fumb
1994	LV		17	14	348	154	44.3	2,582	13	15	64.4		42	195	4.6	21	2	9
1995	HAM		18	9	385	211	54.8	2,831	19	21	72.1		24	51	2.1	13	2	5
1996	HAM		13	7	265	157	59.2	2,571	13	13	87.8		40	311	7.8	53	1	2
1997	HAM		12	10	278	160	57.6	2,177	12	11	80.6		53	242	4.6	29	2	12
1998	MTL		18	5	172	98	57.0	1,526	6	10	74.0		31	121	3.9	11	1	1
1999	MTL		18	9	249	166	66.7	2,592	13	6	108.4		56	211	3.8	27	3	3
2000	MTL		18	17	435	272	62.5	4,277	27	5	111.1		58	230	4.0	26	2	6
2001	MTL		18	15	412	250	60.7	3,671	16	9	93.6		40	253	6.3	29	1	2
2002	MTL		18	17	569	338	59.4	5,013	27	10	96.8		45	327	7.3	24	3	5
2003	MTL		18	18	675	408	60.4	5,891	37	14	98.4		45	169	3.8	46	1	12
2004	MTL		18	18	690	431	62.5	6,041	31	15	96.6		44	237	5.4	18	1	2
2005	MTL		18	17	661	437	66.1	5,556	34	19	97.4		35	189	5.4	15	6	4
2006	MTL		18	18	640	402	62.8	4,714	20	15	85.8		28	185	6.6	21	2	3
2007	MTL		13	13	459	308	67.1	3,608	17	8	95.8		21	137	6.5	17	0	3
2008	MTL		17	17	682	472	69.2	5,633	43	13	107.2		26	189	7.3	29	2	1
2009	MTL		18	16	550	396	72.0	4,639	26	6	108.4		32	198	6.2	30	2	3
2010	MTL		16	15	562	380	67.6	4,839	32	7	108.1		16	107	6.7	16	0	6
2011	MTL		18	18	654	404	61.8	5,251	32	8	98.2		21	155	7.4	20	1	9
2012	MTL		18	17	555	333	60.0	5,082	31	14	98.3		19	155	8.2	22	2	3
2013	MTL		7	7	196	115	58.7	1,322	6	5	78.7		6	26	4.3	9	0	2
CFL totals			329	277	9,437	5,892	62.4	79,816	455	224	95.5		682	3,688	5.4	53	34	93

Honours

• 2011 Pro Football record all-time leader in passing yards
• 2002, 2009, 2010 Grey Cup Champion
• 2003, 2008, 2009 CFL Most Outstanding Player
• 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 East Division Most Outstanding Player
• 2002 Grey Cup Most Valuable Player
• 2002, 2003, 2008, 2009 CFL All-Star team
• 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 CFL East Division All-Star team
• 2002, 2003, 2008, 2010 CFLPA All-Star team
• 2004 CFLPA East Division All-Star team
• 2004 Fans' Choice Award

In 2012 in honour of the 100th Grey Cup, Canada Post used his image on a series of commemorative postage stamps. The image was also used on presentation posters and other materials to promote the Grey Cup game and other celebrations associated with the centennial.

On October 13, 2014, the Alouettes organization retired Calvillo's number 13 in a half-time ceremony.

Personal life

Calvillo and his wife Alexia have two daughters and reside year-round in Montreal.

External links

• Anthony Calvillo, Greatest QB You Have Never Seen
• Anthony Calvillo of the C.F.L. is Pro Football's Top Passer
• An unlikely pass master