Thank You, Kevin Glenn

Meeting Kevin Glenn for the first time back in 2010

If you are a Tiger-Cat fan (as I assume most of the people reading this will be), you remember how dreadful the franchise was from 2005 to 2008. It was a terrible time to be a fan of the Black & Gold, with the losses piling up and the wins few and far between.

When the 2009 season started, no one thought much of Hamilton. They had a young Quarterback in Quinton Porter and a new Head Coach in Marcel Bellefeuille. The Tiger-Cats were expected to struggle, and when the team lost at home on opening day to the Argonauts, it felt like the same old story would play out.

The season was up and down, but following a miserable Thanksgiving Day showing against the Blue Bombers, the decision was made to pull the plug on the Porter experiment and hand the reins over to Kevin Glenn. The Tiger-Cats would go 3-1 down the stretch and secure their first home playoff game since 2001.

Glenn was named the starter entering 2010 and he played Quarterback better than almost anyone in Tiger-Cat history. Over 5,000 yards through the air and a team record 33 touchdown passes, Glenn once again led the Tiger-Cats into the playoffs; their first back-to-back trips to the post season in a decade.

The 2011 season saw a decrease in the stat and win columns, yet Hamilton still advanced to their first East Division Final in 10 years, and defeated the Montreal Alouettes in Montreal in an epic clash in the East Division Semi-Final.

Glenn was one of a handful of key players that helped take the Tiger-Cats out of the East Division basement and turn them into a perennial playoff team. Considering where the team was before he arrived, his tenure with the Tiger-Cats is a success in my eyes. Glenn may not have guided the team to the Promised Land, but he did more than any Quarterback since Danny McManus, and the list of Quarterback saviours post-McManus is not a short one.

If not for Glenn's arrival, the Tiger-Cats probably do not have the success they have enjoyed over the last three seasons. While the ultimate goal eluded both Glenn and the team, he leaves the franchise in much better shape than when he arrived.

I will fondly remember Glenn's years in Black & Gold because he helped rejuvenate a fan base that had become accustomed to nothing but meaningless games after Labour Day. Glenn, along with a host of other players, brought respectability back to football in Hamilton.

As Glenn leaves for Calgary, I'd like to say thank you.

Thank you, Kevin Glenn, for the three wonderful seasons.

Thank you, Kevin Glenn, for doing everything you could to make this team a winner.

Thank you, Kevin Glenn, for being a player I was proud to call a Hamilton Tiger-Cat.

Thank you, Kevin Glenn. Best of luck in Calgary.