Defensive End Candidates for the All-Time Team

For some reason this slipped my mind, but the Ti-Cats have unveiled the second position group for fans to vote on for the all-time team. The quarterbacks were revealed last week; this week, it is the defensive ends.

Seven players are up for two spots on the team, and while all seven are great players, the two that will make it are likely to be no-brainers. All due respect to Tim Cofield, Billy Ray Locklin, Vince Mazza, Tim Cheatwood and Pete Neumann, but the two that will be named to the team are Joe Montford and Grover Covington.

Simply put, they are two of the greatest pass rushers in CFL, not just Tiger-Cat, history. Covington still holds the league record for sacks in a career, while Montford was a three-time winner of the Most Outstanding Defensive Player award and holds the team records for sacks in a season with 26.

When I think of defensive ends for the Ti-Cats, the first two names that come to mind are Covington and Montford. They are the two most identifiable pass rushers in Tiger-Cat history and they are the two players who will receive my votes for the all-time team.

The Greatest Tiger-Cats of My Lifetime: #6

#6: Grover Covington
What can I say about Grover Covington that hasn't already been said? He was the CFL's Most Outstanding Defensive Player in 1988, a 4-time All Star, a member of the 1986 Grey Cup Championship team, and he was voted as one of the Top 50 Greatest Players in CFL History (#28) in 2006. He was also inducted into the CFL Hall of Fame in 2000.

It's not just the accolades that make Grover Covington an all-time great. Covington was the prototype for the modern pass rusher. He was a pin-the-ears-back-and-get-the-QB type of player. He was one of the most dominant defensive players of the 1980s. He is still the record holder for most sacks in a career with 157 over an 11-year career. He tallied 25 sacks during his dominant 1988 season. He was also named the Most Outstanding Defensive Player for the 1986 Grey Cup.

Covington has gone down as one of the greatest players in the history of the league, and because of that, Grover Covington lands at #6 on my list of greatest Tiger-Cats of the past 30 years.

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