B.C. Lions: Printers' game was figuratively lame

Sacked quarterback kept bum knee under wraps to the point it crippled his skills. Former Florida A&M University Rattlers quarterback Printers played for Lions after 3rd game with a partial tear of his ACL and a torn meniscus in right knee, while B.C. Lions kept info on the hush-hush from league.

CALGARY - Quarterback Casey Printers still hasn't lost the ability to excite and inflame the passion of Lions fans, even when he is no longer a Lion.

On Thursday, TSN reported that Printers had undergone surgery on his right knee, eight days after his release by the Lions, and the news spurred those who believed Printers had stoically suffered in silence during his disappointing second go-round with the team to view him in a much different, more heroic light.

"I suspected all along that he was suffering the effects of his knee injury," said a blogger known as the Lion King, just one of many who weighed in on the lionbackers.com web-site. "Doesn't say much about [Wally] Buono blaming Printers for the Lions' offensive woes."

Printers agreed with team MD's recommendation

Time heals old wounds. It also distorts some facts, Wally Buono said Tuesday. Though Casey Printers is no longer with the B.C. Lions, the coach/GM of the CFL team is still having to answer questions about how the club handled the medical file of his former starting quarterback.

The ACL surgery performed on the right knee of Printers last week again raised questions about whether the Lions put pressure on him to play through the injury, which caused him to sit out three weeks after he was hurt July 16 against Montreal.

Pouncing on Printers no more

There was one less Cadillac Escalade with Texas plates in the parking lot, one less quarterback with an orange jersey at practice and one more open stall in the locker-room. Otherwise, life -- post-Casey Printers -- moved forward for the B.C. Lions Thursday.

"Honestly, it's still very recent," said Travis Lulay, the acknowledged starting quarterback following Printers' release two days ago. "I don't think a ton has changed. It's so new. I wouldn't say the atmosphere is dramatically different without Casey. But I do feel the team and the locker-room is in a good place. And I'm not saying that's because Casey is gone, or if the team would be in a good place with Casey here. It's impossible to say."



Lions release Casey Printers‎

VANCOUVER -- The British Columbia Lions released quarterback Casey Printers on Wednesday. The 29-year-old started the first three games of the season before suffering a knee injury. He returned as a starter for Week 8 loss to Calgary, but had been relegated to backup status for the last two games against Winnipeg.

"At this time, we believe it's in the best interest of our club to part ways and move forward," said Lions head coach and general manager Wally Buono. "We wish Casey the very best." Printers finished his 2010 tenure at B.C. with 1,731 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and six interceptions.

Former Lions QB Printers speaks about his recent release

After being released by the B.C. Lions on Thursday, Casey Printers' CFL future is up in the air. A statement from Printers passed on through his representative to CFL Insider Dave Naylor expressed his thoughts on the Lions' decision, the team's playoff chances and what comes next for the 29-year-old quarterback.

"It was with surprise and disappointment that I received the news of my release," said Printers. "I remained confident that we had an outstanding opportunity to challenge for the Grey Cup down the stretch and into the playoffs.

Casey under the knife

The next team to take a shot with Casey Printers will have to wait until he recovers from ACL surgery he underwent Thursday. A report by TSN, which had the first word on Printers last weekend, indicated the former Lions quarterback underwent the procedure in Vancouver, which would hardly come as a surprise to Wally Buono.

Though he did not provide details at the time of his release a week ago, Buono told Printers the club would look after the costs of his medical recovery as he was going out the door.

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Printers mirrors inconsistent Lions: Buono

Former FAMU quarterback Casey Printers is showing inconsistency as Lions starter.

VANCOUVER, B.C. — The one great quality of being a genius coach is having a great quarterback. And three games into the 2010 CFL season, B.C. Lions quarterback Casey Printers is not making his boss look very smart. In coach Wally Buono's view, his field general is exhibiting the same erraticism that is bedeviling the rest of the team.

"You'd like for him to be more consistent," Buono said Saturday, after reviewing tapes of the Lions' 16-12 defeat to the Montreal Alouettes Friday night at Empire Field. "Half the time, there is a very good quarterback." That statement was borne out by the statistics, which saw Printers complete 20 of 40 passes for 253 yards against the Alouettes. And he did throw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Jamal Robertson for the game's only major.

However, he was intercepted twice, the first time when he tried to throw a home-run ball into the end zone with Paris Jackson double-covered and the entire Montreal defence aware that Printers was going to go deep. It was not a smart call, Buono admitted, because the Lions were in Montreal territory and needed to come away with points in what was a low-scoring defensive struggle.

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Video: Highlights: MTL 16, BC 12

VOD: Week 3 - Alouettes vs. Lions

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FAMU's Printers suffers hamstring injury in Lions' loss to Riders

Vancouver, BC (Sports Network) - British Columbia Lions starting quarterback Casey Printers suffered an apparent leg injury in the final minute of the first half of Saturday's 37-18 loss against the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Printers was taken down by defensive end Brent Hawkins when he was hurt and limped gingerly off the field. Travis Lulay played under center for the second half. "I could've played but I couldn't risk making it worse. It was a precautionary thing to sit back. It's a long season," Printers said. Prior to suffering the injury, Printers completed 10-of-14 passes for 120 yards and a touchdown.

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Video Highlights: SSK 37, BC 18

BC Lions' had a brilliant night – except for the football

VANCOUVER — It was a great night for the lions. Stoic and noble, glorious and indomitable – those were the lions on the North Shore mountains. For the Lions down on the field, playing the first outdoor regular-season Canadian Football League game since 1982, B.C.'s football team was far eclipsed by its stadium. The Lions were far eclipsed by the Saskatchewan Roughriders, too, losing 37-18 in a game that dulled the nostalgia of returning to Empire Field for the 2010 season.

The two best lions were those peaks in the Coast Range overlooking English Bay and Burrard Inlet. The only B.C. Lion close to them was Geroy Simon, whose first-half jumpball catch on Casey Printers' 32-yard heave-ho and a garbage-time grab of Travis Lulay's bomb for a 98-yard touchdown gave his team an illusion of competitiveness.

Roughriders spoil Lions' return to Empire lands before a sold-out crowd

VANCOUVER — The Empire didn't strike back, it struck out. Saskatchewan Roughriders stopped a five-game Lions win' streak against them at Hastings and Cassiar - albeit one that stretched back 28 years - as they crushed B.C. 37-18 before a sold-out crowd of 27,500 at Empire Field Saturday night. The game was the first CFL game played outdoors in Vancouver since the 1982 season at the former site of Empire Stadium, demolished after the Lions moved to BC Place a year later.

And demolished pretty much described the state of the Lions after their first regular-season game at Empire Field, the temporary, $15 million structure that is the team's contingency home while BC Place undergoes renovations for a retractable roof.

The Lions lost starting quarterback Casey Printers late in the second quarter with a strained quad muscle after he was flushed out of the pocket by defensive end Brent Hawkins, who was a monster all evening for the Roughriders. Besides his constant raids into the Lions backfield, Hawkins forced a fumble when he tackled Travis Lulay - Printers' replacement - then picked up the loose ball to score Saskatchewan's fourth touchown on 40-yard fumble return.


#1 Quarterback Casey Printers (FAMU)

CFLGame Video:

• Week 2: Roughriders vs. LionsPlay

Highlights: CGY 23, HAM 22

Highlights: TOR 36, WPG 34

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Printers, B.C. Lions kick their way to road victory

Former FAMU Rattlers' Quarterback Casey Printers plays turnover - free football in the B.C. Lions 25-10 road win over the Edmonton Eskimos in yesterday's Canada Day season opener.

EDMONTON, AB — The distance from where the Lions began their Canadian Football League season on Sunday and where they would like it to end up is not large. It is precisely 25 steps to walk from the visiting locker-room to the palatial new digs occupied by the Edmonton Eskimos at Commonwealth Stadium, where this year’s Grey Cup game is to be played. And in relative terms, what the Lions did when they posted a 25-10 win on the strength of a turnover-free game in which they also forced the hosts into five giveaways, not to mention six field goals by Paul McCallum, was take precisely one step in that direction.

One step, nothing more. But with so much uncertainty as a result of the massive off-season personnel airlift, there is reason to think coach Wally Buono has assembled the makings of a team. And if there were doubts about the young offensive line, they were erased when Jon Hameister-Ries sprang Robertson with a block for his scoring run. Quarterback Casey Printers was only dropped behind the line of scrimmage once.

Video:

• Week 1: Lions vs. EskimosPlay

Highlights: BC 25, EDM 10

CFL News and Highlights : Step in the Right Direction

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Former FAMU's Printers serves up completions and contradictions

There is a wariness to Casey Printers born out of an unshakable belief that he's been plagued throughout his turbulent football career by the ill-formed perceptions of others. It's why, we suspect, that when approached after a long practice the other day by a reporter with whom he has no prior experience, he does not lay down his helmet and orange jersey-covered shoulder pads. No point it seems in conveying an "I've got time, ask away" message.

So he keeps shifting his equipment from hand to hand as the questions come and his arms tire. And even as he relaxes a bit and begins to let his guard down slightly as he surprisingly allows the minutes to tick on, he never does let the equipment drop. The 29-year-old Texan with the diamond stud earrings and engaging smile is about to embark on the first full season of his second stint with the B.C. Lions. And he remains as complex and contradictory, as puzzling and presumptuous, as ever.

Deciphering Printers is like peeling an onion. One layer gives way to another. The core of who he is remains buried. Few people in life get a second go-round as intriguing as the one Printers has been handed.

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Advice and thoughts by Casey Printers from his self-help book, "From High School To The Pros"

Casey Printers attended Texas Christian University (TCU) and Florida A&M University where he excelled as an outstanding college quarterback landing him in the CFL as the highest paid quarterback and later in the NFL with the Kansas City Chief as their back-up quarterback. While not attaining the marquise player for the Chiefs, Casey still took his role seriously as a member of the Chiefs and the Kansas City community as he began to participate as a volunteer in the public schools to inspire and encourage young students. Casey is once again the starting QB for the B.C. Lions and is poised to return to CFL stardom.

One of the more intriguing quarterbacks to play at Florida A&M University in the modern era is Casey J. Printers, a DeSoto, Texas star who transferred to FAMU in 2002 for his senior season. Printers, in his own rights had already achieved much -- leading the TCU Horned Frogs to three straight bowl games (1999-2001) and was on schedule to graduate on time.

But, the Rattlers' high-powered Gulf Coast Offense had been putting up monster numbers and making ordinary quarterbacks Division I-AA All-Americans and household names -- like Tony Ezell, Jose Laureano, Oteman Sampson, Mike Morand, Pat Bonner, Quinn Gray, JaJuan Seider and Ben Dougherty. The receiving corps became widely known as the 'RAC Boys' (Run After Catch), who re-wrote the NCAA record books with names like Jacquay Nunnally, Cainon Lamb, Demetruis Bendross and Tariq Qaiyim.

Nunnally was the best of the RAC Boys, going on to break Jerry Rice NCAA 1-AA record for most receptions in a collegiate career with 362. Nunnally also was a three-time football Division I All-American at Florida A&M, who led the Rattlers to the NCAA Division I FCS (formerly I-AA) playoffs in 1997-2000. He is second all-time in the NCAA Division I FCS football record books in career pass receptions with 317 for 4,239 yards and 38 touchdowns. The four-times All-MEAC first team selectee was inducted in FAMU's Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.

Belle Glades, Florida (Glades Central H.S.) product JaJuan Seider had passed for a total of 137 yards in three seasons at 1-A West Virginia University where he sat mostly on the pine on game days. Seider jumped ship to the Rattlers in 1999 and passed for 2,512 yards and 27 touchdowns. In Seider's first collegiate start for FAMU, he powered the Rattlers to an embarrassing 76-17 victory over the Bulldogs of South Carolina State University in the Orange Blossom - Palmetto Classic in Jacksonville, Florida.

The Bulldogs were coached by 2010 College Football Hall of Famer, SCSU Head Football Coach Emeritus, Willie Jeffries who won 60 percent (Overall career: 179-132-6) of the college football games he coached. But, not on that day. Seider, who was starting in place of an injured future NFL quarterback -- Quinn Gray (Jacksonville Jaguars), completed 20 of 26 passes for 238 yards and three touchdowns in the first half and the rest was history.

Seider earned All-America honors, won the Doug Williams Award for National Offensive Player of the Year and the Jake Gaither Award (considered the Heisman Trophy of black colleges). He was also named the MEAC offensive Player of the Year and went on to be selected in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft by the San Diego Chargers.

Today, Seider is the Running Backs Coach/Recruiting Coordinator at I-A Marshall University, in Huntington, West Virginia. More so, Seider has earned a B.S. in physical education in 2000 and a master's degree in athletic coaching in 2010.

After reading about the exploits of Bonner, Gray, Seider, Dougherty and other FAMU All-American quarterbacks and receivers, Printers could not resist. The Rattlers also became more attraction for Printers as future FAMU Hall of Famer and National Football Foundation's College Football Hall of Famer, coach William "Billy Joe," was hitting his stride with D-IA transfers. Billy Joe, who had one of the greatest offensive minds in college football during that era, was striking fear in the minds of all opponents. For a time, no one could stop the Rattlers powerful offense but the Rattlers themselves through their own errors.

By no stretch of the imagination, Printers parlayed his injury prone FAMU senior season into a pro career starting with the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and now, the B.C. Lions. The former Rattler rose from third-string quarterback in 2003 to being named the Most Outstanding Player in the league for the 2004 season -- leading the B.C. Lions toward an appearance in the 92nd Grey Cup game.

In his second stint with the B.C. Lions, Printers is once again the starter, with high hopes of another Grey Cup run and a return to super stardom, after sitting out of football most of last season. During that time, Printers was marketing his self-help book, "From High School to the Pros." His off-the-field activities have been outstanding in working with young people.

In this morning "The Province" newspaper are a few excerpts from Printer's book. One of my favorite Printers' quote that did not make the book is -- "Listen, skeptics are going to be skeptics, critics are going to be critics and haters are going to be haters. "

Some of the others are:

- The greatest enemy of progress is your last success. If you marvel at what you have done, it will hinder what you could do.

- If I can't applaud my accomplishments, who can?

- It's not about whether your coach likes you. It's whether he can trust you. ... If you don't get along with your coach, be a businessman or woman and talk. Deflate your chest and become coachable all the time.

- Over the years I have met people who hold onto life's downs. To them, I say "take out the trash." The trash is what's in your head.

- The more humble you are, the more people will want to help you.

- Service to others, there is no higher purpose.

- When I stopped worrying about what has happened and what will happen my life became more meaningful.

- Team, to me, means you submit to the goals of the club, but you need individuals to do more from time to time.

- Wake up, young athletes: Spending thousands in a [night]club to be noticed is not the smartest thing to do. If you feel like giving your money away, go to a shelter or a home for children and bless the lives of someone else ... There is this perception, particularly when it comes to African-American athletes, that you are a sellout if you don't come back to your neighbourhoods. How about you get involved in a business that allows you to employ people? You can then go back with something to give your friends, a job and a future.

Note: Coach William "Billy Joe" is currently the head football coach at Miles College, Fairfield, Alabama.

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