I suppose the word underrated can be subjective. One definition is a good player who is snubbed by the league and media as he is never selected for any awards and there are not many good articles written about him. Therefore, he does not receive the praise, recognition, and fame he deserves. Another definition from the fans’ perspective is that the player never receives any respect and appreciation from supporters of his team. Of course, this aspect is harder to quantify as you must rely on observations only. But through general discussions on message boards such as this one, you can get a fairly good idea how well the player is appreciated. Another way to observe this is if he eventually departs from the team, then how much he will be missed by the fans of the team.
A good definition for an underrated player is an unsung hero. There may be several reasons why a player would be unsung, but I’d say the most common reason is because despite his fine individual performance, his team didn’t do well and was thus overshadowed by his bad team. Another reason might be too high expectations from fans when bad teammates were to blame. Bad personalities may have something to do with it as well. Finally, he may simply be overshadowed by another player in the same position who played at the same time.
I will provide a list of the top ten BC Lions who I think are underrated based on my observations. I will provide the list in reverse order starting with #10 and ending with #1. In some cases, I will list more than one person because I feel their circumstances are very similar. I will provide a detailed explanation for each case. In some cases, I feel that the player was snubbed by the league and reporters for awards, while perhaps being under-appreciated by the fans. In other cases, the player may have won awards, but was clearly disrespected by the fans. In making my list, I took into consideration which players won awards, who won awards, who was selected for certain honours such as being inducted on the BC Lions Wall of Fame and selected to the 50th anniversary dream team.
#10. Bill Baker, Larry Cameron, and John Sciarra
In the otherwise horrible seasons of the 1970’s, three players displayed some fine performances (aside from Jim Young, of course) but were likely overshadowed by the terrible decade. Defensive end Bill Baker became the first Lion to win the Norm Fieldgate trophy for the west division nominee for the Most Outstanding Defensive Player in 1975 and although he didn’t win that year, and he was nominated again in 1976 and this time he won. While Baker is inducted into the Hall of Fame, he is better remembered for his Roughriders years. In 1975, linebacker Larry Cameron became the first Lion to win the Jackie Parker trophy for the west division nominee as the CFL Most Outstanding Rookie. And in 1976, John Sciarra was the first Lion to win Most Outstanding Rookie, and at quarterback of all positions. Despite these firsts for Lions in CFL player awards, these three Lions remain mostly anonymous.
#9. Gerald Roper and Jamie Buis
These two solid guards played for over 100 games as a Lion and at the start of their careers played on either side of centre Al Wilson. But they don’t have nearly the same amount of fame and recognition as the man who played in between them.
#8. Paul Lacoste, Steve Muhammed, and B.J. Gallis
Compared to other professional sports leagues, it seems like the Most Outstanding Rookie award doesn’t bring the player as much fame and recognition in the CFL. This was already evidenced by Cameron and Sciarra in #10, but here are three more examples involving these three defensive rookies. In 1997, rookie linebacker B.J. Gallis won the west division nomination for Most Outstanding Rookie with his 45 tackes and 4 sacks in 12 games. In 1998, rookie defensive back Steve Muhammed won Most Outstanding Rookie with his league leading 10 interceptions. In 1999, rookie linebacker Paul Lacoste won Most Outstanding Rookie with his 78 tackles. One’s rookie year can be considered difficult as one makes the transition into a professional league, so the most outstanding rookie award should be a great honour. However, these three players don’t have nearly the same amount of fame and respect as other Lions who have won the award such as Wake, Hunt, Clermont, Simpson, Volpe, Gray, and Bright.
#7. Coach Vic Rapp :no:
Vic Rapp is only one of four Lions coaches to win the Annis Stukus trophy for the CFL Coach of the Year award when he won it in 1977. I agree, Rapp does not fall in the same category as the other winners of Matthews, Buono, and Skrien. But don’t forget that in taking over the Lions in 1977, Rapp led the Lions to a huge improvement as it was their first winning season, home playoff game, and playoff win in 13 years since the 1964 Grey Cup win. At six seasons, Rapp has one of the longest tenures of all Lions coaches and had a winning record of 53-39-4.
#6. Robert Drummond
Robert Drummond won four Grey Cups in his career, the last of which was with the Lions in 2000. Along with someone else who I will list later, Drummond was one of the best free agent signings in 1998 and he has four solid seasons with the Lions. Of the Lions five Grey Cup championships, I’d say the least popular was the 2000 win and along with that, goes Drummond’s MVP performance where he had 122 yards on 10 carries and scored an important 44-yard touchdown caught another three passes for 41 yards. Along with another running back that I will list below, Drummond will likely not be remembered as one of the greatest Lions running backs.
#5. Owner Bill Comrie
While there’s no doubt that David Braley has been the best Lions owner, Bill Comrie should not be forgotten either. I stated in another thread that I have a lot of respect for Comrie for having the courage to step in and buy the last-place Lions in the middle of the 1992 season after Murray Pezim had abandoned the team. He knew that it was a risky investment and I’m sure his four years as owner lost him a lot of money in the end. Nevertheless, he put forth a solid effort as owner and at least he tried to use his great furniture entrepreneur skills into selling football too as I wouldn’t complain about his generous giveaways. I like the way he hired Eric Tillman and Dave Ritchie as part of the re-building plan from the horrific 3-15 1992 season as well as his willingness to sign star players such as Kent Austin and Less Browne. As a result, in two years the team was turned into a Grey Cup winner in two years and among all the other memorable things from the 1994 Grey Cup run, let’s not forget the owner of the team either.
#4. Cory Philpot
For three straight seasons from 1994 to 1996, Cory Philpot rushed for over 1000 yards. In 1994, he won the Eddie James Memorial Trophy for the top rusher in the west division when he established a club record of 1451 rushing yards and was a key component in the Grey Cup win. In 1995,he won the award again while he established a then-CFL and still-Lions record of most touchdowns in a season with 22. 1995 was when Doug Flutie missed part of the season with an injury so he was not up for the CFL MOP award for the fifth straight season, which eventually went to Baltimore’s Mike Pringle. But what outraged me was that Philpot didn’t even win the Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy for the West Division MOP nomination, which went to Calgary’s Dave Sapunjis. Despite his accomplishments, I don’t think many fans would consider Philpot as the greatest Lion running back. He is clearly very distant behind Willie Fleming and Sean Millington, who were selected for the dream team. With all due respect to Fleming and Millington who played more seasons, Philpot’s record setting seasons should never be forgotten.
#3. David Williams :x
While Matt Dunigan was well respected in his two years as a Lion, his favourite receiver was not. David Williams became the second Lion to win CFL MOP, but of the five Lions who have won that award, he is by far the least popular. Nobody seemed to like him at all despite him setting a then-Lions record of 18 touchdowns in 1988, his first in the CFL. And nobody seemed to feel it was a great loss when he left for Toronto after 1989, where he continued to be a favourite target of Dunigan in the explosive Argos offence of 1990 and was part of their 1991 Grey Cup winning team.
#2. Kent Austin
Kent Austin will forever be overshadowed by the heroics of Danny McManus in the 1994 playoffs. But let’s not forget that Austin was still the Lions main starting QB for most of the 1994 regular season. And I stated before in other threads that I think the three way trade that replaced Danny Barrett with Austin as Lions QB was one of the best trades the Lions have ever made. I felt that Austin was a very solid and accurate passer, and he was a decent rusher too in short yardage situations as he scored several rushing touchdowns on bootleg plays. In the 1994 Grey Cup, Austin completed 7 passes, albeit with 3 interceptions but that was still more than the three McManus completed. Austin led the Lions in the opening drive that led to a field goal, and the GC was won mostly by the rushing game and defence. While McManus came to the rescue in the 1994 WDF after Austin was injured, let’s not forget that the roles were reversed in the 1994 WDSF in Edmonton where McManus started but then left with an injury. Kent Austin came in and did a good job in relief. After the Charles Gordon interception, Austin came in and drove the Lions down the field to set up Lui Passaglia’s game winning field goal.
And finally, the #1 most underrated BC Lion is……..
#1. Damon Allen
As a Lions quarterback, Allen is second in tenure only to Roy Dewalt. I think we can all agree that pro football’s all-time leading passer will definitely be inducted into the Hall of Fame. But despite his long tenure with the team, Allen doesn’t have nearly the same amount of respect and recognition as other QB’s who played far fewer games than him and who never brought the Lions a championship such as Dunigan, Printers, and Flutie. And I stated in another thread that unlike more favoured QB’s like Kapp, Dewalt, Dunigan, and even Dickenson, Allen along with Kent Austin brought the Lions to a win in his FIRST Grey Cup appearance as the Lions starting QB, unlike those other four who suffered losses in their first GC appearance as a Lions QB. In the 2000 Grey Cup, Allen passed for 234 yards and no interceptions along with two rushing TD’s, and those are slightly better passing numbers than Dickenson’s 184-yard MVP performance in the 2006 GC. Despite his old age, Allen was never injured for long periods of time in his seven years as a Lion, unlike Dickenson. While we may all agree that Doug Flutie was a big free agent loss, I pointed out in other threads that the fact Damon Allen was actually available to be signed several games into the 1996 season after Andre Ware proved ineffective was indeed a miracle. It was surprising that he didn’t get offers from other teams when he was out of a job at the start of 1996 when the Memphis Mad Dogs and other American-based teams folded. Nobody felt it was a great loss when Allen was traded to Toronto in 2003, despite the fact that he came back to haunt the Lions with wins over them in the 2003 East Division Semi-Final and of course, the 2004 Grey Cup and topped off his fine career with winning 2005 MOP.
