Bounce him. Belt him. Bruise him. Bait him. Badger him. Bully him. Bulldoze him. Bury him.

Bat him around, here and there, to and fro, like some sort of human piñata.

So many have tried. So few have actually succeeded.

“I know I’ve hit him so hard a few times,’’ marvels Stampeders’ interior marauder Micah Johnson, “that I could literally feel the air come right out of him.

“He’s down and you figure: ‘This time, no way …’

“He just popped right back up, tapped me on the helmet and said something like: ‘Nice hit, Johnson.’ And I’m like: ‘Man, come on …’

“But you can’t let that discourage you. You’ve just got to keep pounding away.

“He stands in the pocket, oblivious to the bullets flying around him, and still delivers the ball where it needs to be.”

Reilly frustrated by Stamps defence during the 2017 Labour Day Classic (Photo by Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh)

Mike Reilly – no shock here – isn’t going to be intimidated in Sunday’s Western Final. That’s a given. Being stalked, blitzed or hounded by a Balrog from the Mines of Moria or Godzilla himself wouldn’t strike fear into the heart of the Edmonton Eskimos’ all-heart quarterback, much less by any mortal man.

As everyone even remotely familiar with the Canadian Football League knows, Reilly is a singularly stubborn cuss, as hard to beat down as a salacious rumour, as tough as an over-grilled steak.

“Is it fun to hit him?’’ repeats sack leader Charleston Hughes. “Well, yeah. But he’s a playmaker. He’s more worried about completing the ball than getting hit. That’s the characteristic of a great player.

“I’ve crushed him a couple times and said to myself: ‘Whoa! How’d he get up from that?’

“He’s like that watch (Timex): Takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

“He’s one tough football player. I’ll give him all the props, all the kudos. I met him multiple times, got to know him a bit on a personal level, as far back as when he was starting out in BC. Even back then, he’d tell me: ‘When I get my chance, I’m gonna shine.’ And he has.

“You can count on him being at his best in this game. He always brings his best. We have to match his intensity.”

Reilly not only led the league in passing yardage (5,830) again this year, but tied for tops in TD tosses (30) and finished second in completions (447).

In losing two of three starts to the Stampeders this regular season, he still averaged 363 yards per game through the air.

He is the unquestioned competitive conscience of the Eskimos, in complete charge of their control room. From experience, the Stampeders top-rated defence understands full well what it’s up against.

But Iron Mike is, believe it or not, still human (at least after a fashion), and can be disrupted, harassed and frustrated, particularly by a relentless, swarming band of defenders that tied for the CFL lead in quarterback sacks, alongside Toronto, at 50.

Johnson takes down Reilly during the 2017 Labour Day rematch (Photo by David Moll)

“I’d like to think anybody taking hits over and over and over is going to be thinking about it,’’ says Stamps’ D-line coach Corey Mace. “If you keep getting smacked in the mouth, I don’t care who you are, you’re going to get tired of it. That can force you into bad throws.

“That’s the game plan every week for us, putting pressure on the quarterback. But that’s definitely an extra point of emphasis this week.

“What makes Reilly special … a majority of QBs aren’t sticking through games where they’re taking the type of punishment he does. He’s a bigger body, though. He plays through injuries, a broken foot here in ’14, as I remember. He guts it out and puts it all on the line for his team.

“He’s well respected around the league and that includes here. Shoot, I ain’t that far removed from playing, so I’d say Reilly is the toughest guy I ever played against. You keep hitting him and he eats ’em up. Sometimes, they seem to make him stronger, more determined.

“Obviously, he presents a huge challenge but I can tell you it’s a challenge we’re looking forward to.”

With QBs of Reilly’s rare ilk, the hardest nuts to crack, able to withstand a lot of physical grief, the erosion principal comes into in effect: Like waves constantly beating on a beach, eventually the sand has to give way.

“Yeah,’’ reasons Johnson, “eventually.

“That’s the thing I mentioned. Keep hitting him. Don’t stop. Bring it every time he drops back to pass. You keep hitting him, they add up.

“Definitely, Mike is the key to their whole thing. He can be on his way the way to the ground, guys draped all over him and he’ll still find a way to sling it out.

“We’ve got to understand that he’s gonna make plays.

“But as a defence, our job is to make more plays than he does.”