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August 2, 2018

Never Underestimate

Some guys in the game, reckons Joshua Bell, just get old.

“Others,’’ he says, “age.

“Get smoother. Get finer. Like a bottle of vintage wine.

“And Travis Lulay …”

The Calgary Stampeders’ first-year defensive secondary coach shakes his head softly, admiringly.

Say a succulent Château Mouton-Rothschild 1945?

In his younger days, as a molar-jarring, eardrum-puncturing safety Bell spent 2012-13 as a teammate of the standout ginger-haired QB west in Lotusland.

Saw him up close.

In good times and in bad. In the glare of the spotlight and inside the sanctity of the room.

His admiration is obvious.

“He ain’t perfect,’’ says Bell, of the 2011 Grey Cup champion/MOP/Grey Cup MVP, “but he’s a great man. He’s a football player. Not just a quarterback. He’s a football player.

“He doesn’t save himself. He puts himself at risk because he’s playing football. He’s out there, pounding away, like a battering ram. Like a safety. Like a linebacker.

“I remember one time when I was in B.C., he’s out of the pocket, running and someone – might’ve been Kyries Hebert – comes up to meet him.

“Well, Lulay drops his shoulder and boom, runs the guy over.

“He gets up after he’s been tackled and I think he’d broken his collarbone, his AC joint or something. You hate like hell that he’s hurt, you don’t ever want to lose a guy like that, but in that moment you still want him to be himself; to be Travis Lulay and everything he stands for.

“Giving every single ounce of himself.

“As a player, as a teammate, you respond to that. You’d run through a wall, through a ring of fire, fight to the death, for person like that.”

The Stamps put their gaudy 6-0 record on the line Saturday at McMahon Stadium, with the 34-year-old Lulay once again manning the attacking rudder for the Lions.

The seasonal starter, Jonathan Jennings, eight years Lulay’s junior, struggled mightily as the Leos went 1-2 to open the season.

So a full year after tearing an ACL, Lulay stepped once more into the breach, engineering a stirring second-half comeback victory against the Blue Bombers in his first start.

The Lions lost the follow-up, 29-25 to Ottawa.

“You see him against Winnipeg?’’ asks Bell. “He erases a 17-point deficit and wins the game. That’s Travis Lulay.

“He makes everyone around him believe.

“They drive all the way down the field, remember, he throws a corner route and it’s intercepted because it comes out of his hand bad and right into (Kevin) Fogg’s arms. They get nothing out of it. Still a zero on the scoreboard.

“After he makes that one throw, I know he’s over on the sideline saying: ‘My bad. My fault. My mistake.’

“But he doesn’t panic. And they don’t panic because he doesn’t panic. He corrects his mistakes. And they win the game.

“He’s accountable. He’s a man.

“That energy, the It Factor, those intangibles people like to talk about that you cannot coach? He has them.

“Nowadays everybody loves Mike Reilly. That It Factor Mike Reilly has I believe he learned a lot of from Lulay. He’s almost a clone of what Lulay was doing back in 2011-2012, right?

“His ability permeates throughout the whole team, every second on the field. Same as Reilly.”

The Stampeders defence has been a virtually impenetrable fortress through half a dozen games, surrendering only 11.3 points and 242 net yards per outing.

Still, underestimate Lulay at your own peril, warns a former teammate.

“He can’t throw the ball 70 yards now but he doesn’t have to,’’ cautions Bell.

“Because where he’s throwing it, when he’s throwing it, how he’s throwing it, is right on time with what he can do.

“My hat goes off to him. He’s faced a whole bunch of adversity, injuries, and some guys would’ve quit, walked away, retired.

“Not Lulay.

“It’s just a different thing with Lulay.

“Watch the film. With him on the field, those receivers, all of them, are a little different.

“The younger guys sometimes wonder. The older guys … know. They just know.

“As an opponent, that keeps you on edge. He makes the game exciting. You know in your heart you have to give your best because that’s exactly what you’re going to get out of him.

“Everybody’s going to get action this week. Some quarterbacks we’ve faced the last couple weeks only give the ball to certain guys at certain times.

“Lulay gives it to everybody. So you’ve got to be ready every single play.

“I know we’re excited on the back end this week because we’re getting the chance to play again, but especially because we’re getting the chance to play against Lulay.”