So you think you want to be a professional quarterback, see what Travis Lulay went through

Bill Poehler | Statesman Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption Travis Lulay through the years Regis graduate Travis Lulay has always been an advanced football player, but he is once again the starting quarterback for the B.C. Lions at the age of 33. Bill Poehler | Statesman Journal

Millions of young boys grow up dreaming of playing quarterback for a professional football team.

The lure of the glory of being the face of a football franchise, being named the best player in the league and hoisting a huge trophy after winning a championship is awesome.

Travis Lulay has had all of that.

But he’s also experienced the downsides of being a quarterback in his 13 years as a professional like being repeatedly seriously injured, being released by a team to which he’s been loyal and being benched for a younger quarterback hailed as the future of the franchise.

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Since graduating from Stayton’s Regis High School in 2002, Lulay has ridden the carousel of football through almost every conceivable up and down.

He’s been the starting quarterback on a playoff Montana State team as a freshman, the Canadian Football League’s Most Outstanding player after winning the Grey Cup in 2011 and a week ago assumed his starting quarterback spot for the B.C. Lions for the first time in 10 months.

But he’s also been released three times by NFL teams, trekked through three professional leagues in search of a job and had three major surgeries: One on his right shoulder after playing for the Berlin Thunder of NFL Europe in 2007, another on his right shoulder in 2013 and the right knee in September of 2017.

“I’m essentially playing on the shoulder I had surgery on, dislocated, had surgery on and dislocated again,” the 6-foot-2, 217 pound Lulay said.

Lulay was a free agent before this season and with Jonathon Jennings seemingly the next face of the B.C. Lions franchise under center, some expected new general manager Ed Hervey to let Lulay go.

Instead Hervey took a chance by signing the 34-year-old, who was still recovering from his third major surgery in nine years, to a one-year contract.

“As my injuries came around, the club believed that I still had good football in me,” Lulay said.

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What may be the most difficult challenge for any quarterback is their first game coming back after the inevitable injury. Many players are tentative or afraid of being hit their first time back in a game.

If there is one person who knows more about how to come back after an injury, it’s Travis Lulay.

After Jennings struggled the first three weeks of the season Lulay was named starter before the Winnipeg game.

He was fortunate to have a believer in Lions coach Wally Buono, who was the team’s coach in Lulay’s first three years in the CFL.

In Winnipeg game, he passed for 326 yards and a touchdown in a dramatic, last-second 20-17 comeback win for the B.C. Lions (2-2) against the Blue Bombers on July 14.

“Most people aren’t surprised, most people aren’t questioning the decision,” Buono said to the Winnipeg Sun. “Most people are saying, if you’re a B.C. Lions fan it’s ‘What took you so long?’ If you’re a Winnipeg Blue Bombers fan you say, ‘Oh sh–, I hope he doesn’t (start).’ ”

The one thing a professional quarterback must do is win games.

It’s something about which Lulay knows a lot.

Hailed as a late-game savior, people assume Lulay has some special ability when his team is down by 17 points and seemingly hopeless in a third quarter.

Lulay insists, however, his ability to win seemingly hopeless games is more about playing the game smart than possessing a flair for the dramatic.

He says he would rather take a sack than throw a ball into a risky situation late in a game: He prefers to give his team a chance to win.

“I would say one of my strengths, I guess, is being able to remove some of the emotion from the games,” Lulay said. “What I can control is whether we score on this next possession.

“A lot of things have to be able to play out for a comeback to happen. I’m not worried about hey, let’s make a splash here. I’m not thinking, this is going to be an exciting finish to this game.”

But it doesn’t hurt his cause, either.

bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler