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VERO BEACH, Fla. – Much has been made of Mike Reilly’s one game to prove he belongs in the CFL.

You can’t visit the CFL’s official website without seeing links to the story that brought the championship-calibre Edmonton Eskimos quarterback to this point in his career.

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But that hardly marks the beginning of his CFL journey.

“Absolutely, and that’s what’s funny when you come to a Florida camp like this, you’re kind of reminded of that,” said Reilly. “You see these 50 or 60 guys who are here that are kind of in that same situation, where they’re waiting for that one opportunity just to get from this camp to training camp.

“And then once they get to training camp, they need to get another opportunity to show what they can do to maybe just stick around on the practice squad or maybe be a depth guy. And then during the season, they need another opportunity like Derel Walker and get out onto the field.”

So Reilly’s ‘one game’ was more like the culmination of a bunch of little steps along the way. It certainly wasn’t anything freely gifted to him and it was hardly any sort of end point. He had to keep climbing, right to last November’s Grey Cup and beyond.