My Alouettes Numbers Project

(team and product links go to sponsored Amazon products, player links go to related pages on my blog, news links go to source pages)

It's been a while since I started another Numbers Project after my Habs Numbers Project, my Oilers Numbers Project, my Sens Numbers Project, my Canucks Numbers Project, my Nordiques Numbers Project, my Flames Numbers Project, my Expos Numbers Project, my Jets Numbers Project, my Whalers Numbers Project, and my Team Canada Numbers Project, so I thought I might start one for my local Canadian Football League (CFL) team, the Montréal Alouettes.

The goal is simple: to gather a special piece (jersey cards could work, but ideally an autographed card) from a player from every number worn by a member of the Als, regadless of era (I had to give myself a chance).

As you may know, the first iteration of the Alouettes lasted from 1946 until 1981, with its peak during the 1970s, winning three Grey Cups in six appearances in the Grey Cup Final during that decade. The team's owner would hit hard financial times in 1982 and would hand the team back to the league in May - roughly a month before the start of the regular season; Montréal Expos (and Seagram) owner Charles Bronfman would retain most of the team's sports staff, players and employees as the Montréal Concordes, but the team stank and was unable to draw a decent attendance; Bronfman briefly went back to the Alouettes name, but the team folded before the 1987 regular season got underway.

In the early 1990s, the CFL tried expansing in the U.S., and the most successful franchise in that endeavour was the Baltimore Stallions, who made the Grey Cup Final in their first season in 1994 and won it the following year. Unfortunately, Art Modell, owner of the NFL's Cleveland Browns, announced that he planned to move his team to Baltimore, which would have relegated the Stallions to a second-tier team (due to playing in a second-tier league) in their city; after negociations and legal procedures, Modell was awarded a "new" NFL franchise - the Baltimore Ravens - and was allowed to retain most of the Browns' staff and players, as long as he forfeited the Browns' history and trademarks; the Browns were revived in 1999. This, however, rendered the Grey Cup champion Stallions homeless; after attempts at moving them to Houston (after the loss of the Houston Oilers and before the arrival of the Houston Texans), the CFL (and its commissioner Larry Smith, a former Als 1970s legend) was able to convince the team to move to Montréal to become the third iteration of the Alouettes.

So far, I have featured the following players:

19: S.J. Green: check!

I understand I still have a ways to go, but one reason why I started is that I believe I have enough to at least make it fun!

S.J. Green: Two Autographed Cards

(team links go to sponsored Amazon products, player links go to related pages on my blog, news links go to source pages)

It's Super Bowl weekend, so I thought I could feature some football players, which I haven't done in a while. Solomon Junior Green always wanted to play football, having been a fan of the Dallas Cowboys' Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin, and Troy Aikman during their heyday, and he slowly made the ranks in Florida youth leagues to earning a full scholarship with the South Florida Bulls, but limited minutes meant he was passed over by the NFL. He eventually acepted a tryout offer from the CFL's Montréal Alouettes and quickly became a star, accepting Anthony Calvillo's passes and converting them into touchdowns, often with just one hand: During Green's time in Montréal, he played alongside and in the shadows of legends like Calvillo and slotback Ben Cahoon (one of the best Canadian-born players of all time), but fans know his worth as an eight-time CFL East All-Star, two-time CFL ALl-Star and three-time Grey Cup champion. He may make it to the CFL Hall Of Fame some day on the strength of 716 career receptions, 10,222 yards, 60 touchdowns and back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010 in 12 seasons. He topped the 1000-yeard mark seven times.

He'll forever be linked to Marc Trestman, who coached him to the back-to-back Grey Cup wins with Montréal, then brought him over to the Toronto Argonauts where he won a third campionship in 2017, and also brought him back home to Florida in 2020 to play with the XFL's Tampa Bay Vipers, although that experience only lasted a couple of months, since the league started in February but folded in April. H briefly belonged to the New York Jets in 2010 but was released from the practice squad in time to join the Alouettes on successful their title defense.

He's said to want to come back to the CFL to play one final season with the Alouettes, although Covid-19 - which cancelled the 2020 season altogether and may well do the smae to 2021 - may stand in his way.

Here he is in the colours I most associate him with, the Als' white uniform, on card #50 from Upper Deck's 2014 CFL set:

One unifrom I didn't like so much was the recent alternate, but he still rocked it like it was the coolest thing on earth:

He signed both in blue sharpie in 2016. As a former season ticket holder, he was one of the players I enjoyed watching most and who made the trip to Percival Molson Stadium worth taking cramped public transit, then walking uphill for 15 minutes to get funnelled into a single entrance with 20,000 other faithful partisans to spend $15 on a tasteless beer for. If he does come back and fans are allowed in, I'll certainly go.