Johnny wants to thank Chip for his brilliant career! Chip is headed to the HOF!
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He certainly deserves a decent retirement ceremony, but he does not appear to accept retirement quite yet.
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While I have disagreed with some on his contributions the last couple of years he was an All through and through … and great player for many years.
S’il prend réellement sa retraite, j’ose espérer que l’organisation retirera son chandail.
He should have come to camp… Future Hall of Fame Linebacker.
Wish him and his family the very best !
If he goes to camp and gets cut that is (IMO) even worse … they keep him he takes a year of development away from a younger player in a season the Als aren’t going to win much anyway … if he really had much else there would have been at least rumour of someone else trying to signing him.
One of my favorite all-time Alouettes. Beloved by us, hated by fans of other teams. Played the game with an edge, blessed with multidimensional talent and INCREDIBLE durability (seriously, how many games did he miss over his career? I feel like I could count them on one hand). At his peak, Chip was a dominant player, a guy who could change the course of a game anywhere on the field: with a sack, forced fumble, interception, or tackle for a loss. I’ll always remember him as part of that trio of terror LB unit from the Trestman era: Cox at Sam, Shea Emry at Mike, and Diamond Ferri at Will. Credit to Don Matthews and Chris Jones for recruiting Chip, and, it must said, full credit to Jim Popp for insisting that Chip move out of the secondary and into the SAM linebacker position, where he found his true home.
Not that it’s important, but Johnny thought it was Tim Burke’s idea to move him to SAM linebacker?
I also remember when we had Strickland and Duane Butler, but don’t recall who was MIKE with those two; was it Johnson?
Believe it was Kevin Johnson.
Thought so. I think Strickland/Johnson/Butler stack up pretty well in comparison with Cox/Emry/Ferri.
What I read from that era was that it was Popp’s idea, though I am sure Tim Burke would have had to approve, as well, so probably both of them. Trestman didn’t pay much attention to defense unless things were going wrong – I doubt he was involved.
One of the things Popp was good at (even though he wasn’t a good head coach) was seeing the potential of certain players before the results were there, such as finding a way to keep Avon Cobourne on the roster at linebacker because Marcel F. Bellefeuille wanted MadJack’s favorite player of all time, son of MadJack’s other favorite player of all time, to be the starting RB. And Popp was always good at assessing DBs anyway.
It’s amazing what a position change can do for a player. Remember Ben Cahoon’s amazing start as a wideout? Yeah, me neither. Wasn’t until he was moved inside to slotback – by The Don if I recall correctly – that his career took off.
Yep, you’re both correct. Earlier iterations of the first trio had Stefan Reid and Marc Megna outside – in fact, I believe we won the 2002 Cup with Reid and Megna. Then Reid retired and Strickland came in, followed shortly by Butler (a Hamilton cast-off). Strickland hung on the longest. KJ’s game went south fast after a couple of years, as did Butler’s (although I think Butler’s fall was predicated more on the changing nature of the league’s offenses, which were more run-oriented – he was a converted DB who wasn’t quite big enough to play in the trenches).
Between the two classic trios we did have some disposable names at linebacker, including Reggie Hunt, who was released after 2008 so we could start Emry at MLB.
Choosing between those linebacking trios is hard, especially since they were playing in vastly different defenses – the aggressive, blitz-happy Matthews/Jones D compared to Burke’s rush-four D.
Ah, the good ol days of said Alouettes!!
Megna was a rush end, my bad.
It was someone-Johnson-Reid, then Butler-Johnson-Strickland, I think.
Since it worked, it was Popp’s idea.
For a time.
Point taken, but it is not implausible at all. Popp ended badly with us, but I don’t want to rewrite history. I want to give him credit for the things he did well.
Did Strickland also start off as an Als DB before moving to SAM? Can`t remember.