A CAREER ON ICE : Damon Allen Passes Time in Canada, Waits for NFL

Supporters and employees of the Canadian Football League who attempt to explain their game to their counterparts in the United States usually have to rely on comparative reference material to get their point across.

For example:

The Grey Cup in Canada is compared to the Super Bowl.

The Edmonton Eskimos, winners of nine Grey Cups, are compared to the Green Bay Packers, right down to their green and gold uniforms and the frozen conditions in which they play during the fall and winter.

Damon Allen, the Eskimos’ quarterback, is compared to Chicago Bear quarterback Doug Flutie because of the physical shortcomings of each and the excitement each can generate on a football field with ingenuity.

There are differences between Allen and Flutie. Allen, at 6-feet 1-inch, is taller--that is, unless Flutie stands on his Heisman Trophy. Allen, whose older brother is Raider running back Marcus Allen, is a better runner by reputation.

Of course, the critical difference is that there aren’t a lot of football fans in the lower 48 who wonder, “Gee, whatever happened to Doug Flutie?”

What happened to Damon Allen is that he migrated north from Cal State Fullerton because every National Football League team that was interested in him wanted to know how quickly he could adjust to catching and/or intercepting passes instead of throwing them.

“The teams that were interested in me, mainly the Patriots and the Seahawks, the first thing they wanted to know was, did I know how to play cornerback or safety,” Allen said. “They weren’t even going to give me a chance to play quarterback. If it had something to do with my size, then why was Doug Flutie given a chance? I guess a Heisman really opens doors.”

The door was closed to Allen because NFL types said that at 170 pounds, he had about as much chance to succeed at quarterback as Pee-wee Herman did at nose guard.

The 12 school records, the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. record for fewest interceptions thrown in a season (three in 1984), were all very nice. But all were set in that nice little Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. In the roller-coaster ride that is the NFL, Damon Allen didn’t quite measure up to the predetermined line for quarterbacks.

Sorry, son, perhaps the kiddie coaster.

Which meant the CFL, with its big, wide field, its big, wide offenses and its not so big and wide defenders. The Canadian game gives teams only three downs, instead of the NFL’s four, to get a first down. Everything is quick; the CFL really has no use for big, stand-in-the-pocket type quarterbacks. Quarterbacks must be able to run, to throw on the run and improvise on the run.

To someone like Allen--who is Fullerton’s all-time leader in pass attempts and completions, who is seventh in rushing attempts and who, when being dragged down by his right (throwing) arm during a PCAA game, switched the ball to his left hand and threw a pass--the CFL seemed made to order.

“This style of play, where you have to strike quick, really makes this a quarterback’s league,” Allen said. “You’ve got the big field, one less down, so all the pressure is on the quarterback to perform. I love that.”

He has been a quarterback since he was 7, some would say longer than that.

“I’ve always thought that leaders are made, not born,” said Gene Murphy, the Cal State Fullerton football coach. “That is, with the exception of Damon. He led out of instinct. He was born to be a quarterback. It’s just that no one ever told that to his body.”

Ironically, he was originally put at defensive back in a junior league, but he retrieved a ball during one practice and threw it about twice as far and twice as hard as anyone on his team.

Allen signed a three-year contract with Edmonton in 1985. However, the Eskimos already had Matt Dunigan, who had been an All-America quarterback at Louisiana Tech in 1982 but was only 5-11.

Sound familiar? Canada may be a land of tall timbers, but it sure has a lot of short quarterbacks. The Eskimos’ third quarterback is Tracy Ham, who led Georgia Southern to two NCAA Division I-AA championships. Ham is 5-11 and had been drafted by the Rams, who promptly put him at wide receiver.

As for Allen, he didn’t exactly set the woods on fire his first couple of seasons. He threw 98 passes in 1985, contrasted with Dunigan’s 405 attempts. In 1986, Allen threw 87 passes, Dunigan 485.

But this season, under new coach Joe Faragalli, Allen is virtually splitting time with Dunigan. In five games, Allen has completed 35 of 73 passes for 723 yards and five touchdowns. He also has rushed 13 times for 185 yards and three touchdowns, and the Eskimos have won three of their first five games.

In the second game, playing against the defending Grey Cup champion Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Allen threw for four touchdowns and ran 40 yards for another score to lead Edmonton to a 36-33 victory.

“We love Damon. He can do so much, it gives us such options,” Faragalli said.

What Faragalli has employed with Allen and Dunigan is not as radical as the Dallas Cowboy quarterback shuffle of the early ‘70s, when Craig Morton and Roger Staubach shuttled plays into the huddle. For one thing, the Eskimo quarterback system--or lack of one--depends little on a predetermined structure or strategy and more on the good vibes that Faragalli taps into that particular game.

“The way I look at it, you’re lucky to have one good quarterback. Well, we have two,” Faragalli said. “So why not use the advantage and use both of them? We don’t set up exact periods of times each is going to play. We see how each is doing and go from there. I really couldn’t tell you how I use them; I just do what feels right for that game.”

So in the victory over Hamilton, Allen played the whole game. Dunigan played the entire game in a 42-28 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. In other games, one has played the first half, the other the second.

“I really can’t explain it,” Allen said. “It just kind of happens the way it happens. . . . Of course, I would like to play every minute of every game. But when I first got here, Matt was the No. 1 guy. We both want to play and we’re both good enough to play. I think considering the circumstances it’s a pretty good situation.”

Faragalli said: “I think each of them has had a little problem in adjusting to it. There was a game this season that Matt was doing very well in the first half. I told Damon to get ready to go in the second half and he told me, ‘Let Matt stay in. He’s on a roll.’ That showed me what’s important to Damon. Winning.”

It is true that Allen loves to win.

“Maybe the most competitive kid I’ve ever coached,” Murphy said.

But it’s also true that he would prefer to be the one responsible for the winning. Murphy remembers a game against Cal State Long Beach in which Fullerton held a slim lead.

“Cal State Long Beach was driving for a touchdown late in the game,” Murphy said. “Damon runs up to me and says, ‘I hope they score.’ I nearly fell down. I said ‘What?’ He said, ‘I hope they score so I can get back on the field and score on them.’ That’s what he’s like.”

Although he is happy in Canada, Allen would very much like to be back in the United States playing in the NFL--if for no other reason than the tundra Allen finds gathering at his cleats each fall.

“I played in one game in Edmonton and it was 14-below,” Allen said. “You’re talking about a guy born and raised in San Diego. I really couldn’t relate to 14-below.”

Allen is in the last year of his contract, but by all indications the Eskimos will pick up his option year. When that is up, he said he would like to be given the chance he wasn’t given out of college.

Of course, NFL teams aren’t exactly storming the border to get at CFL quarterbacks. Cynicism about the league prevails.

Warren Moon, after six seasons with Edmonton, made it to the Houston Oilers. All he had to do was win five straight Grey Cups and set a CFL record by throwing for 5,000 yards in a season. And for every Warren Moon that succeeds, there is a Dieter Brock that fails.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that the NFL considers the CFL somewhat as the minor league,” said Mike Blatt, Allen’s agent. “I think cases like Brock have made NFL people cynical of statistics compiled in the CFL.”

So Blatt hopes that Allen’s overall athletic ability (he was drafted as a pitcher by the Detroit Tigers) will land him a job closer to home. Blatt thinks Allen could help a team as a wide receiver or backup quarterback, used in the same way the San Francisco 49ers used Freddie Solomon or the Miami Dolphins used Jim Jensen.

But Allen remains adamant about remaining a quarterback.

“We’ve talked about that subject specifically many times,” Murphy said. “He made it clear to me that he would come back on one condition, to play quarterback.

“Call me crazy, but I really think he could swing it. He’s so instinctive, so quick. He’s very hard to get a clean hit on. I’ve seen him in games where a linebacker will be bearing down on him from the blind side and at the last moment, Damon will duck under the hit. Now, how he does that, I don’t know. But he did it all the time.”

How long he continues play football in Canada depends upon, among other things, the open-mindedness of an NFL team ready to take a chance.

“I just would like to be given the shot,” Allen said. “I may fail, but at least give me a shot.”