After an eleven-year CFL career, BC Lions quarterback Mike Reilly is calling it a career. On Monday, the Lions announced that the future CFL Hall of Famer announced his retirement.
Mike Reilly played 13 games in his final season with the Lions completing 276 passes for 3,283 yards, 14 touchdowns, six interceptions, 41 carries for 200 yards, and four touchdowns.
Reilly signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers as an undrafted free agent from Eastern Washington. He spent time with the Green Bay Packers, St. Louis Rams, and Seattle Seahawks before joining the BC Lions in 2010. The rest was history.
Reilly played 168 games with the BC Lions twice (2010-12, 2019-21) and the Edmonton Eskimos (2013-18), winning two Grey Cup championships with the Lions (2011) and Eskimos (2015), throwing 2,772 out of 4,134 passes for 34,805-yards, 182 touchdowns, 105 interceptions, 678 carries for 3,566 yards and 56 touchdowns.
Reilly’s 34,805 career passing yards are good for 14th in CFL history, passing Darian Durant in 2021. He became the third quarterback in league history to surpass the 5,000-yard mark three times (2016-18), joining Doug Flutie and Anthony Calvillo.
The other awards he won in his career was the 2015 Grey Cup MVP, CFL’s Most Outstanding Player (2017), CFL Passing Touchdowns Leader (2017), CFL Rushing Touchdowns Leader (2017), three-time CFL Passing Yards Leader (2016-18, 2021), CFL All-Star (2017), and a two-time CFL West All-Star (2014, 2017).
Neil McEvoy, Lions Co-GM/Director of Football Operations on Reilly’s retirement said, “Michael will go down as one of the great players and people our football club and league has ever seen.”
