Andre Rison has been to five Pro Bowls and owns a Super Bowl ring.
So maybe that’s why he seemed a little underwhelmed by his CFL debut in a 30-30 tie Monday between his Toronto Argonauts and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
“It was great. It was great,” the 37-year-old receiver said. “I got a chance to touch the field.”
Arguably the highest-profile player to join the CFL since Doug Flutie, Rison saw plenty of action in his first professional football game since the 2000 season.
He led Argos receivers with four receptions for 49 yards, including a 28-yarder that set up a touchdown by quarterback Michael Bishop in the third quarter. Rison was noticeably stiff after the game and nursed a taped right hamstring.
Argos coach Mike “Pinball” Clemons hadn’t planned on playing Rison the whole game, but the ejection of receivers Andre Talbot and R. Jay Soward in the first quarter left him little choice.
Rison admits that he still must work on his game.
–ASSOCIATED PRESS, RedEye.
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Rison rap sheet
Argos coach Mike Clemons said he asked Rison to take a leadership role and to try to calm the team’s emotions.
Oh, the irony.
Rison has had a litany of headline-making run-ins with misfortune–and amusing off-the-field distractions.
He hopes people will start talking about his football skills instead of his personal life. Here’s a rundown of “Bad Moon’s” uprisings:
– Most recently, he has fallen behind in child-support payments. He is $107,350 delinquent in Georgia; $90,000 in Michigan. One charge of failing to pay support was dismissed, but another judge ordered him jailed for 20 days.
– Rison’s 12-year NFL career came to a screeching halt with a four-game suspension for drug use.
– In a Pro Bowl renaissance with the 1997 Kansas City Chiefs, Rison nicknamed himself “Spider-Man” (Remember the goal-post climb?) to erase memories of the “Bad Moon” era. But the moniker came too early to capitalize on the “Spidey” blockbusters. That’s pretty poor timing for a receiver.
– At one time, Rison fashioned himself a producer and rapper, just like former Falcons teammate Deion Sanders, prompting General Sherman to rise from the dead and burn Atlanta a second time.
– In 1997, he helped the Green Bay Packers win a Super Bowl
championship.
– In 1994, Rison’s then-girlfriend Lisa Lopes–“Left Eye” of the R&B group TLC–burned down his $2 million Atlanta mansion and was convicted of arson. She died in a car crash in Honduras in 2002.
– He also has faced paternity suits, a weapons charge, speeding tickets, a bad-check charge and numerous fines.
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Edited by the sports staff of RedEye.
