VANCOUVER — Nick Arbuckle thought his football career was over.
The journeyman quarterback was a free agent this spring after the Ottawa Redblacks did not renew his contract. With no other CFL teams calling, the 31-year-old from Oxnard, Calf., was already putting out feelers about high school coaching jobs.
By his own estimate, Arbuckle was “maybe 30ish days away” from packing up his family and moving back to the States.
Then fate intervened.
In May, Arbuckle signed with the Toronto Argonauts midway through training camp. On Sunday, he will be Toronto’s starting quarterback when the Argonauts try to win their second Grey Cup in three years against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
“I have always kind of been overlooked and kind of worked through many situations all through my CFL career that have helped me prepare, mentally and emotionally, to take on any challenge and just be ready for whatever opportunity and whatever moment comes,” Arbuckle said Thursday after the Argos practised at BC Place Stadium.
“My motto since I was a kid … I’d work hard as I could every single day, just to get better. The longer it took me to get my opportunity, the better I’d be when it happens.”
Arbuckle gets the start in the biggest game of the year because Chad Kelly, the CFL’s outstanding player last year, suffered a gruesome leg injury late in the third quarter of last week’s East Final against the Montreal Alouettes.
Arbuckle came off the bench to complete five of eight passes for 73 yards in Toronto’s 30-23 win over the defending Grey Cup champions.
During the season, Arbuckle completed 65 of 100 passes for 799 yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions. In his lone start he completed 18 of 26 passes for 181 yards, a touchdown and an interception in a 39-25 win over Calgary.
In the final game of the season he came off the bench in a 31-30 loss to the Edmonton Elks where he completed 23 of 32 passes for 378 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.
Toronto head coach Ryan Dinwiddie didn’t hesitate handing the reins to Arbuckle. The two have history, with Dinwiddie being a quarterbacks coach in Calgary when Arbuckle was a backup to Bo Levi Mitchell.
“I’ve been with Nick forever,” said Dinwiddie. “I just have an understanding of who he is. He has an understanding of the offence.
“For him to come in halfway through camp, and the way he’s performed, it’s just a trust factor.”
Second-year quarterback Cameron Dukes will be the backup.
“I wouldn’t be shocked if he does play,” Dinwiddie said of Dukes. “Cam has done some good things for us. If we put Cam on the field, I expect great results as well.”
The Argos, who finished second in the East with a 10-8 record, played nine games during the season when Kelly was suspended for violating the CFL’s gender-based violence policy. They went 5-4 during that stretch with Dukes going 4-4 and Arbuckle winning his lone start.
Running back Ka’Deem Carey, who was third in league rushing with 1,060 yards and fifth on the Argos with 356 receiving yards, said the team has full confidence in Arbuckle.
“He’s a clutch guy, he’s going to bring fire,” said Carey, who was a teammate with Arbuckle in Calgary. “He’s going to have us all locked in.
“We knew he can deliver the ball. It’s going to have a different spin, but that ball is going to be in the right spot where it needs to be. We’re excited about having Nick back there because he’s going to make the right play.”
Arbuckle’s story has the making of a Hollywood movie script but contains many dark chapters.
He was just 15 when his mother overdosed on medication for a bipolar disorder.
“Adversity is something that has kind of shaped my career, shaped my life since I was a young kid,” Arbuckle said.
After just one start as a high school quarterback Arbuckle played college football at Los Angeles Pierce College and Georgia State. During his six CFL seasons he has been in Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa twice. This is also his second stint with Toronto.
The bouncing around took its toll.
“I had a lot of animosity and damage mentally,” Arbuckle said. “I felt like I had to prove people wrong, had to show everybody that didn’t believe in me that they were wrong, had to make big plays and play outside of who I was and kind of what got me here.”
Arbuckle finds himself in a better place. He now sees some of the adversity he faced as a learning experience.
“The journey around the league … seeing different cultures, different coaches, different players, how people approach the game,” he said. “You learn from people’s mistakes … and also from great coaches and great players.
"Just learning how to embrace the moment. Just to be humble about things and how to forgive and how to look past all that doubt, how to be understanding.”
No matter what happens Sunday, Arbuckle believes he already has won some respect.
"Maybe somebody’s going to keep believing in me after this year,” he said. "Maybe my career is not over.
"The whole thing has been special."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024
Jim Morris, The Canadian Press