If athletes were thoroughbreds (as in racehorses), who would be each sport’s leading sires — the quarterback or centre fielder or defenceman with an offspring of equal or greater ability?
As generational all-stars go, baseball has the Ken Griffeys (Jr. and Sr.) and the Bonds (Bobby, Barry); hockey has Bobby and Brett Hull, and Gordie Howe and sons (Mark, Marty); the National Football League has the Mannings — Archie and sons (Peyton, Eli).
What about the Canadian Football League?
Watching a CFL game, I discovered one such offspring was Christian Covington of the B.C. Lions. His father is Grover Covington, the league’s all-time sacks leader from 11 seasons with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. The younger Covington is also a defensive lineman, and since he spent eight seasons in the NFL, I was curious if they could be the best Dad-and-Lad combo the CFL ever had.
However, Grover’s record of 157 sacks is beyond reach for his son, who is 31 and in his second year with the Lions. This season he has four tackles and one sack, so it’s unlikely the two of them will form the CFL’s greatest father-and-son duo.
This sent me searching the depths of both my memory and the Internet. Both journeys produced interesting possibilities. There have been great CFL players whose sons’ careers in Canadian football were significant, or more.
Hugh Campbell was an outstanding receiver with Saskatchewan and a better coach with Edmonton with his name on the Grey Cup six times as a player and coach. Son Rick’s name is there three times, but all as an assistant or head coach — his playing days ended with high school. The quarterback who threw the ball to Hugh Campbell was Ron Lancaster, whose son Ron Jr. also “won” three Grey Cups, all as an assistant coach.
Two star running backs each had two sons play in the CFL.
Cory Philpot’s twin boys, Tyson and Jalen, are talented receivers currently with Montreal and Calgary, respectively. Both have been plagued by (twin) hamstring injuries since being (twin) first-round draft choices three years ago. They still have time to achieve the status of their father, a B.C. running back who set the league’s one-season record for touchdowns (22), later broken by Winnipeg’s Milt Stegall, the existing record-holder.
Leo Lewis had an illustrious career with the Blue Bombers, and also had two sons, Leo III and Marc, play in the CFL as wide receivers of modest distinction.
That leaves the James boys, a father and a son with stardom in Winnipeg (it must be something in the water!). Long before anyone’s time, Eddie James was a bone-crushing running back who was on the first Western team ever to win the Grey Cup (yes, Winnipeg) and whose name is on the trophy still awarded to the West’s best rusher each season. His son, Gerry, was a bone-crushing running back who played on four Grey Cup champions after he became the league’s second-youngest (17) player, ever. “Dynamite” and “Kid Dynamite,” are the only father-and-son in the CFL Hall of Fame.
They’re all thoroughbreds, of course, but as “sires” there are no guarantees. The greatest racehorse of all, Secretariat, fathered some 660 “children” — none as great as Dad.
