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Printers all about team after signing extension with BC Lions

SURREY, B.C. — Quarterback Casey Printers says he’s no longer a me-first guy as he prepares to lead the B.C. Lions into the 2010 CFL season.

SURREY, B.C. — Quarterback Casey Printers says he’s no longer a me-first guy as he prepares to lead the B.C. Lions into the 2010 CFL season.

Printers, the league’s 2004 most outstanding player in his first tour of duty with the Lions, hit a career low point a year ago when he was released by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Now the pendulum has swung the other way.

The Lions announced Monday that he’s signed a contract extension after joining the practice roster last September when B.C. was decimated by injuries at the pivot position.

“People were talking about me being a me-guy, me-this and me-that,” Printers, who left the Lions in 2006 amid a quarterback controversy to sign with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, said in an interview.

“Everybody has that me mentality. If you talk to anybody, they are going to make sure that they are secure first before anything.”

That’s changed, Printers said. Today, he’s grateful and just wants to help the ball club.

Printers spent the 2006 season on the Chiefs’ practice roster after leading the Lions to the 2004 Grey Cup, when starting quarterback Dave Dickenson was injured.

Dickenson started the championship game and reclaimed the Lions’ No. 1 role the next year.

“For me, the reason I am standing here today as grateful as I am is that I realize it is not about me,” said Printers, who moonlights as a motivational speaker.

“If you are helping other people, it will spiral around to you. It wasn’t that way for me when I was 22, 23. It was more that everybody mentality of making sure that me is OK.”

Printers, who will turn 29 before his eighth CFL season, started and won two of the last five games of 2009, enabling 8-10 B.C. to become a crossover playoff team in the East Division.

The Lions won the East semifinal 34-27 in Hamilton but were blown out 56-18 in the division final by the Grey Cup champion Alouettes in Montreal.

“If he does what we all expect, we expect him to be our starter for years to come,” said head coach and general manager Wally Buono, who has five quarterbacks under contract.

He would not elaborate on Printers’ deal other than to say it was for more than one year.

Printers, who can scramble out of trouble, led B.C. signal-callers last season with a 99.3 passing efficiency rating, completing 63.2 per cent of 68 throws for 686 yards and three touchdowns with two interceptions.

“He showed us he can still excite the locker-room, excite the organization and excite our fans,” Buono said.

Buck Pierce and backup Jarious Jackson took most of the snaps at quarterback last season, each taking over when the other was injured.

Travis Lulay and Zac Champion also saw playing time but not all four holdovers will be at training camp, Buono said, indicating more off-season moves are likely.

“We’ll take one situation at a time,” he said.

Buono said he expected Printers to still have the physical skills when he returned last September, but he wanted to see how he would react emotionally and lead the team.

“Without much play, without much practice, I thought he handled it pretty well,” Buono said of Printers’ seven-game audition.

“He was way, way further along than I thought and we put him in a tough, tough position.”

Printers, who kept in touch with Buono after his departure in 2005 and occasionally sought his advice, said he didn’t anticipate such a twisting return path to the Lions.

“You can’t quite predict what’s going to happen, you just have to live it out and see where it takes you,” he said.

“I’m battle tested. I’ve been through a lot these past few years and have grown in a number of ways.”

Buono said Printers trusts the organization, the game plans of offensive co-ordinator Jacques Chapedelaine, and is expected to bring stability to an injury-riddled position.

“We’re in a position now to go to training camp, establish a pecking order and create stability for long term,” Buono said.

NOTES:(at) Printers is closing in on 10,000 CFL passing yards ... He has 692 completions for 9,916 yards, 54 touchdowns and 32 interceptions. ... His career passing efficiency rating is 93.3 per cent.