Skip to content

Simon signs extension

He’s closing in on Milt Stegall, the CFL’s all-time receiving yards leader, but winning another Grey Cup was Geroy Simon’s primary motivation to remain with the B.C. Lions.

VANCOUVER — He’s closing in on Milt Stegall, the CFL’s all-time receiving yards leader, but winning another Grey Cup was Geroy Simon’s primary motivation to remain with the B.C. Lions.

The veteran receiver signed a two-year extension Tuesday that will keep him with the CFL club through the 2012 season.

“Winning, that’s the only thing,” Simon said. “I’ve accomplished pretty much everything you can accomplish on an individual basis.

“We’ve done a lot of winning here and we do have a Grey Cup (in 2006) but I want to win multiple Grey Cups. That’s my only motivation. It’s not the stats.”

Simon, who turns 36 in September, had 78 catches for 1,190 yards and six touchdowns last season. He enters the 2011 season with 13,722 career receiving yards, just 1,431 behind Stegall, the former Winnipeg Blue Bomber who’s now a TV analyst.

Barring injury, Simon should move easily surpass Stegall by the end of his current deal.

“That’s not the most important thing right now,” said the six-foot, 198-pound Simon who enters his 13th season and 11th with B.C. “Obviously it’s something you want to accomplish . . . but the individual stuff doesn’t matter.

“If I’m going to be on this team or in this league that’s stuff’s going to come. The thing I’m worried about is the wins.”

Victories were hard to come by for the Lions early last season as the club lost seven of its first eight games before Travis Lulay replaced the inconsistent Casey Printers at quarterback. B.C. ended up finishing with an 8-10 record and third in the West Division.

“The frustration was there for the whole team,” said Simon, who has at least one catch in 142 straight games and counting. “Starting out 1-7 isn’t going to be the most pleasant time but we showed the last half of the season we have some good players and we formed into a good team.”

Simon, who strikes a hands-on-hips Superman pose in opponents’ end zone when he scores, ranked seventh in yardage among CFL receivers in 2010 and eighth in receptions.

“Last year was a tough first half for the offence,” said coach Wally Buono. “But when you look at Geroy’s production over the year he was still close to 80 catches, almost 1,200 yards and that’s still a very productive season in trying circumstances.

“He brings tremendous professionalism and when you look at being a pro part of that is being consistent, being productive year in and year out. Hopefully with a better gameplan, a better surrounding group, a better quarterback his production will be up and hopefully our wins will be up too.”

Simon, who needs 25 more receiving yards to move past Terry Vaughn and into fourth all-time, said he’s spending more time in the gym than when he was a spry 30-year-old.

“That’s helped my durability throughout the last four or five years,” he said. “At times during the beginning of my career when I was sore I would just sit around and not do anything.”

Also ahead of Simon in career receiving yards is Allen Pitts, who Buono coached in Calgary and Darren Flutie who played for the Lions, Edmonton and Hamilton.

But Simon, a Johnstown, Pa. native who came to the Lions as a free agent after two years with the Bombers, is not the same type of receiver as the ones he’s chasing, said Buono.

“Geroy’s different,” Buono said. “He’s a very intelligent receiver, he’s very deceptive in a lot of ways.

“A lot of times he’ll sneak up on you with his speed. But the thing they all have is they’re tremendous competitors. They all want to have the ball when the game is on the line.”

Simon said he’s taking his future year by year but could see signing another deal.

“I’m not just your typical 35-year-old,” said the University of Maryland product. “I train pretty much every day . . . so I can continue to play for a number more years.”

NOTES — Donald Narcisse of Saskatchewan holds the CFL record of 216 games with a catch ... Simon recorded a club-record eighth consecutive 1,000-yard receiving season last year ... Vaughn had 11 consecutive 1,000-yard seasons with four clubs, tops in CFL history... Simon has 54 career games with more than 100 yards in receptions to tie Stegall for second all-time, 10 behind Pitts.