BY ARASH MADANI
sportsnet.ca
Lyle Green hasn’t played a professional football game in over a year.
That may soon change.
The former B.C. Lions fullback, who has played his entire career with the team that drafted him third overall in 2001, is one of the Canadian reinforcements the Calgary Stampeders have signed following a pair of injuries last week.
With starters Arjei Franklin (three cracked ribs) and Rob Cote (knee) out for three-to-four weeks, Green and former Toronto Argonauts draft pick Steven Turner will sign with the Stamps, sources tell Sportsnet.
The Stampeders would not confirm the moves. A team spokesman said that the club hoped to have an announcement Tuesday. Head coach and GM John Hufnagel told Calgary reporters the same during a media session Monday.
Green and Turner will not play prominent roles immediately, if at all.
Former Edmonton Eskimos long snapper Tim St. Pierre and homegrown receiver Johnny Forzani are expected to take the roster spots, as the team will likely have to make a roster change elsewhere to account for the changes.
While Turner is a work in progress and has upside after being derailed due to injury, the Green signing is most intriguing, in large part because this is the first time he has surfaced in the CFL since being released by the Lions in June of 2010.
Early in his career, the Kitchener, Ont. native was a serviceable, versatile and productive member of B.C.’s backfield. In 2002, he rushed for 343 yards and three touchdowns and by 2005 he was one of only nine players on the Lions offence to start all 18 games. In 2009, he was moved to slotback following the departure of Jason Clermont in free agency.
But after playing 161 games for the franchise, the Lions cut Green, now 35, at the end of training camp and no others offers came, until this one with Calgary.
The 24-year-old Turner, meanwhile, played wide receiver at Bishop’s University before being selected by the Argos in the fourth round, but never managed to stay healthy in Toronto.
He ruptured his left Achilles tendon during training camp last June and wasn’t fully right by the time he was released, again, by the Argonauts last month.
The Brampton, Ont. native is an intriguing prospect because of his performance at the CFL evaluation camp 18 months ago. He broke the record in the 40-yard dash by eight one-hundredths of a second (4.31 official time) and finished first or tied for first in many of the drills.
Going into the 2010 draft, he was slotted as the 14th best player available by the league’s scouting bureau.
