In a perfectly-officiated game, no one says anything about the men in black and white and the work they have done, but referee Andre Proulx will be part of a storyline on Thursday when the Montreal Alouettes play host to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. It will be his first game back on the field since suffering a heart attack in game in the opening week of the 2012 CFL season.
The 38-year-old, who has worked as a CFL official for 14 years and has refereed two Grey Cups, including last year’s in B.C., feels he is lucky to be alive and grateful to be back in the game.
Proulx suffered the heart attack in a game in Edmonton between the Eskimos and Toronto Argonauts on June 30. Much was made going into the game of Argo quarterback Ricky Ray facing his former team for the first time since the trade that sent him from Edmonton to Toronto in December. But the game took on an entirely more significant meaning when it was reported Proulx had to leave in the second quarter because of a heat stroke, although it would later prove to be far more significant.
Proulx started to feel a shortness of breath during the game and took himself out of it for a break, believing he was feeling heat stroke and needed to rehydrate. He was given a cold towel to place over his head, and then went to the doctor’s room inside the stadium to undergo blood pressure and heart rate tests, none of which showed anything alarming. Further tests by paramedics revealed he was having a heart attack, whereupon he was given blood thinners and then sent to an Edmonton hospital and immediately underwent a procedure to have a stent put in to clear a blocked artery. Five days later he returned to his home in Drummondville, Quebec.
Speaking to sportsnet.ca in a phone interview from Drummondville, Proulx said the heart attack could have been caused by a combination of heat stroke, stress and an existing cholesterol issue for which he was taking medications that have since been changed. He has also had to make changes to his diet and his principal employment, owning and operating his own construction company.
“If (the heart attack) happened at work, I’m not sure I would have gone to the hospital,” he said. “I was lucky enough that I had everyone beside me at the time that knew what to do. I had no idea what was going on.”
Proulx worked a minor football game last week to see if he could handle the physical stress and was given the green light to return to work. Als’ quarterback Anthony Calvillo will celebrate his 40th birthday on Thursday and will be one of the game’s major storylines, but the return of Proulx, who is one of the most-senior CFL officials and well-respected for his work, will also draw some notice. However, he is downplaying it in comparison to the players.
“This is only me. I shouldn’t be part of (of the game story),” he said. “I’ll be there, but the players are the ones everybody should focus on, not the officiating crew or the referee. Everybody knows who I am because I’m a referee, but I shouldn’t be the point of attention for everyone, the players should be.”
In fact, Proulx said it will be great if he and his crew aren’t mentioned much at all in the game, knowing the best-officiated contest is one in which the officials aren’t really noticed.
“That’s our goal,” Proulx added. “If we could do that, our job has been done very well.”
Even though he’s been “sidelined” for several weeks, Proulx is hoping his work from now until the end of the regular season will be deemed well enough by his superiors to receive the plum assignments to work in the playoffs and the Grey Cup.
“Every one of us would like to be in the Grey Cup every year, just like the players, finish on top,” he said.
