You can learn a lot about leadership from sports.
In this installment of CKNW and Global News’ leadership series, we look at how one of the class act athletes in Vancouver is a shining example of just that.
LISTEN: Travis Lulay, from starter to mentor
In life, nothing is forever.
Travis Lulay knows that the day will come when football won’t be there anymore. At 34 years old, you could say his career is entering the fourth quarter.
In nine years with the BC Lions, Lulay has done it all: he’s been named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player, he’s won a Grey Cup, and been honoured as Grey Cup MVP.
More recently, he’s gone from being a starting quarterback and one of the Lions’ all-time greats, to a mentor to the younger Jonathon Jennings.
Jennings arrived in 2015, at a time when Lulay was coming back from offseason shoulder surgery.
The friendship between the two quarterbacks was instant.
“He was a wide-eyed rookie, and he had the right mix of confidence and humility,” Lulay said.
“He knew he felt good about his ability to play, but he also knew he didn’t know squat about playing in the Canadian Football League playing quarterback. He just asked a ton of questions and we roomed together our very first training camp.”
It’s unusual for a veteran to room with a rookie, said Lulay, who to this day doesn’t know if it was an intentional move on the part of the club, or just luck. But it worked.
There was a need for help at the quarterback position, and when Lulay got hurt, he wanted to help.
“We stayed up and talked, got to know each other, and I could relate so well to his story to that point, having bounced around, played at smaller schools. He was excited for an opportunity,” Lulay said.
Operating as it does in the multi-billion dollar shadow of the NFL, Lulay said the CFL sees some players who come north looking for a some highlight reel film, but who’s eyes are always fixed south of the border.
“I sensed that Jon wasn’t like that, and that was the initial thing. He respected what I had done to that point and for a guy to help someone out, you can only help someone as much as they’re willing to listen and he was all ears, especially early on and is to this day. That helped.”
Jennings, in Lulay’s words, “got thrown into the fire” that year.
“If I can’t play, I want that quarterback position to be sound. I never want the quarterback spot to be a position that holds a team back, so I wanted to help him out as much as I could and he had a lot of good moments in his rookie season, and another good one last year,” Lulay siad.
“I don’t take credit for what he’s done on the field, but hope I had something to do with him along the way.”
That transition from perennial starter to mentoring backup, Lulay said, comes with being a good teammate and a good leader.
“If it’s in a different role, that’s my role for the time being. I will do that role to the best of my ability. That mindsight has always helped me never get bitter. People say, ‘Well isn’t it weird, you used to be this…’ Well, I just never let myself go down that path where I got bitter about circumstances that are out of my control.”
But just when fans thought this was the new norm for Lulay, things took a different turn.
An injury to Jennings on July 15 forced Lulay off the bench and into action against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
All of a sudden, Lulay was turning back time on TSN
He didn’t just win that game.
He set a CFL record for most passing yards, coming off the bench with 436.
“The other thing that was really cool for me was the guys rallied around me, and that gave me a lot of confidence. There was no one thinking, ‘Oh boy, Jonathon is hurt, Travis hasn’t played in a while, what’s going to happen.’ It was like, ‘Okay, giddy up, let’s go.'”
For the next few weeks, Travis Lulay was enjoying a career revival, and the story wrote itself: The wily veteran quarterback resigned to the backup role but pressed back into active duty when the starter goes down with an injury.
And then it was taken from him: Lulay suffered a non-contact injury at a home game in September, two months into his renaissance.
“And then boom, you just get hit like that and hurt, and you’re reminded how much is out of your control. So injuries are part of the game. It’s one of the cruel parts of our game.”
He was carted off the field and had tears in his eyes as he sat on the trainers’ table.
“That was probably shock that you saw. I was just thinking man, I can’t believe I’m finding myself on the trainers’ table again.”
The club revealed Lulay had suffered a torn ACL, an injury which would effectively sideline him from the rest of the season.
Now, as an impending free agent and at the older age of 34, there’s an uncertain future ahead.
The Lions and Lulay will have to meet after the season, discuss both his and the team’s best interests and figure out what comes next.
He’ll either focus on rehabilitation and be back with the Lions next season, sign with a new team, or perhaps more unexpectedly, retire.
“There’s just so much emotion that goes into it. You’re mourning, you’re heartbroken it’s the end of the season and for your team. I haven’t let myself get into the whole ‘what’s going to happen in the immediate future.’ I know there’s a lot of people thinking, ‘Well maybe he’ll be here again, he’ll be ready for training camp next year,'” Lulay said.
“What I do know is I’m going to mentally process and rehab as though there’s 100 per cent chance I’ll be coming back next year, that way I don’t have to make a decision in this emotional state.”
A move from quarterback to coach would also make sense. Lulay’s own head coach Wally Buono said he’s been a coach for a while, and the respect Lulay commands in the dressing room adds up to the all the makings of the next great CFL coach.
“I get that a lot. I wouldn’t say it’s a foregone conclusion by any means. I’d say the coaching — teaching — of the game, that part of it is going to come to fruition one way or another,” Lulay said.
“Whether that’s as an assistant volleyball coach for my daughters or another profession… that would remain to be seen. My dad was a coach, my uncle was a coach, I’ve seen the people around me grow up and want to give knowledge to young people, and I really enjoy that. That’s one of the rewarding things of being a vet in the locker room is sharing the information with them.”
Off the field, Lulay has established himself as a role model in the community with hospital visits, charity work and being a husband and father to three girls, something he takes even more pride in than what’s found in his trophy case.
“I don’t want that to define me. Football is a temporary thing. I think the way you treat people, the way you act, the way you’re remembered as a man says a lot more about you as a person than any trophy you have hanging on the wall,” Lulay said.
“In general, the people that have had the most gratifying careers are the people who care about other people. And there’s just so much more to life than football, but football can bring out some of the best qualities of human nature.”
From Lulay’s perspective if you put others’ success before your own, the rest falls in place.
“Football really is a team game. And I think the irony of that mindset gives you the best chance at personal success. If you are worried about your own personal stuff, I think if you think outside of yourself and put the guys around you first, the personal success will come.”
Sooner or later, Travis Lulay will have to consider what comes next in life after football. But if his on-field leadership skills account for something, he won’t have any trouble finding another measure of success.
WATCH: Q&A with Travis Lulay:
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