Cadence Isla Reilly is the newest fan of the Edmonton Eskimos.
The baby girl is the second child of the team’s quarterback Mike Reilly and his wife Emily. Cadence joins older sister, Brooklyn.
Cadence was born on Monday, just hours before Reilly was calling out his cadence at Eskimos practice.
Reilly said the idea for the name came from his friend Travis Lulay, quarterback for the B.C. Lions.
“I think it was couple of years ago after we had had Brooklyn,” Reill said.
“He has three girls of his own. We were sitting there talking about different names. Cadence had come up as a name they had considered.”
During Emily’s pregnancy, she brought up Cadence as a name she liked.
“I told her we were going to have to get permission from the Lulay family first,” Reilly said. “We talked to Trav and Kim, and they were all about it. They were like: ‘Take it!'”
“It was just kind of a surprise that Emily had picked that name out before she had even heard that Trav and I had talked about it.”
Reilly spent Monday morning and early afternoon holding Cadence and getting ready for practice.
“I was laid back in the chair with her sleeping on my chest,” said Reilly, who had his coaches email him the day’s practice plan.
“Me and Cadence were studying plays for a few hours.”
Reilly made it Commonwealth Stadium at 3:07 p.m., eight minutes before the start of Monday’s practice.
“He’s a true pro,” head coach Jason Maas said. “He prepares himself mentally and physically to play every week, regardless of the situations at hand. I give a lot of credit to his family. His wife is very understanding and allows for that to happen.”
Reilly and the 6-3 Eskimos visit the 3-5 Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Thursday. The game will be on 630 CHED with the pre-game show at 4 p.m. and the kick-off at 5:30 p.m.