Canadian Football Hall of Fame quarterback Henry Burris will join the B.C. Lion‘s coaching staff for the 2022 CFL season.
B.C. Lions Head Coach Rick Cambell brought in Burris to be an offensive consultant. Henry Burris has spent the last two seasons with the Chicago bears as an assistant coach in 2020, and as the offensive quality control coach in the 2021 season.
CFL fans may remember Henry Burris from the 2016 Grey Cup where he lead the Ottawa Redblacks to a championship title in the final game of his career.
Burris had considered offers from other NFL teams, as well as other CFL teams, but ultimately decided he’d like to reunite with Rick Cambell.
“It was huge,” said Burris. “Rick is so cool, calm, and collected, and to see him celebrate in 2016 after winning the Grey Cup still brings tears to my eyes. “He’s a guy who never gets too high or too low but to see him finally come out of his shell after we won, I want to help him get back to that. I want to be in his shoes one day, I do want to be a head coach, the best way to learn is to learn from the greats, right? Rick Campbell is one of those in my book.”
Campbell brings Burris in with the task of teaching a young Lion’s quarterback squad after Mike Reilly’s retirement at the end of the 2021 season. Nathan Rourke will take his place behind center, and has shown a lot of talent in his rookie year.
Rounding out the quarterback corps are Michael O’Conner, Issac Harker, and Kevin Thomson. All three are 26-years-old.
“Working with quarterbacks has been my life,” Burris said. “I’ve got this wealth of knowledge and I’ve got to hand it to somebody because I mean, I’m getting old and I need to share all the things that I’ve learned.”
Burris has a lot of CFL experience to pass on to the young quarterbacks. Starting in 1997 with Calgary Stampeders, then to Saskatchewan, the NFL where he would spend time with the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears, and back to the CFL with Hamilton, and finally Ottawa.
Burris was the CFL’s outstanding player in 2010 and 2015. He won the Grey Cup three times in 1998, 2008, and 2016.
Henry Burris ended his CFL career with 63,227 passing yards (third-most all-time) and 374 TDs (third-most all-time). Henry Burris was inducted into the CFL of Fame in 2020.
