Final Seasons
Pringle's 2003 season with the Eskimos was a return to form for the aging running back. Although he was not the man of 1998, Pringle was still a capable starter for a team on the rise, and with Ricky Ray at quarterback he did not have to be the main part of the team's offense. Pringle ran for 1,377 yards, his best total since 2000, and helped the Eskimos reach, and win, the 91st Grey Cup. Remarkably for a man whose first two seasons were spent largely on the bench, Pringle had George Reed's record 16,116 career rushing yards and 134 career rushing touchdowns well within his sights. Despite his age, most analysts believed Pringle breaking these records was not a matter of if, but when.
2004 proved these analysts right. Pringle ran for 1,141 yards, fourth in the CFL but a career low in a full, starting season. However, the yardage gave Pringle a total of 16,425 rushing yards, as Pringle broke the record in Vancouver, British Columbia against the BC Lions (he had been only a handful of yards short in the previous week's home game against the Calgary Stampeders, but despite receiving the ball on every play on the last few possessions Pringle did not set the mark in front of his home fans).
The season ended on some bitterness for Pringle, however. In the last game of the season, the Eskimos were close to the goal line in a tight game. Pringle at the time had 137 touchdowns, tied for Reed's record, and needed only one more to break it. However, head coach Danny Machocha called a quarterback sneak that resulted in a score, meaning that Pringle finished the season tied with Reed. Pringle was publicly upset at Machocha, and the controversy may have affected the Eskimos in their playoff loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
After the 2004 season, Pringle announced his retirement from professional football. He finished with 16,425 career rushing yards and 20,254 total yards from scrimmage, both CFL records. He also finished tied with George Reed with 137 career touchdowns.
On June 22, 2005, Pringle signed a contract with the Montreal Alouettes and then officially filed his retirement papers, so that he could retire as an Alouette. His jersey number 27 was retired by the Alouettes at their June 23 season opener.
On April 2, 2008, Pringle was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
Read more about this topic: Mike Pringle (gridiron Football)
Famous quotes containing the words final and/or seasons:
“The purpose of punishment is to improve those who do the punishing—that is the final recourse of those who support punishment.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“For winter’s rains and ruins are over,
And all the seasons of snows and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,
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Blossom by blossom the spring begins.”
—A.C. (Algernon Charles)