Standing uncomfortably on the sidelines before Touchdown Atlantic II kickoff at Stade Moncton on Sept. 26, feeling as if he'd been bundled out of a speeding car and chucked into the ditch, spirits sagging down around his arches, Joffrey Reynolds desperately needed something positive to cling to.

Randy Chevrier, luckily enough, had packed a life preserver in his luggage.

"I remember Randy coming over to me,'' recalls the Calgary Stampeders' all-time leading rusher, "and he said, 'Joffrey, I really don't know what's going on, but myself and a lot of guys on this team know what kind of player you are. We still have all the faith in the world in you. We still think you're a great player.'

"Man, that was welcome; something I really needed to hear at a time like that. It meant a lot to me, especially with the situation being that fresh.''

Reynolds is looking for work today. In search of a team. Of an opportunity at a second chance.

"This is all kind of new to me,'' he admits, a day after being officially released outright by the Stamps.

"I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know if there'll be any interest. I really wish I could give you a definite answer on what I'm going to do. I guess we'll see.

"If there's nothing out there, Calgary's been great to me. Maybe I'll stay here and try to get a job. Or maybe I'll try to coach somewhere, because football's been a big part of my life. But playing next year, somewhere, is the avenue I'm looking at first, for sure.

"I knew in the off-season teams weren't going to trade for me because they knew at some point in time Calgary was going to release me. So credit to (Stamps general manager/ head coach John Hufnagel) for doing this now and letting me get a head start, shop around and hopefully go somewhere else.''

Hard to imagine anyone handling such a delicate situation better than Joffrey Reynolds did.

He doesn't believe, at 32, that his ability to run, to break tackles, has fallen away like the bottom of a magician's trick trunk. But you won't hear any bitching, any whining, any parting shots about feeling betrayed or disrespected.

"No, no, I wouldn't say 'bitterness,'" he protests. "Not at all. Kind of disappointed, right? I will say that much. Sure I was.

"But in life we all have bosses and whatever your boss decides, that's what happens. You may not always agree with it.

"Fortunately, I had great teammates around me. I'd say they were probably the biggest reason I was able to go through this without real bitterness. Randy. Rob Cote. The list goes on. "Just to have those guys in that locker-room still supporting me while I was wondering, and everybody was asking, 'What's happening?', them still having the same respect for me, helped me get through it.''

Joffrey Reynolds exits with his head held high. He isn't the type to allow three difficult months to stain what has been a prosperous eightyear relationship. It's more than he envisioned when he arrived to take the feature tailback spot from the immortal Victor Ike.

"I've definitely enjoyed my time in Calgary. But I have thought for a while now that we've underachieved. In terms of championships, for the talent we've had on this team. When that happens, eventually they shake up things, go a different way.

"This year - I don't want to say it was a long time coming - but things came to a head and that influenced the moves they made.''

Whatever does happen with Joffrey Reynolds, wherever we do find him come late April, whether he winds up with another opportunity in, say, Hamilton or Vancouver, stays here and goes on to another phase of his life or decides to head home to Tyler, Texas, you can only wish the man the best.

He's earned all the goodwill a city can summon.

Still, the idea of him not being a Stampeder next season is hard to imagine. And will be, deep into training camp. We have, after all, become used to seeing No. 21 ripping off accumulating chunks of yardage up and down the McMahon Stadium carpet.

"I don't want to say I don't have my head around this yet,'' Reynolds hedges. "'Cause it was coming sooner or later. So no, it doesn't feel weird in that way. Sure I felt like I'd end my career here. But it's just . . . one of those

"Just the nature of sports. Nobody's invincible. You can be replaced.

"I'm not the first or the last player it's going to happen to. Look at the great Peyton Manning.

"Look at all the speculation swirling around him right now. Is he maybe getting traded? Possibly let go? After everything he's accomplished at Indianapolis?

"If a guy like Peyton Manning has to go through that, I'd be foolish to think it can't happen to me. Can happen to anybody.''

gjohnsoncalgaryherald.com