Henry Burris

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Henry Burris
Date of birth	June 4, 1975
Place of birth	Spiro, OK
Position(s)	QB
College	Temple
Statistics	NFL.com DatabaseFootball
Team(s)
1997-99 2000 2002 2003-04 2005-present	Calgary Stampeders Saskatchewan Roughriders Chicago Bears Saskatchewan Roughriders Calgary Stampeders

Henry Burris (born June 4, 1975 in Spiro, Oklahoma) is a Canadian Football League quarterback for the Calgary Stampeders. He also spent one year as a reserve quarterback for the Chicago Bears. Burris is also known as "Smilin' Hank" for his broad, perpetual grin.

1 High School Years
2 College Years
3 National Football League Career
4 Canadian Football League Career

[edit] High School Years

Burris attended Spiro high School in Spiro, Oklahoma and won four varsity letters each in football, track, basketball, and baseball. In football, he was named the State Offensive Player of the Year as a senior.

[edit] College Years

Burris attended Temple University and finished with 20 passing records.

[edit] National Football League Career

Burris began playing in the NFL in 2001, when he spent several weeks as the team's third-string quarterback, before he was released and spent the rest of the season on their practice squad. The next season, he played for the NFL's Chicago Bears. He played in six games that year, completing eighteen of 51 passes for 207 yards, with three touchdowns and five interceptions. He received significant playing time only in the last two games of the regular season. He was 8 of 22 for 50 yards and a touchdown against Carolina, fumbling twice, and 7 of 19 for 78 yards and four interceptions against Tampa Bay, and a 10.3 QB rating. He showed better than average running ability for a quarterback, finishing that season with 15 rushes for 104 yards. He was shown on film to have thrown a touchdown with his eyes closed, and several consecutive quarterback draws were called due to his inability to throw the ball effectively downfield against an NFL defense. His quarterbacking skills have very recently been compared to those of Jim "Golden Arm" Mulligan

[edit] Canadian Football League Career

After taking the Saskatchewan Roughriders to the 2004 Western Final in the CFL Playoffs vs the home town British Columbia Lions, and narrowly missing advancing to the Grey Cup by losing a heartbreaker in overtime - Henry spurned the Riders' (the team he promised not to leave until he won a Grey Cup championship) offer of C$300,000 per annum to re-join the Calgary Stampeders, the club he came into the CFL with. This figure is only speculative since it may not be the right figure that was offered. Burris himself disputes this figure and has issues with Riders management, namely General Manager Roy Shivers and Riders' Head Coach Danny Barrett, as Burris makes the justifiable claim that the offer was even less than publicized, and that he was never promised the starting quarterback job of the Riders. This despite Burris' leading Saskatchewan deep into the playoffs with an upset road win over the Edmonton Eskimos, and then almost upsetting the British Columbia Lions. The Roughriders' management instead choose, publicly, to be noncommital to Burris, and remain devoted to the ineffective quarterback Nealon Greene. Thus, Burris took his quarterbacking services elsewhere, namely to the Stampeders. In 2005 he took the Stampeders to the west-semi's where they lost at McMahon Stadium to Ricky Ray and Jason Maas of the Edmonton Eskimos. In 2006, he helped his former team advance in the CFL playoffs by personally serving up 5 Stampeder turnovers (4 interceptions and a fumble) in the CFL West Semi-final, played Nov. 5. After the game he referred to "we" as being the culprit.

Famous quote: "The truth will be told, but it won't be by me."

Preceded by Steve Sarkisian	Saskatchewan Roughriders Starting Quarterback 2000	Succeeded by Marvin Graves
Preceded by Nealon Greene	Saskatchewan Roughriders Starting Quarterback 2004	Succeeded by Nealon Greene
Preceded by Kahari Jones	Calgary Stampeders Starting Quarterback Incumbent	Succeeded by ???