Anthony Calvillo

Anthony Calvillo (born August 23, 1972) is an American Canadian Football League quarterback, currently playing for the Montreal Alouettes. He is the all-time professional football passing yards leader and first in all-time CFL passing yards. In his career, he has passed for over 70,000 yards and is one of five professional quarterbacks to have completed over 400 touchdown passes (the others being Brett Favre, Warren Moon, Peyton Manning and Dan Marino). He surpassed Damon Allen to enter into the CFL record books as the record holder for most career TD passes and most career completions. He has won three Grey Cup championships in 2002, 2009, and 2010, being named Grey Cup Most Valuable Player in 2002. He has won the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award three times, in 2003, 2008, and 2009, which ties him for second all-time behind Doug Flutie.

Early life, high school career and family
Calvillo was born in Los Angeles, California. While attending La Puente High School, Anthony Calvillo was a two-sport standout in football and basketball. He and his wife Alexia have two daughters.

College career
Calvillo spent two seasons at Mt. San Antonio Junior College before transferring to Utah State University in 1992. After a solid junior year as starting quarterback, he had a terrific senior season in 1993. He set a school record with 3,260 yards of total offense in the regular season, and he also set a school record with 5 touchdown passes in a single game (he did it twice). With Calvillo leading the offense, USU won the Big West Conference championship for the first time since 1979. The Aggies finished the year with a 42-33 win over Ball State in the Las Vegas Bowl; Calvillo passed for 386 yards and 3 touchdowns to win MVP honors. It was Utah State's first-ever bowl victory.

CFL career
After not being drafted by an NFL team, Calvillo started his Canadian Football League career in 1994 with the US expansion Las Vegas Posse. After the Posse folded a year later in the ill-fated CFL U.S. expansion experiment, Calvillo was selected first overall by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the dispersal draft. While in Hamilton, Calvillo served as a backup quarterback to players such as Steve Taylor and Matt Dunigan.

In 1998, Calvillo signed as a free agent with the Montreal Alouettes, where he became one of the most outstanding CFL quarterbacks in history. He led the Alouettes to the 2002 Grey Cup for the first time in 25 years, where he was named the most valuable player in the game.

During the 2003 CFL season, Calvillo broke numerous Montreal Alouette passing records, completing 408 of 675 passing attempts for 5,891 yards and 37 touchdowns. In 2004, he became the fourth quarterback in CFL history to pass for more than 6,000 yards in a single season (Doug Flutie, David Archer, and Kent Austin being the other three), earning him the East Division nomination for Most Outstanding Player for the third consecutive year. With Calvillo quarterbacking the Alouettes' offence, the 2004 Alouettes became the first team in CFL history with four receivers on one team all going over 1000 yards receiving in the same season: Ben Cahoon (1183 yards), Jeremaine Copeland (1154 yards), Thyron Anderson (1147 yards), and Kwame Cavil (1090 yards). During the 2005 CFL season, Calvillo and the 2005 Montreal Alouettes would again accomplish the feat of four receivers on one team all going over 1000 yards receiving in the same season (which had never been accomplished before the 2004 Alouettes precedent-setting team). The 2005 Alouettes set of receivers going over 1000 yards receiving were Kerry Watkins (1364 yards), Terry Vaughn (1113 yards), Ben Cahoon (1067 yards), and Dave Stala (1037 yards).

The 2008 CFL season saw Calvillo hit a number of career milestones. On June 26, in a game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Calvillo surpassed Danny McManus to become the second-all-time leading passer in the CFL. On July 31, in another game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Calvillo became the fourth quarterback in league history to reach 300 career touchdown passes. On August 15, in a game against the Toronto Argonauts, Calvillo became the second quarterback in CFL history to reach 4,000 career pass completions. Calvillo led the Montreal Alouettes to the 2008 Grey Cup final, which the Alouettes lost 22-14 to the Calgary Stampeders. Despite the Grey Cup loss, Calvillo still won the 2008 Most Outstanding Player award.

In 2009, Calvillo added to his club records while reaching more CFL milestones. On July 23, 2009, he surpassed Canadian Football Hall of Famer Ron Lancaster's 334 career touchdown passes to move into second place all time. He sat out two games during the regular season, but still accumulated 4639 yards while posting a remarkable 72.0% completion rate, the second best single-season completion rate in CFL history behind Dave Dickenson's 73.98% mark set in 2005. Calvillo led Montreal to a comeback victory in the 97th Grey Cup on Nov. 29, when the Alouettes defeated the Saskatchewan Roughriders on a last-second field goal.

Calvillo won his third Grey Cup on November 28, 2010 at 98th Grey Cup in Edmonton, Alberta. He added to his record total of passing yards in Grey Cup games with 2470 yards, as well as setting the record for Grey Cup starts with eight. As of the 2010 CFL season, Calvillo is 3-5 in Grey Cup Championship Games.

In a post-game interview, he revealed that he would be undergoing off-season surgery to remove a lesion on his thyroid that was discovered after he injured his sternum during the season. On December 21, 2010, it was reported that Calvillo had successful thyroidectomy surgery to remove a cancerous lesion.

On July 15, 2011, in a game against the Toronto Argonauts, Calvillo completed his CFL record 395th career touchdown pass to Éric Deslauriers. On August 4 of that same season, and again against the Argonauts, Calvillo completed his 5159th pass completion to Brandon London to move past Damon Allen to become the leader in that category as well. Then, on October 10, 2011, Calvillo completed a touchdown pass to Jamel Richardson to become professional football's all-time leading passer, in the Alouettes' third and final game against the Toronto Argonauts that year.

Calvillo signed a 2 year contract on December 13, 2012 meaning he will be with the team until the 2014 season.

Honours

 * 2011 Pro Football record all-time leader in passing yards
 * 2002, 2009, 2010 Grey Cup Champion
 * 2003, 2008, 2009 CFL Most Outstanding Player
 * 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 East Division Most Outstanding Player
 * 2002 Grey Cup Most Valuable Player
 * 2002, 2003, 2008, 2009 CFL All-Star team
 * 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 CFL East Division All-Star team
 * 2002, 2003, 2008, 2010 CFLPA All-Star team
 * 2004 CFLPA East Division All-Star team
 * 2004 Fans' Choice Award

In 2012 in honour of the 100th Grey Cup, Canada Post used his image on a series of commemorative postage stamps. The image was also used on presentation posters and other materials to promote the Grey Cup game and other celebrations associated with the centennial.