Imagine this. The suits in the NFL are getting ready for their star-studded college draft. Everyone is talking about who’s going to be picked. Who’s going to make it to the big time. Fortune and fame await the lucky group of the chosen few. Then, news breaks that the projected number one pick overall has just signed a record deal with a team from Canada.
It might sound far fetched today, but this is exactly what happened in 1991. To truly appreciate the impact of this event you have to first understand where the CFL was in the early 90s. It was a league in some serious economic trouble. That’s putting it mildly. Attendance was in decline. Teams were losing money. Owners were walking away from their teams. The Montreal franchise had already folded. Plus, Canada was in the midst of a nasty recession not to mention a national unity crisis. These were depressing times.
Nevertheless, in February 1991 the CFL’s flagship franchise, the Toronto Argonauts, were purchased by the trio of businessman Bruce McNall, hockey star Wayne Gretzky, and actor John Candy. McNall et al saw an opportunity in growing Canadian football not just in Toronto but in the United States, as well. With some, let’s say, investment the game could be revitalized in Toronto and a lucrative U.S. market would eat up Canadian football like American apple pie.
That investment was a 21-year-old wide receiver out of Notre Dame college named Raghib “the Rocket” Ismail. Ismail had a stellar college football career and was considered to be the cream of the crop in the 1991 NFL Draft happening in April of that year. The Dallas Cowboys were expected to draft him as the first pick overall.
According to Paul Woods, who authored the book Year of the Rocket, Bruce McNall tasked then Argo General Manager Mike McCarthy to “think big.” McCarthy responded that there’d be nothing bigger than signing the Rocket. Sign the most recognizable college football star in America and lure him to Canada. That would put Toronto and the CFL on the radar. That would be a worthwhile investment indeed.
Oates, Bob. “Bruce McNall Tries to Buy a Rocket to Fire Up his Argonauts.” Los Angeles Times, 5 April 1991, p. 375.
NFL executives initially dismissed McNall’s interest in the Rocket as a mere publicity stunt. Surely, he wouldn’t actually open his wallet to make such a move. Or would he?
On April 20, 1991, McNall, who also owned the National Hockey League’s Los Angeles Kings, invited Raghib Ismail to a Stanley Cup playoff game at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles. It was here that the Rocket officially signed the contract with the Toronto Argonauts.
A heads up was given to some Toronto media to allow them time to travel to California, and a press conference was held in Los Angeles to announce that Raghib “the Rocket” Ismail had signed a record $18 million contract with the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts. The deal made Ismail the highest paid professional football player at the time at $4.5 million dollars a year – half a million more than Joe Montana of the San Francisco 49ers.
The next day, the Rocket was flown to Toronto to be formally introduced as the newest member of the Boatmen. News of the Rocket’s signing sent shockwaves throughout North America. NFL brass were stunned. The signing garnered front page coverage in the New York Times and USA Today. A new era was here. The CFL was about to step into the future more confident than ever. And the Rocket was going to be the face of that future.
The Argonauts enjoyed success on and off the field in 1991. They finished in first place in the East Division with a 13-5 record and averaged 37,000 fans per game at the new SkyDome. Road games brought out the crowds, as well. Rocketmania had swept the nation. The Argos defeated Winnipeg 42-3 in the Eastern Final before 50,380 fans before going on to beat the Calgary Stampeders in the 1991 Grey Cup. Ismail himself ended the season with 64 receptions for 1300 yards receiving and nine touchdowns.
The following season, the Argos struggled and went from first to worst, missing the playoffs with a 6-12 record. To make matters worse McNall was experiencing financial and legal problems. The magic was short-lived, it seemed. 1992 was becoming a bit of a nightmare. Ismail left the Argos and the CFL at the end of the season. Just like that, the Rocket era was over.
I asked Paul Woods if it could ever happen today. Could the CFL lure a number one NFL draft pick now? “No chance,” he says. The salary gap is just too wide now between the CFL and the NFL. It really was too wide in 1991. The economics just don’t make sense. The Rocket’s signing was a “one time thing never to be repeated,” he says.
He definitely believes that the Rocket’s signing was one of the “top ten” moments in all of Argonaut history. While he doesn’t quite credit the signing as saving the CFL per se, he does say it got the league thinking bigger and jolted it out of its traditional mom and pop mentality. “It injected optimism and excitement into the Argos and the CFL and gave them tons of attention.”
Yes, the Rocket’s stay in Toronto was short. But the hype surrounding that signing is still something to behold almost 35 years later.
Year of the Rocket by Paul Woods is available through Sutherland House, an independent Toronto-based publishing house.
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