EDITORIAL: Kalispell: Cradle of quarterbacks

One quarterback just led his Edmonton Eskimos team to victory in the Canadian version of the Super Bowl.

The other signal-caller has won two high-profile NFL games with the Denver Broncos.

Both Edmonton’s Mike Reilly and Denver’s Brock Osweiler share key foundations: They’re both from Kalispell and both are Flathead High School graduates.

What are the odds that two top-level professional quarterbacks who hail from the same small Northwest Montana city would be prominently in the sports news at the same time?

It makes one wonder if Kalispell has become some sort of cradle of quarterbacks.

Reilly not only led his team to the Grey Cup in the Canadian Football League, but the 6-foot-3 QB was named most-valuable player in the game. Reilly, a dual-threat quarterback, threw for 269 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 86 yards on 10 carries in the title game.

Pretty impressive for the 2003 Flathead graduate who had a record-setting career at Central Washington University before advancing to the pros.

The same day Reilly’s heroics put the Eskimos on top, Osweiler was making a statement in the NFL.

Against the undefeated New England Patriots, Osweiler put on a show for the national television audience.

Osweiler, a 2009 Flathead graduate, brought the Broncos back from a two-touchdown fourth-quarter deficit, deftly leading first a game-reversing drive that gave Denver a late lead and finally quarterbacking a brief winning drive in overtime.

Osweiler’s 23-of-42, 270-yard passing effort (the great Tom Brady also was 23 of 42 for 280 yards in Sunday night’s game) gave him his second straight win at the helm of the Broncos.

Brock, of course, is replacing future hall-of-famer Peyton Manning at the quarterback spot for Denver due to Manning’s injury earlier this season.

That situation, as well as Osweiler’s performance, has placed him in the national NFL spotlight and even put him on the cover of the regional issue of Sports Illustrated this week.  

Both Reilly and Osweiler are making Kalispell very, very proud.