McPherson takes game to Canada

Time and distance are finally starting to work favorably for hard-luck reformed quarterback Adrian McPherson, whose latest quest for a break in professional football has taken him north of the border.

McPherson has landed in the Canadian Football League, where he is the No. 3 quarterback on the Montreal Alouettes' depth chart entering Thursday's third game of the season against Calgary.

The one-time Southeast High and Florida State standout impressed Alouettes coaches and general manager Jim Popp with two sterling performances in exhibition games, enough to get playing time on third down-and-short yardage situations in the first two regular season games.

In the exhibitions, McPherson completed 17 of 27 passes for 278 yards, three touchdowns and one interception, while rushing for 59 yards on 11 carries.

He has played in the Alouettes' first two games, both victories over Hamilton and Winnipeg, on some third-and-short situations, with six carries for six yards.

"It's all about being in the right situation and getting opportunities. I hope this is the place," said McPherson, 25, whose ill-fated stint with the New Orleans Saints ended in 2006 and was followed by stints with two Arena Football League teams, the Arizona Wranglers and Grand Rapids Rampage.

"The last couple of years I've been moving around a lot. I'm kind of at the point where I want to settle down. Hopefully this is the spot ... and everything works out."

McPherson is listed behind starter Anthony Calvillo and Brad Banks.

He is one of six quarterbacks with the team, including Chris Leak, the former Florida standout who is on the disabled list, along with Ricky Santos, who is on the nine-week injury list with a hamstring problem. Also on the team is Marcus Brady, who was injured in the last preseason game.

"Of all the situations he's been in recently, I think this is the best deal for him," said Floyd McPherson, Adrian's father.

Early indications are that McPherson's hunch was correct, that the Canadian brand of pro football, with its wider field, is more tailored to his game as a mobile quarterback who can throw accurately on the run.

"To me it's a mixture of Arena and the outdoor game," said McPherson, who signed a three-year contract with the Alouettes. "It's a bigger field with a lot more space. A pretty good place for me to showcase my arm strength and my running ability.

"Some of the things I bring to the table are unique up here. I'm also the biggest quarterback (6-foot-3, 218 pounds) up here, which is in my favor a little bit."

That's just what Popp had projected when he began tracking McPherson with the Saints, where his NFL career was derailed by a freak accident during a preseason game against the Tennessee Titans in his second season.

McPherson suffered a knee injury when he was run over by an ATV driven by the Titans mascot in a 2006 preseason game in Nashville, and ended up on injured reserve.

After that season, head coach Jim Haslett was fired and Sean Payton took over.

McPherson was released by the Saints because he did not fit the style of offense Payton would run.

In the meantime, McPherson had sued the Titans for $20 million, including $15 million for punitive damages and $5 million compensatory damages, alleging that he was recklessly run over by the mascot, which ultimately cost him his job.

"That's still in the works. That's a long process," McPherson said.

His lawyer, Christopher Taylor, of Memphis, made McPherson aware that he can possibly be blackballed by the league.

"It was one of the risks that I took. But it was a situation where I just had to do what was best for me," McPherson said.

McPherson's long and winding road to his third pro football league is the fallout of his 2002 dismissal from the Florida State team, following his alleged involvement in the theft of a blank check and cashing it for more than $3,500, and betting on an offshore gaming Web site.

He lost his final two years of NCAA eligibility and the chance to develop himself into a potential NFL first-round draft choice, even though he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor theft and gambling charges. Instead, he was a fifth-round pick by the Saints in 2005.

"Despite everything I went through, my dream was to play in the NFL and I still had the opportunity," McPherson said. "It was taken away from me because of the accident. I'm going to continue to work hard and do the right thing. I feel something will work out."

The Alouettes regard McPherson as a possible heir-apparent to Calvillo, whom McPherson labeled, "like the Brett Favre" of the CFL.

He is content to wait his turn.

"It's a great opportunity for me to sit and learn behind one of the best to ever play this game up here," McPherson said.

The Alouettes, under first-year head coach Marc Trestman, employ a West Coast offense.

"It's like being back in high school," McPherson said. "Everything is spread, just wide open. That's where I feel like I performed my best, in high school, with four or five receivers. Hopefully I can do the same here."

Popp seems to agree. "This league is probably cut out for his talent," he said.

Trestman has coached quarterbacks for most of his coaching career, dating back to his days at the University of Miami in the early 1980s, when he tutored Bernie Kosar and Vinny Testaverde.

"He's really hard on the quarterbacks and forces us to push ourselves day-in and day-out," McPherson said.