Adriano Belli Kisses the CFL Goodbye

Adriano Belli will be remembered for many things in Toronto. Of a list that includes singing the National Anthem, managing a meat packing plant, trying out for Canadian Idol, kissing everyone in sight and being a general nuisance to visiting offenses, his send-off party on the shores of Lake Ontario should take the cake.

I'm Matthew Caruk, or as my lacrosse team called me, "The Mad Man". I enjoy all sports and love writing about them. I'm extremely excited to be part of the Bloggity team sharing news and insight from the Argonaut world. This marks the 5th blog I've had the chance to offer my insights to and I can't wait to share with fellow CFL fans.

Imagine, if you will, hearing news the Argonauts have called a press conference. Regular, normal, small stuffy room with too many cameras and crews in the bowels of the Rogers Center (yeah, it will always be "The Dome" to me!), right? Wrong! Try a tall ship docked on the shores of Lake Ontario with media personnel, cheerleaders, football players, the city's mayor and the guest of honour dressed as a Sailor. Only Adriano Belli could pull this off. As Taylor Robertson put it in a Twitter post last Wednesday "and now I've seen it all".


Adriano Belli announced his retirement on May 11th after 10 grueling CFL seasons. Over this time he dressed for 3 teams (Hamilton, Montreal, Toronto). In his career he also saw action with the Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns (NFL) and the Las Vegas Outlaws (XFL). I guess "Kissing Bandit" is only cool in some circles ...

Toronto Argonaut Rob Murphy had the opportunity to play against and alongside Belli during his career. Murphy tells Yahoo sports, as rivals they "did our share of grabbing in the pile" but on the same sideline "[there's] not a better teammate I've played with." Murphy adds "he was one of my best friends".

Don't worry about Belli keeping busy off the field. He will continue working with his family meat packaging company. As well, his charitable foundation, The Big Kiss, which raises money for Toronto's Sick Kids Hospital will continue doing great things. Belli admitted he's never had the best football mind so coaching is pretty much out of the question at this point. However, he joked, the team offered him Head Coach of the cheerleaders. He's looking forward to spending time with the girls.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who coaches high school football in the city, was asked by Belli if they could swap jobs for a day sometime in the future. "No problem," Ford replied. And for a minute there I was worried there was no one to take poorly timed penalties for the team.

As Adriano Belli bids the CFL adieu, as only he can, this blogger, on behalf of the entire Bloggity crew, wishes him much success in whatever life brings him ahead. No doubt Quarterbacks across the league are doing the same.