CHARLOTTE — Cleve McCoy made the trek from Ravenel to Charlotte Sunday in hopes his agent would get the call and that his boyhood dream of playing in the NFL would become a reality.

No calls, no NFL — for now — and McCoy started the trek back without the one thing he wanted most. But, he won’t come home empty handed. The former South Carolina State quarterback is in the final stages of working out a contract with the Canadian Football League’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

“The contract is in,” McCoy said. “We are just looking over it, doing a little negotiating, but once that goes through the signing is over.

“It’s going to be a good salary with a lot of incentives,” he added. “It’s good money. I can make a living off this.”

McCoy said he was disappointed that he didn’t receive an NFL offer. There was the possibility that one would have come along in the days following the end of Sunday’s draft, but he said he wanted to take what was on the table — a deal that he said could likely end up being for two years.

“Who knows,” he said. “I could go there, and in a few years I could come back to the NFL and be a quarterback. Maybe that was how it was supposed to be.

“(Not going to the NFL) is disappointing in a way,” he added. “But, it is not an empty feeling because I knew I had the offer to go to Canada. I’m going over there to make a football career. This is still professional football.”

Winnipeg was 10-7 a season ago, and the Blue Bombers’ roster boasts a quarterback, Kevin Glenn, who was 388 of 621 passing for 5,114 yards. Glenn was the CFL’s East Division nominee for the Rogers CFL Most Outstanding Player Award. Former Boise State quarterback Ryan Dinwiddie as well as former Nebraska quarterback Zac Taylor are listed on the team’s roster. McCoy was being looked at by NFL scouts as a receiver, but said the Blue Bombers want him to play quarterback.

“The type of offense they have in Canada fits me perfectly,” he said. “I’m going to go over there, and I’m going to start. I’m going to make an impact over in that league.

“It’s the CFL,” he continued. “Professional football is professional football. I’m going to take it, go over there and give it 100 percent.”

T&D Sports Editor Brian Linder can be reached via e-mail at blinder@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5553. Check out his blog, Welcome to Linderland, at www.thetandd.com.

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