CALGARY — Everywhere he's been, the same stories get told: about how he grew up on horseback and went to the National Finals Rodeo three years in a row as a high-school standout; and about how his dad was a professional calf roper who won two world championships and was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame.
Always for Cody Pickett it's been the cowboy thing.
In fact, even now as the quarterback prepares for his first start with the Toronto Argonauts, much of the buzz has been about Pickett's western background and how he grew up ridin' and ropin' on a ranch just off Chicken Dinner Road in Caldwell, Idaho. (State motto: May it endure forever.)
But don't be fooled by all the hayseed hokum: Pickett is a professional quarterback, a guy good enough to be taking over for slumping Kerry Joseph. Football-wise, Pickett has some glowing credentials. His pedigree is not so bad, either.
Grandfather Dick Pickett was a running back at the University of Idaho and played on a team with future NFL greats Wayne Walker and Jerry Kramer.
As for Pickett's dad, the Hall of Fame roper Dee Pickett played at Boise State University alongside the likes of future CFL players Doug Scott, Michel Bourgeau, Randy Trautman and Cedric Minter. Now a 53-year-old businessman working for a Canadian building company, Pickett doesn't see his son as Cowboy Cody, he sees him as a football player with a chance to help his team win.
“Everyone makes a big deal about his rodeo background,” Dee said. “Obviously, he grew up with it. You can't pick your parents. But from the day he left for college he's never been back on a horse. He's put his life into going to school and playing football. He's a football player.”
Dee knows a thing or two about good football players. He played against many as a self-described “pretty good college guy. I could run around and had a decent arm. But I wasn't 6 foot 4, 240 pounds, the way they like them now. … Cody's 225 pounds, close to 6 foot 4.”
Dee was a two-year starter at BSU before deciding to forgo his senior season. Rodeo was his true love and he learned the fine art of roping from his uncle Bob Johnson. In 1978, Pickett was named the Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association rookie of the year and made his first of 20 consecutive appearances at the NFR, a remarkable feat.
Cody enjoyed rodeo as a youngster – and also learned how to rope from uncle Bob – but football was his calling. Recruited to the University of Washington, Pickett had a breakout season in 2002, passing for 28 touchdowns and 4,458 yards (516 more than Southern California's Carson Palmer, now with the Cincinnati Bengals).
Rather than enter the NFL draft after his junior season, Pickett opted to return to Washington. That started the hype. As a senior, Pickett was billed as a Heisman Trophy candidate. He was written up in Sports Illustrated under the headline “On Saturdays He's No Cowboy.”
Then he hurt his shoulder his senior year and his stock fell. The San Francisco 49ers drafted him in the seventh round, let him play a few games, then traded him. After bouncing from NFL Europe back to the NFL, Pickett signed with the Argonauts last season and looked to be lost on the depth chart until Michael Bishop was traded to the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Joseph was benched by new Toronto head coach Don Matthews.
“Pro sports, you don't know what's going to happen,” said Dee, who talks to his son every day by telephone. “But Cody will be fine. He's experienced. He'll do all right.”
Dee has no regrets about giving up football for rodeo. He enjoyed the lifestyle and the camaraderie, then simply wanted to be home to watch his kids grow up. That his son took to football and soon became a high-school star was good enough for him. Since then, it's only got better.
“We have a real close relationship,” Dee said of Cody. “I thought about flying up there [for the Argos' game in Calgary against the Stampeders on Saturday]. I was at four or five Calgary Stampedes. I like the city. But I'm going to watch it at home on television. You get the replays and you don't get to see your kid anyway – he's so busy.”
So is the father, although that reputation about his being a diehard cowboy, maybe that needs to change, too.
“You know what?” Pickett said. “I don't even own a horse.”
