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Earlier in this Canadian football season, as he was setting the record for passing yards in a professional career, the great Damon Allen debate centred on whether he deserved a bust in Canton, the shrine of the American game.

But maybe that wasn't the most pressing question, at least for the Toronto Argonauts.

Maybe someone should have been wondering whether he was the right man for the job, right now.

Consider the evidence. Since returning from an early-season injury, then sitting out one more game, Allen was the Argos' starting quarterback for every down — until yesterday afternoon.

During that stretch, an offence featuring two former first-round National Football League draft picks in the backfield (at least when they both returned to health) and a duo of wide receivers who match up against any in the league, Arland Bruce and Tony Miles, averaged fewer than 17 points a game.

It's been a dreary year for CFL offences, as has already been well documented. But here's betting that there's never before been a situation when a team struggled so consistently on the attack without the starting status of its key player ever being called into question.

Not that the Argos had any surefire alternatives. Spergon Wynn, who has failed everywhere he's ever played, was the backup at the beginning, and when Michael Bishop returned from the Arena Football League, his erratic history, his legacy of unfulfilled promise, was well known both here and in the NFL.

And, Lord knows, this Argos' administration is loyal to its own — perhaps to a fault this season, though the fact is today they are one win away from returning to the Grey Cup.

Put all of that in the hopper, and the decision to yank Allen in the fourth quarter yesterday, trailing the Winnipeg Blue Bombers by 10 points with a little more than seven minutes remaining in the Eastern Division semi-final, may be the signature moment of Michael Clemons's head-coaching career — more than any of the flamboyant speeches or more than the 2004 championship.

It went so much against the grain, it had no real precedent, and it staved off what would have been a disastrous, desultory end to the Argonauts' season.

Bishop came on, and everything changed. He hit Bruce with a pass, then looked on as two Bombers defensive backs made contact without making the tackle, leaving the receiver to scamper into the end zone for a touchdown. After a Charles Roberts fumble on the next drive, Bishop immediately led his team to the winning touchdown, connecting with R. Jay Soward in the back of the end zone for the score.

Afterward, Clemons did his best to make the quarterback change sound like coaching business as usual. He acknowledged that Bishop had been champing at the bit this year, frustrated at his lack of opportunity. And he said that when he first approached offensive co-ordinator Adam Rita about making the switch, Rita, who will forever be Allen's biggest fan, raised an eyebrow.

"It's not like Damon played bad by any means," Clemons said. "But the things that he likes to do, they had adjusted to."

Sitting in the dressing room afterward, Allen agreed with that assessment. He played just fine, he said, and a starting quarterback getting the hook was nothing new. "It's no different than what happened in the Grey Cup in '87," he said. For those who can remember back 19 years, that was when a young Allen came in for a slightly older Matt Dunigan and led the Edmonton Eskimos to a 38-36 victory over the Argos. Allen was chosen as the championship game's most valuable player.

No, this isn't the same thing at all. This is a 43-year-old quarterback, a marvel for sure, but there's no arguing with the calendar, coming off a season in which he was hurt, in which he was often ineffective and in which his team's offence seemed out of step all year long. Now, there is a trip to the Grey Cup hanging in the balance, and once you book a ticket to Winnipeg, anything might happen.

Would it be crazy to think that the Argos might start someone other than Allen at the Olympic Stadium next Sunday afternoon, the coach was asked.

"Ya, that would be crazy," Clemons said.

The Montreal Alouettes would second that sentiment. Yep, it would be crazy. Don't dare make that change. Dance with the one that brung ya. How could you turn your back on a legend?

The door is open now, though, the possibility exists, and someone who has been around as long as Allen surely understands the stakes.