Jones, Stegall top CFL duo

Fittingly, Khari Jones and Milt Stegall will be honoured Sunday on the same football field where they terrorized defences for nearly five Canadian Football League seasons.

The standout Winnipeg Blue Bombers tandemhas beenvoted the greatest quarterback-receiver connection in CFL history and will be recognized during halftime of the 94th Grey Cup at Canad Inns Stadium (CBC, 3 p.m. ET).

"It says a lot," said Stegall, who finished fourth in CFL receiving this season with 79 catches for 1,269 yards. "Many people say I've done some great things with Khari but I was just on the tail end, he made my job pretty easy."

Jones and Stegall were tops among the nine CFL passing tandems nominated throughout the season via the internet, finishing with 27 per cent of the votes.

The Calgary Stampeders duo of quarterback Doug Flutie and slotback Allen Pitts garnered 16 per cent, while one-time Saskatchewan Roughriders Ron Lancaster and Hugh Campbell counted 13 per cent, one per cent ahead of the Edmonton's Warren Moon and Brian Kelly.

Also receiving votes were Montreal quarterback Anthony Calvillo and slotback Ben Cahoon (10 per cent); Roy Dewalt and Mervyn Fernandez of B.C. (nine per cent); Ottawa's Russ Jackson and Whit Tucker (five per cent); Hamilton's Danny McManus and Darren Flutie (four per cent) and Toronto's Condredge Holloway and Terry Greer (four per cent) rounded out the voting.

"When you look at that group of guys and know that there's a lot of Hall of Famers and Grey Cup winners," said Jones, now a CFL on CBC analyst.

"But when this went on it was the first time I had a chance to look at what we had done together and I was pretty impressed by some of the numbers we had put up in a relatively short period of time."

Tremendous success

Jones and Stegall enjoyed immense success during their 4½-year tenure together in Winnipeg.

Jones was the CFL's outstanding player in 2001, an honour Stegall captured the next year. They combined for 332 completions, 5,728 yards and 62 touchdown passes in 79 games together.

"Khari didn't see me catch a lot of those passes because he was on his butt but he never complained," Stegall said. "He'd get up, turn his helmet around and just keep going. I used to get on him sometimes about having to say something but he's just not that type of person."

Jones, who retired after the 2005 season, played nine seasons in the CFL with B.C., Winnipeg, Calgary and Hamilton. His most productive years were with the Bombers, passing for 20,175 yards and 139 touchdowns from 2000 until being dealt to Calgary in September 2004.

Stegall, 36, has spent his entire 12-year CFL career with Winnipeg and holds the league record for career TD catches with 133 but needs just two touchdowns to break the all-time record of 134, held jointly by Mike Pringle and George Reed.