Henry Burris Henry Burris , Jr . ( born June 4 , 1975 ) is a professional Canadian football quarterback for the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the Canadian Football League . Burris spent one year as a reserve quarterback for the National Football League ' s Chicago Bears . Burris has also played for the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League . Early life . Burris attended Spiro High School in Spiro , Oklahoma , and won four varsity letter s each in football , track , basketball , and baseball . In football , he was named the Oklahoma Offensive Player of the Year as a senior . Burris attended Temple University and finished with 20 passing records . Professional career . CFL . Burris went undrafted in the NFL , and signed a contract with the CFL ' s Calgary Stampeders in 1997 . He spent the 1997 season on the Stampeders ' practice roster . He had his first , limited playing time in 1998 in relief of Jeff Garcia and Dave Dickenson , while dressing for all of the Stampeders ' games . In 1999 he received more playing time as Dickenson ' s backup . He replaced Dickenson in the third week game against the Edmonton Eskimos , leading the Stampeders to a come - from - behind victory . He started the following two games against the Montreal Alouettes and BC Lions , leading the Stampeders to another victory in the former . He was injured in the third quarter of the latter , and spent the rest of the season on the injured reserve with a torn anterior cruciate ligament . He moved on to the Saskatchewan Roughriders for his first opportunity to be a full - time starting quarterback . He started the first 16 games of the Roughriders season , throwing for 4 , 647 yards and 30 touchdowns . NFL . The Green Bay Packers took interest in him after the CFL season ended , and signed him to a contract . Burris began playing in the NFL in 2001 , when he spent several weeks as the Packers ' third - string quarterback , before he was released and spending the rest of the season on their practice squad . He was signed by the Chicago Bears in the off - season . In six games for the Bears he completed 18 of 51 passes for 207 yards , with three touchdowns and five interceptions . He received significant playing time only in the last two games of the regular season . He was 8 of 22 for 50 yards and a touchdown against Carolina , fumbling twice , and 7 of 19 for 78 yards and four interceptions against Tampa Bay , for a 10 . 3 QB rating . While his passing was quite poor he showed better than average running ability for a quarterback , finishing the 2002 season with 15 rushes for 104 yards . The Bears assigned him to NFL Europe ' s Berlin Thunder in 2003 where he performed respectably . Unhappy with being relegated to Berlin by the Bears , he returned to the CFL and the Roughriders , his former club . He immediately became Nealon Greene ' s back - up . A knee injury forced him to miss the better part of the season . Saskatchewan Roughriders . He returned to form in 2004 , leading the Roughriders to the 2004 Western Final , narrowly missing advancing to the Grey Cup . The Roughriders lost the Western Final in overtime to the favored BC Lions . Calgary Stampeders . In the off - season Burris rejected the Roughriders ' contract offer in order to re - join the Calgary Stampeders . In 2005 he took the Stampeders to the Western Semifinal where they lost at McMahon Stadium to Ricky Ray and Jason Maas of the Edmonton Eskimos . In 2006 he once again helped the Stampeders advance to the CFL playoffs , hosting their second home playoff game in as many years , but lost in the West Semifinal to his former team , the Roughriders . In the 2007 playoffs the Stampeders once again faced off against the Roughriders in the Western Semifinal ( this time played at Mosaic Stadium in Regina , the Roughriders having hosted a home playoff game for the first time since 1988 ) , and would once again ended up losing to his former team in a close 26 - 24 affair . In 2008 , Burris won his first championship , leading the Calgary Stampeders to a 22 - 14 Grey Cup victory , over the host Montreal Alouettes . Burris also captured the title of Grey Cup Most Valuable Player and was a finalist for the league ' s most outstanding player award . In 2009 , Burris led the Calgary Stampeders to a second place finish in the Western Conference . Trying to atone for a year in which he could not beat the first place Saskatchewan Roughriders ( 0 - 3 - 1 ) the Burris led Stampeders could not defeat the Roughriders in the Western Division Final , falling 27 - 17 . This was Burris ' third straight play - off loss to the Roughriders . Burris quarterbacked the Stampeders to a CFL best record of 13 - 5 in 2010 , finishing first in the Western Conference . Looking for revenge against his play - off nemesis , Burris lost to the Roughriders a fourth time in post season , 20 - 16 . He won the CFL ' s Most Outstanding Player award for that season . Burris ' string of professional starts ended at the end of the 2011 season , when Drew Tate replaced him as the starting quarterback for the last three scheduled regular season games . Burris performed short - yardage duties for the team as the back - up quarterback . Burris returned to quarterbacking the Calgary Stampeders in the second half of the Western Conference Semi Finals against the Edmonton Eskimos . Burris was unable to lead a second half comeback throwing only 7 completions in 15 attempts with 0 touchdowns , having to settle for multiple field goals . Entering the off - season there had been much speculation regarding the future of Burris with the Calgary Stampeders . The Stampeders seemed ready to move on and hand the starting job to Drew Tate while Burris had stated that he did want to be a backup quarterback . The Calgary Stampeders confirmed on January 3 , 2012 that they had traded Burris to the Hamilton Tiger - Cats for QB Kevin Glenn and OL Mark Dewit . Hamilton Tiger - Cats . In his first season with the Tiger - Cats had a a career year . He threw for 5 , 367 yards and 43 touchdowns , with a passer rating of 104 . 4 , all career highs . Unfortunately , the Tiger - Cats defense struggled giving up 32 points per game resulting in the team falling to 6 - 12 and missing the playoffs .