Nealon Greene Nealon Greene ( born April 13 , 1976 in Yonkers , New York ) is an American - born Canadian football quarterback . After spending his collegiate career with Clemson , where he became the school ' s career leader in passing yardage , Greene came to the Canadian Football League with the Toronto Argonauts . Greene was traded in 1999 to the Edmonton Eskimos before he could establish himself on the Argonauts , but played well enough to stay with the team for a few seasons . On July 16 , 1999 , Greene set a CFL record for rushing yards in a single game by a quarterback with 180 yards . He became the clear Eskimos starter in 2000 while posting a 10 - 8 record and second place finish . The Eskimos would narrowly lose the west semi final to the BC Lions by a score of 34 - 32 after a seemingly easy but missed field goal by kicker Sean Fleming which would have sealed the win . The loss resulted in the firing of head coach Don Matthews which led to Greene losing the starting quarterback role to Jason Maas during the 2001 season . Greene was subsequently traded to the Saskatchewan Roughriders with Simon Baffoe and a second round pick ( offensive lineman Francois Boulianne ) in the 2002 CFL Draft for offensive lineman Dan Comiskey , running back Darren Davis , and kicker Mike O ' Brien . Greene immediately became the starter in Saskatchewan starting the 2002 season improving the then woeful Roughriders to an 8 - 10 record , making the playoffs for the first time since their 1997 Grey Cup final appearance . In 2003 Greene would play 16 games for the Roughriders posting a 10 - 6 record as a starter , leading Saskatchewan to their first winning season since 1994 . They would defeat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 37 - 21 in the first round of the postseason before losing to the Edmonton Eskimos in the western final by a score of 30 - 23 . The successful season of 2003 and further advancements having been made in the playoffs left the Roughriders fans looking positive . However in the first game of the 2004 season against the Toronto Argonauts , Greene would suffer a season - ending broken leg which resulted in a disappointing 9 - 9 season for Saskatchewan under back - up quarterback Henry Burris . Greene would recover and return in the 2005 season , where he retained the role of starter after the departure of Burris . The up - and - down season struggles saw the team start strongly with a 3 - 1 record , but fall to a disappointing 3 - 6 by the halfway point of the season . Seeing that change was necessary , Greene was benched and lost the starting role to back - up Marcus Crandell . Crandell would quarterback the Riders to five straight victories during Greene ' s time on the bench , but would later lose three crucial games in a row near the end of the season dropping the Roughriders to below . 500 once again with an 8 - 9 record . Having nothing to lose , head coach Danny Barrett then returned to Greene to start in the last regular season game in BC . Greene would lead the Riders to victory in his final CFL start , salvaging another disappointing 9 - 9 season for the green and white . Although the season resulted in a last place finish in the west , Greene and the Roughriders would cross over divisions and make the eastern playoffs . However , despite the victory against the league - leading BC Lions the previous week under Greene , he was benched again in favor of Crandell and never saw any playing time in the ensuing 30 - 14 loss to the Montreal Alouettes in the east semi final . On April 20 , 2006 Greene was traded by Saskatchewan to the Montreal Alouettes where he reunited with head coach Don Matthews and served as a back - up quarterback to Anthony Calvillo . Despite Calvillo ' s struggles and poor play later in the season , he remained the starter and Greene was never given a chance to start a game for Montreal . Greene was cut the following season after Matthews resigned as head coach . Seemingly retired from pro football , Nealon has since returned to Clemson University and is continuing his education .