New Pro football passing yards leader

[Drbio]

Damon Allen is the new pro football passing leader.

Allen threw two second-half touchdown passes and broke Warren Moon's career passing record of 70,553 yards (Doc note: Holy crap!) as the Toronto Argonauts defeated the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 40-6 Monday in the annual CFL Labor Day Classic at Ivor Wynne Stadium.

The 43-year-old Allen came into the game needing 165 yards to break Moon's record and completed 16-of-24 passes for 207 yards (70,596 for his career) and the two TDs.

On the record-setting play, the 22-year CFL veteran rolled to his left, then hit a streaking Arland Bruce III with a shovel pass up the middle. Bruce broke at least two tackles before running into the end zone to put Toronto ahead 11-3 in the third quarter.

The Argonauts streamed on to the field to congratulate Allen, who then made his way to the midfield to join CFL commissioner Tom Wright, Argos co-owners David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski and former NFL head coach Steve Mariucci, who was Allen's quarterbacks coach at Cal State Fullerton.
"Over the last 22 years, I've had the honor and the pleasure of playing in front of great fans across the CFL, including the Hamilton Tiger-Cat fans," Allen told the CBC. "I'm just looking forward to going back to Toronto and celebrating next week."

The Argos will honor Allen before Saturday's rematch with Hamilton at Rogers Centre. Moon and Allen's older brother, Marcus, will both be on hand. Toronto has also designated Saturday as Damon Allen Day and his grandson, Justice, will handle kickoff duties.

Allen cemented the victory for Toronto with an 18-yard touchdown pass to Jeff Johnson late in the fourth that put the Argos ahead 19-6. Then, with just over five minutes to play, Allen hit Dave Azzi on an 11-yard pass for his 5,000th career completion.