In any discussion of the great linebackers in the history of the CFL, you can bet Dan Kepley's name will be mentioned.  Kepley was the defensive leader of the Edmonton dynasty that won five Grey Cups between 1978 and 1982.  In many ways, the statistics don'd do Kepley justice.  Kepley played ten seasons with Edmonton from 1975 to 1984 with no tackle stats available for his entire career and quarterback sacks stats only available for the last four seasons.  That leaves pretty much only interceptions and fumble recoveries as defensive stats, and linebackers don't normally pick up a lot of intercetpions compared to their brothers in the defensive backfield.  When you look at Kepley's stats, however, he recorded 24 career intercepts, which is more than the majority of defensive backs accrue during their careers and includes a high of 6 in 1981. Kepley also had 14 career fumble recoveries.  Kepley returned two of his interceptions for touchdowns and one fumble recovery for a total of three career touchdowns. Kepley recorded 22.5 quarterback sacks in the four seasons that stats were kept in that catagory and projected over his ten year career, he probably would have had about 60 quarterbacks sacks  While it might be hard to measure Kepley's talent with the limited statistics available, it is quite easy to measure it from the honours he accumulated.  Start with the 5 West and 5 CFL All-Stars Kepley won in consecutive seasons from 1977 to 1981. Add in the three Most Outstanding Defensive Player awards that Kepley won in 1978, 1980 and 1981.  Don't forget seven Grey Cup appearances and winning six of them, the aforementioned five in a row and also in his rookie season in 1975.  As a final reward for his outstanding play, Dan Kepley was elected to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1996.  Kepley returned to the Eskimos in 2002 as an assistant coach, and is going into his ninth season (2010) as the linebacker coach for the Esks.

Dan Kepley in the Canadian Football HOF