It is the position that is both the sport's most glamorous and cruel.
Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo, the most prolific passer in pro football history, knows and accepts this. He is accustomed to the scrutiny and picking of nits.
Particularly when he's somewhere short of his best, as he has been for much of the last month.
Injuries have decimated the Als defence, their all-star left offensive tackle is done for the season, and yet many of the lingering questions concerning their Grey Cup three-peat ambitions hover over a certain 39-year-old Californian.
The stats are a pessimist's delight: Since Calvillo set the all-time passing mark on Oct. 10, the Als have gone 1-3, his yards have dropped off, and his 54-per-cent completion percentage sits eight points below his season average.
During a season in which he threw 32 touchdowns against eight interceptions, he has one TD and three picks in his last three starts, all losses, including a 43-1 shocker in B.C. last week, where he tallied only 63 yards.
"I'm always going to be critical of myself," Calvillo said after practice this week at the Olympic Stadium. "It starts with the quarterback, when I make mistakes of course it's going to hurt us."
Those errors, five or six of them per game, he says, include holding the ball too long, missing reads and not being quick enough to check down his list of options.
"During the year, I've always been, in my head, thinking 'protect yourself, and protect the ball.' In this game, I'm going to protect the ball, but if I have to run and get hit, I'm going to run and get hit," he said.
It's odd for a two-time defending champion, but the Als feel something like an underdog in Sunday's East Division semi-final in Montreal against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Montreal's last two home playoff games – blowouts of the Toronto Argonauts and Edmonton Eskimos – were basically over before they began. And Hamilton, a team that hasn't had an answer all season for receivers Jamel Richardson and S.J. Green, must be wary of giving up early points.
The Als are also 5-0 in division semis at the Big O since 1996, and it's foolish to underestimate a quarterback who hasn't lost a playoff game he started and finished in over a decade.
"I would never bet against A.C. … there's no doubting him, he's a champion and we're going to ride on his shoulders all the way through," running back Brandon Whitaker said.
Actually, there's a case to be made quarterback play may matter less than what the running backs do – the burden may in fact be on Whitaker, the CFL's leading rusher.
The Als-Ticats' 2-2 regular-season series shows a direct correlation between that battle and the outcome – the leading rusher was from the winning team each time.
Either way, the Oklahoman relishes facing his friend and mentor, Hamilton tailback Avon Cobourne, a crucial cog in Montreal's last two championships.
Cobourne has shown a remarkable ability to rise to big occasions, his former understudy wants to show he can too: "I've been training all my life for an opportunity like this."
Cobourne, who is as fiery as Whitaker is understated, will surely have a dagger between his teeth.
The good news for Montreal: middle linebacker Ramon Guzman (ankle) should be healthy enough to play, and the man he replaced as starter, concussion victim Shea Emry, could also see action – which would provide a boost to an inexperienced defensive backfield.
To beat Hamilton, then, the Als will have to overcome injuries and execute a remarkable turnaround from the last three weeks.
Calvillo is signalling he's ready to do his part, but exactly how does that happen in eight days?
"You sit everybody down, position by position, let the veteran guys talk to the young guys about what's at stake … we've got a three-game season," defensive end Anwar Stewart said. "We've got everything it takes."