Danny Brannagan's rooting section stretches far and wide.
It includes every Canadian who possesses even an ounce of nationalist sentiment, loyal fans of the domestic college game who thought Jamie Bone and Greg Vavra and Chris Flynn and so many others deserved a chance, and anyone who sides with the underdog, because that's what Brannagan is.
A five-year quarterback at Queen's University who capped his student career last fall leading the Gaels to a Vanier Cup victory, Brannagan nonetheless went undrafted by the Canadian Football League when he became eligible in 2009.
It is the same fate that awaits virtually every Canadian college quarterback who lacks the athletic skills to convert to a different position: thanks for bringing glory to the old alma mater, but that's where your career ends.
Brannagan, though, was signed as a free agent by the Toronto Argonauts following the league's evaluation camp last weekend, so will get his shot at professional football.
Just how legitimate a shot remains to be seen.
The good news is that he has hooked up with one of the worst CFL teams in living memory, a franchise that this off-season opted to discard every holdover quarterback on its roster, a move that may well be unprecedented in the history of the pro game.
So it is a blank slate, new Toronto football boss (in everything but title) Jim Barker has no horse in the race, and desperate times inspire desperate measures, all of which works in Brannagan's favour. Plus he will be the only pivot in camp who has at least once in his life thrown a pass in a three-down game, on a Canadian field.
The bad news?
Even walking into a franchise that is rebuilding from the foundation up, Brannagan will be competing against a former NFL starter (Cleo Lemon) and a former NFL backup (Gibran Hamdan) plus a CFL backup with a good American college pedigree (Dalton Bell).
All things considered, Brannagan's skill set, his experience, his football background - and not what it says on his passport - will put him at what is almost certainly an insurmountable disadvantage.
It is tempting to suggest there is some kind of conspiracy afoot. It is tempting to believe that some time after Russ Jackson threw his last pass as the league's last great Canadian quarterback, the CFL's coaches and general managers, Americans with pro-American biases, effectively closed the door.
But that's just not true. Wally Buono, the greatest developer of quarterbacking talent in the league? Canadian. Danny Maciocia, former head coach and now general manager of the Edmonton Eskimos? Canadian. Marcel Bellefeuille, who coaches the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, is a Canadian who also coached in Canadian Interuniversity Sport, as are Jim Daley, former head coach in Saskatchewan and a long-time assistant elsewhere, and Greg Marshall, who had a turn with the Ticats before returning to his roots at the University of Western Ontario.
When Marshall went directly from McMaster University to the CFL, he didn't try to take Ben Chapdelaine (then the most prolific passer in CIS history) with him, and none of those other Canadian coaches and general managers chose to battle alleged anti-homebrew bias by doing what was within their power.
What that tells you is that no one with a job to protect is going to take undue risks. What that tells you is that with a maximum of 32 spots available, and with accomplished veterans sticking around forever - see Calvillo, Anthony - there isn't a whole lot of opportunity in the first place.
What that tells you is that CIS football is roughly the equivalent of Division III (or, charitably, low Division II) NCAA football, and if you look around, you'll find precious few players from that level of competition professionally employed anywhere, in any position, let alone as quarterbacks.
As the second best football league in the world, the CFL has its pick from an enormous, constantly refreshed talent pool. And though the Canadian quota reserves roster spots for homebrews, there are other positions - every other position, in fact - where they can be warehoused and patiently allowed to develop. (A roster exemption for Canadian QBs would in itself be problematic. If the very best haven't been able to cut in on skill alone, how would the eighth-best survive?) Brannagan is a little bit undersized, which as Doug Flutie proved, isn't fatal. Barker says he can make all of the necessary throws. He has proven himself in game situations.
But what's being asked of him, now, is an enormous leap. And it could be that those who can make it - like Jackson - really do come along only once in a generation.