Montreal simply wasn’t meant to be for Stafford
Wide receiver struck out with Als before finding his comfort zone in Edmonton
Kenny Stafford can’t look ahead to Saturday ’s game against the Montreal Alouettes without seeing into his past.
Whether he wants to or not. The Edmonton Eskimos receiver has thrice been a part of La Belle Province’s CFL club, but all three stops were either less than memorable or something he would rather forget entirely.
“Montreal hasn’t been too nice to me in my career,” said Stafford, 28. “In 2013, I played one game in the Arena League and got signed to Montreal. In training camp, I had a 75-yard touchdown in the first pre-season game, got released after the game.”
He returned a second time to play out the 2014 season, only to become the Alouettes’ contribution in the Fred Stamps trade with Edmonton.
“I got a lot of heat for that even though I didn’t know I was getting traded,” Stafford said of the previous Eskimos fan-favourite receiver. “I told people, ‘Give me a chance before you jump to conclusions. Just give me the opportunity.’ And I never looked back from there.
“It was a great feeling. (Former Eskimos general manager) Ed Hervey was the one that made the trade, and for him to believe in me, for him to see what I always saw but not the whole league saw, he saw someone who could compete, who could come in and be a highlevel guy. And I thank him for that, because he really opened the door for me, to be completely honest.”
After living up to the rather large shoes he was expected to fill by posting career numbers of 47 catches for 732 yards and a teamleading nine receiving touchdowns in 18 games on the way to the 2015 Grey Cup championship, Stafford headed back to Montreal in free agency.
This time, it was his choice, as he looked to join up with his cousin, Duron Carter — whose name came up in Montreal earlier this week as a possible landing spot after being cut, out of the blue, by the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
And well before that season was over, the pair ended up getting unceremoniously released following a heated exchange with their quarterback in practice.
“I was just coming off a Grey Cup win, knowing here they had to pay people,” Stafford said. “And me, looking to get a payday, I knew I would have to go somewhere else.
“I had opportunities to go to the NFL. The Tennessee Titans offered me a contract, but with no guaranteed money, so I didn’t take the futures deal because I was 25 at the time. Financially, I made the right decision. I was thinking, ‘ What’s the quickest way for me to get back to the Grey Cup?
“I got paid and then had the debacle. We were riddled by injury and a lot of things happened, and then I ended up getting released. That was a blessing in disguise.”
While he had to wait out much of 2017 on the Eskimos practice squad, Stafford has shown his career is back on track this year in the city where he’s found the most success. He sits seventh in the CFL with 515 receiving yards heading into Saturday ’s game (7 p.m., TSN, ESPN+, 630 CHED), which marks the halfway point of Edmonton’s season.
For anyone who’s counting, that’s 70 more regular-season yards than he earned in all three of his Montreal stops combined.
“Already I have more yardage than I had last year,” Stafford said. “I’m just happy. The coaches trust me, I’m just trying to instil trust in them every day. This is home.” In and out: RB C.J. Gable sat out of practice for the third day in a row and will not play against the Alouettes on Saturday … The Als will sit starting quarterback Johnny Manziel, the club announced Thursday afternoon, after Manziel was put in concussion protocol following his last game. That will mark the second time this season a team for whom he plays visited Commonwealth Stadium without the former Heisman Trophy winner seeing the field … Happy birthday to Eskimos WR Bryant Mitchell, who turned 26 on Thursday.