Veteran George will line up again in Sask.
When the Saskatchewan Roughriders cleaned out their lockers Nov. 18, Tearrius George hemmed and hawed when asked about his future with the CFL team.
George was eligible to become a free agent in February, so he suggested on garbage bag day that he wasn’t sure what would happen.
On Friday, the Roughriders announced the 32-yearold defensive tackle had resigned — and George told a media gathering at Mosaic Stadium that he always knew he wanted to return to the team with which he has spent the past four seasons.
He didn’t want to test the free-agent waters and see if another team would pay him top dollar, preferring instead to stay in Saskatchewan.
“It’s always in the back of your mind,” George said of shopping himself around, “but at the same time I don’t think you can go anywhere else in the CFL and find a community like this and a team like this, so that factored in a whole lot ...
“(There are) a lot of people in the community that make sure you’re OK. I don’t think you can go find that too many other places. You might find more money, but I don’t think you’ll find that.”
Roughriders assistant general manager Jeremy O’Day admitted the team can, and does, rely on that sentiment during the negotiation process.
“That’s a huge part of what we do here — the opportunities that the guys have in the off-season, their ability to work in the offseason, but also how they’re treated by our fans,” O’Day said. “That’s not to be underestimated when we have to negotiate.
“Anytime you’ve got a place where guys want to be and they want to play here, it does help the process. It’s not all about money.”
That said, George said the Roughriders “have always been fair and good to me” financially.
He admitted his comments on garbage bag day reflected the frustration of Saskatchewan’s loss to the Edmonton Eskimos two days earlier in the West Division semifinal and to the pending changes to the Roughriders’ roster and coaching staff.
In the end, his desire to remain in the community was a major factor. So was the notion of playing again with a tight-knit defensive line and defence as a whole.
George referred several times to the “group of guys” in the Roughriders’ employ and how they would help the team succeed next season.
With 28 players still eligible to become free agents, that group could change, but that didn’t deter George from re-signing.
“You always think of things like (player turnover) in the back of your mind,” said the 6-foot-4, 277-pound product of Kansas State University. “But with a lot of those guys, I know some of them — I can’t speak for all of them — feel the same way about being here in the community.
“If they’re going to the NFL, that’s a different fight, a different struggle. But if it’s the CFL, I’m confident we’ll get a couple of them — a lot of them — back.”
Re-signing George was an offseason priority for the Roughriders thanks largely to his production in 2014.
The seventh-year CFLer set a career high with 12 sacks and added 37 tackles, three tackles for losses, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.
He was named a West Division all-star for the second straight year.
George’s intensity and physical play made him a keeper for the Roughriders.
“Sometimes you look at defensive linemen and you’re just worried about the sacks alone,” O’Day said. “But he’s a guy that doesn’t allow our defence to get pushed around.
“He’s a physical guy and his leadership on the field is really unmatched.”
The Roughriders’ front office has laid out its off-season plans for free agency, prioritizing which of the 28 remaining players it wants to re-sign. Some will be inked to new deals before the Feb. 10 deadline, some will re-sign after finding out what they’re worth on the open market, some won’t be offered contracts and some will choose to sign elsewhere.
O’Day noted that, in his exit interviews with players, the majority said they wanted to stay in Saskatchewan.
“To be completely honest, there’s not one guy I’ve talked to that said, ‘I’m going to free agency,’ ” O’Day said. “As you get further into negotiations, if there’s a disagreement on what they should be making financially or anything else comes in as a factor, then that could potentially change that.”