BROUILLETTE’S RETURN TO RIDERS MEANS THE LAW TAKES BACK SEAT
Veteran CFL player was itching to get back into game, when team reached out to him
Marc-Olivier Brouillette chose the law and the law won ... until a few weeks ago.
Then the veteran CFLer, who had retired from football shortly before the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ training camp in order to concentrate on his law career, began to get the itch.
“It was probably when I went to the Montreal-Toronto game,” Brouillette, who works for the Morrone Avocats law firm in Montreal, said Wednesday at Mosaic Stadium after practising with the Roughriders.
“Watching on TV, everything was fine. There was no chance I was ever going to play again. Then I got on the field during the pre-game warm-up and the music was going and the guys were warming up.
“That night was tough. I almost picked up the phone and reached out to them to see if I could come back. I thought maybe that would subside after a couple of days and that feeling would go away, but it didn’t.”
Then came Friday, when the injury-riddled Roughriders defeated the host Hamilton Tiger-Cats 27-19. Shortly after the game, Roughriders vicepresident of football operations and player personnel John Murphy called Brouillette, who had signed with the team in February after spending seven seasons with the Montreal Alouettes.
“I spoke about ( joining the Roughriders) with my family and my boss,” said Brouilette, the East Division’s all-star safety in 2016. “I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t leaving him hanging and that I’d be able to continue working from a distance, so
I’m dragging my laptop and my phone with me everywhere I go, answering clients’ emails.
“There was a lot of shuffling that had to be done as far as court appearances and things like that, but the people back in Montreal at my law firm were amazing and they made it a very seamless transition to get here.”
Brouillette, 31, was expected to be the Roughriders’ starting safety when he signed with the team. To begin with, he is to play on all four special-teams units Sunday when the Roughriders oppose the Calgary Stampeders (2 p.m., Mosaic Stadium).
What does he bring to the Roughriders?
“Experience ... leadership,” began quarterback Kevin Glenn, who is familiar with Brouillette as a teammate and an opponent. “He’s smart. He’s one of those guys who once he understands what the defence is doing, he can make sure guys are put in the right spots.
“He’s like a quarterback on the field. He’s also an excellent athlete. To play as many years as he has and have been successful at doing it, that says a lot. He stays in shape and I’m glad that he was actually staying in shape and lifting weights as he was going through those papers and files in the law office.”
So much for the retirement papers.
“It was a long process,” Brouillette reflected. “I hadn’t made my mind up completely until the day I was set to leave for training camp. I was tossing and turning about the idea. If I couldn’t commit 100 per cent to it and if my head and my heart were somewhere else, I would have been doing my teammates, my coaches and the whole organization a disservice by being out here and not being fully committed to it.
“Now that I’m here, I’m all in for these next seven-plus weeks. It’s football for the hours that I’m out here. I’ll sprinkle in a bit of law and a couple of emails and phone calls here and there.”
Going from one practice to another, as required.