All-star Redblacks receiver announces retirement

Through the early days of Brad Sinopoli’s Canadian Football League career, he often doubted himself — lingering in his mind was a huge question: Was he good enough to play professionally?

Even when he was piling up the big numbers — with four straight seasons of more than 1,000 yards in receptions — the former star quarterback with the University of Ottawa Geegees never settled into the comfort zone. Cut by the Calgary Stampeders in 2012, then brought back, he was moved from quarterback to receiver the following season and, well, the rest is history.

Now, he’s leaving the CFL on his own terms. On Wednesday morning, the Ottawa Redblacks announced Sinopoli is retiring at the age of 33.

“My time in Calgary — every day I thought the next day I would get cut,” said Sinopoli. “Then I when I did get cut, I thought, ‘Well, there it is.” Even when I transitioned (to receiver), I thought, ‘God, I’m even worse of a player than I was as a quarterback.’ Being on special teams when you’ve never played special teams, it’s just a feeling that you’re on an island where you’re wondering why they’re keeping you around. If I dropped a ball or didn’t do something right on a route, I felt like the world would crumble.

“I was always thinking, ‘I don’t get why (the quarterbacks) are throwing me the ball. It was one of those things where somehow you believe in yourself, but at the same time you’re wondering, ‘How did I get here?’ It’s weird. Maybe it’s a different way of having a chip on your shoulder — always being worried like that keeps you focused and on your toes where you’re always trying to get better.